Guidance
Practice Direction update 113: various Civil Procedure Rules amendments
Practice Direction update to the Civil Procedure Rules relating to Civil Procedure Rules 12.3, 52.22(1), 52.24, 54.1, 53.2, 55.11, 55.12 and 73.
Applies to England and Wales
Documents
Details
Civil Procedure Rules amendments
The Statutory Instrument (SI) detailing rule changes is anticipated to be effective variously from 30 March 2020 and 6 April 2020. However, this is subject to Parliamentary approval and will, ultimately, be published on legislation.gov.uk. When approved the online rules will be updated accordingly.
| Summary | Details |
|---|---|
| CPR 12.3: Entry of default judgments | To clarify the rule to allow an acknowledgment of service or a defence to be a bar to the entry of judgment in default where it is filed before judgment is entered. |
| CPR 52.22(1): Disclosure of Part 36 offers on appeal | To make it clear that the court may have a hearing of both substantive issues and costs issues and that in such circumstances the usual restrictions on informing the court of a Part 36 offer (to settle the claim) is removed. |
| CPR 52.24 and CPR 54.1: CILEX Fellows | To allow court staff who are Fellows of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (as well as those who are barristers or solicitors) to be able to be authorised to perform certain functions of the court. |
| CPR 53.2: Media and Communications (MAC) list | To make it clear that the Judge in charge of the MAC list will be nominated by the President of the Queen’s Bench Division. |
| CPR 55.11 and CPR 55.12: Housing matters | Rule 55 is amended by substituting a revised rule to remove Demoted Tenancies and Oral Tenancy Agreement cases, albeit rare, from the Accelerated Possession process. |
| CPR Part 73 - Legal Advisers Final Charging Order provisions | To move the provisions of the current pilot (contained in Practice Direction 51T ‘The County Court Legal Advisers Pilot Scheme – Final Charging Orders’) to business as usual. The pilot has been in operation successfully since August 2018. It enables legal advisers (court officers with legal qualifications), in certain circumstances, to make Final Charging Orders, discharge Interim Charging Orders, or to refer the matter to a judge. It also allows for decisions of a Legal Adviser to be reconsidered by a District Judge. |
113th Practice Direction update
This update comes into force variously from 31 March 2020 and 06 April 2020.
The PD Update includes the following changes.
| Summary | Details |
|---|---|
| PD 16: Credit hire modifications | These modifications are in response to a CPRC consultation of June 2017 and are intended to reinforce the requirement to plead specific matters in credit hire cases. |
| PD 22 and PD 32: Statements of truth and witness translation | Together these amendments represent a package of changes to address the issue of cases where a witness statement is presented in English but where, notwithstanding signature of the statement, the witness cannot speak English and the statement is not necessarily “in their own words”. The changes aim to make it possible for such cases to be identified much earlier in the process. Additional changes to PD 22 require a statement of truth to be dated with the date that it is signed; the required wording of the actual statement of truth is also amended to include a warning that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against those who give a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth. |
| PD 44: Costs | Following the case of Brown v. CPM [2019] EWCA Civ 1724 (at paragraph 57 of the judgment) regarding the possibility of enforcing an order for costs for personal injury claims, in “mixed” claims. The court in Brown considered the wording of paragraph 12.6 of Practice Direction 44 to be wrong and to require urgent amendment. The amendment changes the reference to proceedings being ones “to which rule 44.16 applies” with a narrower and more accurate reference to proceedings to which one of two specific provisions in issue apply. |
| PD51O: Extension of e-working pilot | Extends the duration of the Electronic Working Pilot Scheme PD 51O for a year from April 2020 to April 2021. |
| PD 52A: Routes of appeal | A package of amendments concerning appeals. The first amendment is directed to the issue raised by Topping v. Ralph [2017] EWHC 1854 to restore the general principle that the destination of an appeal is governed by the rank of Judge who dealt with the case at first instance; and the second removes the restriction limiting the class of judge able to deal with directions and applications to those able to hear the appeal. |
| PD 52D: Bar Standards Board | Updates the reference to the rules under which decisions of the Bar Standards Board which are being appealed were made, so that it refers to the new Qualification Rules. |
| Proceedings Under Enactments Relating to Equality PD | Follows concerns that the provision for notification to be provided to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, intended to benefit claimants by allowing for the possibility of intervention or other support by the Commission, should not result in a sanction against a claimant who failed to comply with the requirement. |
| Other minor/consequential amendments | These changes include to PD 2B to omit paragraph 16 (Appeals) in consequence of the changes to PD 52A above; to PD 2E and PD 51R being consequential amendments resulting from the change in the SI above regarding CILEX Fellows; to PD 7E which is a minor amendment to include an updated email address and to omit PD 51T as a consequence of the change in the SI above to move the provisions of the pilot PD into the mainstream rules. |
Forms
The following forms have been either created or modified as part of this update.
One of the drivers for the review of these forms was the introduction of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 (in June 2019) which also led to the rule changes set out within the SI above, to be effective from 6 April 2020. Consequential changes are therefore being made to the following Housing Possession related forms. The revised forms will be issued under separate cover.
| Summary | Details |
|---|---|
| N5B (England) | The Claim form for possession of a property located wholly in England (accelerated procedure) and the related Defence form N11B (England). The revised forms will be issued in readiness of an April 2020 implementation to coincide with the associated rule changes. |
| N5B (Wales) | the Claim form for possession of a property located wholly in Wales (accelerated procedure) and the related Defence form N11B (Wales). The revised forms are currently being translated into Welsh and will be issued in due course, for immediate use. |
Take notice
| Summary | Details |
|---|---|
| Court reform | Two further PD updates are anticipated imminently as a result of the HMCTS reform programme. These updates are subject to final approval, but anticipated to include the next series of adaptions to the Online Civil Money Claims pilot scheme (PD 51R and any consequential changes to PD 51S) along with other possible changes. The associated PD updates will be issued as soon as possible, in the usual way, once approved. |
| CPRC minutes | The process for distributing approved minutes of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee (CPRC) meetings is changing. The Secretariat is in the process of arranging for minutes to be made accessible on the CPRC website rather than distributing them via email. It is anticipated that this will be introduced this month. Minutes will continue to be emailed in the interim and for a transitional period thereafter. Anyone unable to access minutes via the web (and require them in an alternative format) should advise the Secretariat. |
| Form N260B | An issue was brought to the attention of the CPRC Costs Sub Committee where the ‘Trial Total’ in cell 86H was being incorrectly calculated. This issue has now been corrected and an updated version of form N260B is now available. However, for future reference, the ‘Guidance’ tab contains directions on how to make adjustments to the form yourself if any other operational issues come to light. |
Pre-action Protocols
Pursuant to the resolution of the November 2019 CPRC meeting the Master of the Rolls has approved the following with a commencement date of 13 January 2020.
| Summary | Details |
|---|---|
| The amended Possession Claims by Social Landlords PAP (the Rent PAP) | This is essentially a tidying up exercise and in doing so includes accelerated possessions within the PAP. It will apply to England and Wales. The whole of the new PAP will thus apply to England and Wales and will replace the old PAP. |
| The revised Housing Disrepair PAP (the Disrepair PAP) | This has been updated to include limited amendments consequent on the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018. As Wales does not have the Fitness For Habitation Act, Wales will retain the old Repair PAP and England alone gets the new PAP. The CPRC Sub Committee were further mandated to conduct a fuller review (as well as producing this immediate update) as an opportunity to strengthen the PAP still further and revise it to reflect experience in practice since its initial adoption; it is currently consulting with specific stakeholders with a view to report back to the CPRC in early 2020. The attached version is therefore an interim revision to ensure the PAP reflects the new legislation and is therefore up to date in the immediate/medium term. |
Looking ahead
Further communications will be issued in or around February 2020 to detail the next “mainstream” CPR update, which, subject to Parliamentary approval is due to come in to force in or around April 2020.