History of the Reform

In 1994, the Lord Chancellor instructed the Master of the Rolls, Lord Woolf, to report on options to consolidate the existing rules of civil procedure.

In June 1996 Lord Woolf presented his "Access to Justice Report 1996" [ "Access to Justice Final Report ", by The Right Honourable the Lord Woolf, Master of the Rolls, July 1996, "Final Report to the Lord Chancellor on the civil justice system in England and Wales" ] in which he "...identified a number of principles which the civil justice system should meet in order to ensure access to justice. The system should:

(a) be "just" in the results it delivers; (b) be "fair" in the way it treats litigants; (c) offer appropriate procedures at a reasonable "cost"; (d) deal with cases with reasonable "speed"; (e) be "understandable" to those who use it; (f) be "responsive" to the needs of those who use it; (g) provide as much "certainty" as the nature of particular cases allows; and (h) be "effective": adequately resourced and organised." Lord Woolf listed two of the requirements of case management as: "...fixing timetables for the parties to take particular steps in the case; and limiting disclosure and expert evidence".

The second thread of the report was to control the cost of litigation, both in time and money, by focussing on key issues rather than every possible issue and limiting the amount of work that has to be done on the case.

The report was accompanied by draft rules of practice designed to implement Lord Woolf's proposals. These rules: granted wide management powers to the court proposed that cases be allocated to one of three tracks depending on their nature, limiting or requiring specific actions; and introduced the concept of proportionality to the costs regime.

Implemented as a result of reforms suggested by Lord Woolf and his committee, one of the revelations of the rules is the Overriding Objective embodied in Part 1 of the Rules, which states: (1) These Rules are a new procedural code with the overriding objective of enabling the court to deal with cases justly. (2) Dealing with a case justly includes, so far as is practicable – (a) ensuring that the parties are on an equal footing; (b) saving expense; (c) dealing with the case in ways which are proportionate – (i) to the amount of money involved; (ii) to the importance of the case; (iii) to the complexity of the issues; and (iv) to the financial position of each party; (d) ensuring that it is dealt with expeditiously and fairly; and:::(e) allotting to it an appropriate share of the court’s resources, while taking into account the need to allot resources to other cases.:1.2::The court must seek to give effect to the overriding objective when it –:::(a) exercises any power given to it by the Rules; or:::(b) interprets any rule.

The rules are written not just for lawyers but are intended to be intelligible for a litigant in person.

I. WARMING-UP