Viewpoint
Central to Lord Woolf’s vision and the new culture 10 years ago was the desire for disputes to be resolved consensually; this was addressed through imposing a duty on litigants and their representatives to assist the court in furthering the Overriding Objective (CPR 1.3).
The active pursuit of a settlement rests on CPR 1.4(1)(e) and (f)—and active case management includes “helping the parties to settle the whole or part of the case”. Yet while the interlocutory skirmishing might have abated, it remains doubtful whether cases really are managed with a view to settling.
At the LexisNexis CPR debate, held in March to mark the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the Woolf reforms, DJ Michael Walker said the pre-trial process was now less adversarial and that he felt the duty to co-operate had made a huge difference. But Sir Anthony Clarke MR, also speaking at the debate, surely came closer to the reality in his more circumspect view that the duty to co-operate was worthwhile but had not driven out the adversarial.
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