This chapter discusses the remedies that can be sought from the civil courts and how an appeal is made against a decision. It covers interim and final remedies; route of appeals; leave; the hearing; appeals to the Supreme Court; and examples of appeals. There are many different types of remedies that a court can award to a successful litigant. The most common form of remedy is that which is known as ‘damages’. Appeals in the civil courts follow a slightly more complicated structure than in criminal cases. In order to appeal in the civil cases, it is usually necessary to seek permission before proceeding with a civil appeal. Save where it is a final decision in a multi-track case, the usual rule is that the appeal will be heard by the next most senior judge.
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Chapter
18. Remedies and Appeals
Chapter
18. Remedies and Appeals
Alisdair A. Gillespie and Siobhan Weare
This chapter discusses the remedies that can be sought from the civil courts and how an appeal is made against a decision. It covers interim and final remedies; route of appeals; leave; the hearing; appeals to the Supreme Court; and examples of appeals. There are many different types of remedies that a court can award to a successful litigant. The most common form of remedy is that which is known as ‘damages’. Appeals in the civil courts follow a slightly more complicated structure than in criminal cases. In order to appeal in the civil cases it is usually necessary to seek permission before proceeding with a civil appeal. Save where it is a final decision in a multi-track case, the usual rule is that the appeal will be heard by the next most senior judge.
Chapter
25. Costs Orders and Assessment
This chapter focuses on the management of legal costs. In principle, when assessing costs on a standard basis the court considers the receiving party's last approved or agreed budget, not departing from it unless there is good reason. In several cases the courts have indicated that an approved budget should normally be followed. However, an amount spent will not necessarily be reasonable and proportionate just because it was included in an approved budget. The chapter then discusses orders for costs, covering the principles for costs orders, powers relating to costs, and costs at the interim stage. The final section deals with quantifying costs, including fixed costs and agreed costs, as well as the court's summary assessment of costs and detailed assessments.
Chapter
26. Challenging a Judgment
Obtaining a judgment is not always the end of the process. A wholly or partly unsuccessful party in a trial will almost certainly wish to consider appealing. The procedure for appeal will vary depending on the type and level of decision appealed against. This chapter looks in particular at the procedure for appealing from the High Court to the Court of Appeal. The discussions cover the need for the client to decide whether to appeal against all or part of the judgment based on their lawyer's advice; jurisdiction for appeals; appeals from interim decisions; grounds for appeal; procedure for appealing; the position of the respondent to an appeal; presenting an appeal; powers on appeal; the appeal decision; and costs on appeal.
Chapter
21. The Potential Roles of Experts
In conducting civil litigation, expert evidence may be required to assist the lawyer in understanding the circumstances of the case, identifying a potential cause of action, evaluating the case and the potential remedies, understanding expert evidence provided for another party, and identifying weaknesses in their case. This chapter first considers the roles of experts in civil litigation. Experts can be involved in capacities such as conducting early neutral evaluation, decision-making, negotiation or mediation, as a witness in court, or as an assessor. When searching for an appropriate expert, lawyers can turn to relevant professional associations for guidance; and some professions also provide support to members who work as professional experts. The remainder of the chapter discusses the procedure for admitting expert evidence in litigation; the requirements for an expert report; and the contents and review of expert reports.
Chapter
22. Procedural Rules as Practical Tools
For litigation lawyers, interim applications will be much more numerous than full trials. There may be several interim hearings for each case before trial, and many cases will have some interim hearings to deal with specific issues and then proceed to settle without trial. A key strand of effective litigation is to make strategic and cost-effective use of interim applications. It is important to be familiar with what orders can be sought, what is needed to make a successful application, and what tests the courts will apply. This chapter discusses the general procedure for applications; making applications before a case starts; ways of cutting short an action; tactical considerations when involving people as parties and witnesses; gaining access to information held by the opposing side and non-parties; and money strategies.
Chapter
15. Track Allocation and Case Management
Judicial case management of civil litigation is one of the central planks of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR). In exercising their powers to manage cases, the courts will be seeking to secure the overriding objective of the CPR of ensuring that cases are dealt with justly and at proportionate cost. This chapter discusses procedural judges; docketing; provisional track allocation; filing directions questionnaires; track allocation rules; notice of allocation; allocation directions; ADR and stays to allow for settlement; transfer to appropriate court; trial in the Royal Courts of Justice; changing tracks; and subsequent case management.
Chapter
16. Costs Management
Costs management refers to the procedures used by the courts to manage the steps to be taken in civil proceedings while also managing the costs to be incurred by the parties in taking those steps to ensure that litigation is conducted at proportionate cost. This chapter discusses the elements of costs management; cases governed by costs management; costs management orders; costs budgets and case management; judicial control of costs budgets; and impact on costs orders.
Chapter
10. Litigation
This chapter explores the ethical issues that arise around litigation. It discusses theories of litigation, including disputes over whether litigation is ‘good’. The attitude that anything that helps a client to win in litigation is justified is rarely accepted these days, and there is a need for lawyers to weigh up their duties to the court and to their clients. The chapter covers the adversarial system of litigation in England and Wales, and inquisitorial adjudication. This can create tensions for lawyers between their duties to their clients and their duties the justice system and to the general public. The chapter also covers both criminal and civil litigation proceedings. In addition, the chapter considers advocacy services and the duties that litigators owe to the court.
Chapter
15. Track Allocation and Case Management
Judicial case management of civil litigation is one of the central planks of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR). In exercising their powers to manage cases, the courts will be seeking to secure the overriding objective of the CPR of ensuring that cases are dealt with justly and at proportionate cost. This chapter discusses procedural judges; docketing; provisional track allocation; filing directions questionnaires; track allocation rules; assignment to complexity bands; notice of allocation; allocation directions; ADR and stays to allow for settlement; transfer to appropriate court; trial in the Royal Courts of Justice; changing tracks; and subsequent case management.
Chapter
17. Costs Management
Costs management refers to the procedures used by the courts to manage the steps to be taken in multi-track claims while also managing the costs to be incurred by the parties in taking those steps to ensure that litigation is conducted at proportionate cost. This chapter discusses the elements of costs management; cases governed by costs management; costs management orders; costs budgets and case management; judicial control of costs budgets; and impact on costs orders.
Chapter
9. Litigation
This chapter explores the ethical issues that arise around litigation. It discusses theories of litigation, including disputes over whether litigation is ‘good’. The chapter covers the adversarial system of litigation in England and Wales, and inquisitorial adjudication. It also covers both criminal and civil litigation proceedings. In addition, the chapter considers advocacy services and the duties that litigators owe to the court.
Chapter
24. Presenting a Case in Court
This chapter discusses the process of presenting a case in court. It begins with an overview of the trial process, covering the timetable, the claimant's case, the defendant's case, closing speeches, and judgment. It then explains the importance of good presentation and advocacy in winning a case. This involves focusing on the issues on which the judge needs to reach a decision; presenting the case clearly, coherently, and concisely; developing and presenting an overall theory for the case — a single story can be more convincing than a lot of separate arguments; and developing persuasive arguments that pull elements of the case together and deal with any gaps. The remainder of the chapter covers the judgment of the case; the drawing up of orders; and the form of orders.
Chapter
27. Enforcing a Judgment
The enforcement of a judgment is an issue that must be considered and managed as part of the litigation project from the start. Keeping enforcement in mind at each stage of the litigation process ensures that any possible problems with enforcement are taken into account in any cost-benefit analysis or risk assessment. This chapter first outlines the steps to assist enforcement, which includes deciding who to sue, gathering information, interim orders, settling the case, and drafting orders. It then discusses the methods of enforcing a judgment, including third party debt orders, changing orders, attachment of earnings, winding up and bankruptcy, execution against goods, orders for delivery/possession, receivership, and the use of contempt of court proceedings. The final section deals with the international enforcement of judgements, specifically enforcing a foreign judgment in the UK and enforcing an English judgment in another country.
Chapter
1. The Growing Focus on ‘Effective’ Litigation
This chapter briefly sets out the purpose of the present text, namely to outline how a civil dispute may be dealt with in the most effective way, using litigation in a modern context. The text offers a sound guide to all the rules and principles that are most important at each stage of the litigation process, and what skills and practical considerations are relevant. The chapter then considers changes relating to the litigation process brought about by Sir Rupert Jackson' Review of Civil Litigation Costs: Final Report published in January 2010. This is followed by discussions of the meaning of ‘effective’ litigation, the overriding objective of litigation, the changing legal environment, and the time and financial aspects of litigation.
Chapter
11. Making Strategic Use of the Pre-Action Stage
This chapter focuses on the pre-action stage of the litigation process. Most civil disputes are settled prior to the issue of any proceedings. Save where a pre-issue application is appropriate, no court will be involved. Nonetheless the approach taken to resolving the dispute will be shaped to a significant extent by the view a court might take if proceedings were to be issued. The chapter discusses the Practice Direction Pre-Action Conduct, which seeks to enable parties to settle disputes without the need to start proceedings, and to support the efficient management by the; pre-action protocols, which set out the steps that the parties should follow before issuing proceedings; steps in preparing a case; forming the relationship with the other side; deciding when to issue proceedings; and portal claims.
Chapter
13. Joining the Right Parties
The accurate identification of parties is vital in an adversarial system. There must be a clear cause of action by the party named as claimant against the party named as defendant or the action will fail. Loss and damage must be also shown to have been caused to the named claimant by the named defendant or damages will not be recoverable. This chapter first discusses the selection of claimants and defendants, and other types of involvement (agency, vicarious liability, the role of insurance, substitution of parties). Where a business is a party to an action, it may be run by a sole trader, by a partnership, by a company, or by a public limited partnership. The correct legal personality must be used for the proper service of documents, for success in the action, and for enforcement of judgment. The remainder of the chapter covers the rules for specific types of parties; additional claims and additional parties under Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) Part 20; and the drafting of the Part 20 claim.
Chapter
14. Pursuing Appropriate Remedies
The main purpose of most litigation is to secure a remedy or relief. That is the reason why the claimant starts the action, and it should be the focus of many decisions relating to the case. From the first contact with the client, lawyers must be clear about what the client really wants to achieve, and decisions about causes of action, evidence, and interim applications should focus on the remedies and relief being pursued. This chapter discusses the remedies a court can and cannot order; claims for damages; quantification of damages; and claims for interest on top of claims for the payment of a sum of money or damages. The final section covers the importance of taking a proactive approach to claiming and quantifying damages.
Chapter
16. Defending an Action
This chapter focuses on the role of the defendant. The litigation system in England is adversarial, thus on the face of it the role of the defendant is potentially defensive, confrontational, and non cooperative. While the objective of the defendant will usually be to make the claim go away, the perhaps natural desire to take an approach that involves denial, delay, and obfuscation wherever possible must be resisted, or at least carefully considered. The chapter discusses the main types of defence to an action; dealing with the early stages of an action when a claim form is received; rules for drafting a defence; making a counterclaim; claiming a set-off; a general framework for a defence and counterclaim; and strategies and tactics in defending a case.
Chapter
17. Active Case Management and the Use of Sanctions
This chapter discusses active case management and the use of sanctions. The Woolf reforms and more recently the Jackson reforms have supported the concept of active case management, the focus of which is to ensure that cases are dealt with ‘justly’ and ‘at proportionate cost’. The objectives of case management are set out in Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) Part 1 and the courts case management powers are in CPR Part 3. The powers of the court in relation to case management are wide and directions given after the issue of proceedings should provide a framework and timetable for dealing with a case right up to trial. The final section of the chapter deals with the sanctions that might be imposed where there is a failure to comply with case management requirements.
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