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High Court bid to speed up clinical claims

The President of the High Court Mr Justice David Barniville has issued a practice direction on applications for trial dates in clinical-negligence actions.

The direction, HC130, specifies the circumstances in which a party to a clinical-negligence action can apply for a trial date and seeks to facilitate the earlier resolution of claims.

It applies to all such actions before the High Court from the effective date of 28 April, irrespective of when proceedings began.

Conditions

Under the direction, after the case has been set down for trial, any party to a clinical-negligence action can, on giving 28 days’ notice to all affected parties, apply for a date for trial, provided that the following conditions are satisfied:

• The applicant must have fully pleaded all aspects of their case to identify and define all issues they wish to advance at the hearing of the action – including particulars of negligence, pleas regarding causation, contributory negligence, and any required amendments to the pleadings or defence,
• The applicant must have exchanged or offered to have exchanged a complete schedule of all witnesses intended to be called at trial,
• The applicant must have exchanged or have offered to exchange all expert reports intended to be relied upon at trial, and
• The applicant must have either offered mediation or engaged in mediation, if agreed to or offered by the opposing party or parties.

The practice direction says that the court retains the discretion to assess whether the necessary conditions have been satisfied but adds that the court may dispense with one or more of the conditions in cases of “manifest urgency”.

Lawyers at William Fry have welcomed the practice direction, saying that they hope that it will promote efficiency and transparency and lead to earlier resolution of clinical-negligence claims.