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08 November 2018 / John A. Kimbell KC
Issue: 7817 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice
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The pen: mightier than the word?

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John A. Kimbell QC considers a new review of the rules on witness evidence in the Business & Property Courts
  • While the primacy of live oral evidence has remained unchallenged in criminal trials, in civil proceedings oral evidence has to a large extent been replaced by written witness statements. Is this about to change in the Business and Property Courts?
  • With witness statements routinely bearing little or no resemblance to what the witness would actually say in person, and the advent of cost budgeting shedding new light on the high cost of preparing witness statements, a review has been called for seeking possible improvements.

Last month saw the launch of a survey on how factual witness evidence is handled in the Business and Property Courts. The survey is part of a review being carried out by a working party, led by Mr Justice Popplewell. The working party contains representatives from industry, the judiciary, the arbitration community and the legal professions. The aim of the review is gather the

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NEWS
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NLJ this week: CPR tweak closes third-party disclosure gap
A seemingly dry procedural update may prove potent. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ this week, Stephen Gold explains that new CPR 31.12A—part of the 193rd update—fills a ‘lacuna’ exposed in McLaren Indy v Alpa Racing
NLJ this week: Court of Appeals wrestles with Mazur fallout
The long-running Mazur saga edged towards its finale as the Court of Appeal heard arguments on whether non-solicitors can ‘conduct litigation’. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School reports from a packed courtroom where 16 wigs watched Nick Bacon KC argue that Mr Justice Sheldon had failed to distinguish between ‘tasks and responsibilities’
NLJ this week: Appeal court reins in ‘wrong defendant’ switcheroo

The Court of Appeal has slammed the brakes on claimants trying to swap defendants after limitation has expired. In Adcamp LLP v Office Properties and BDB Pitmans v Lee [2026] EWCA Civ 50, it overturned High Court rulings that had allowed substitutions under s 35(6)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980, reports Sarah Crowther of DAC Beachcroft in this week's NLJ

NLJ this week: Driving test fraudsters steer towards jail
Cheating in driving tests is surging—and courts are responding firmly. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort Law School charts a rise in impersonation and tech-assisted fraud, with 2,844 attempts recorded in a year
NLJ this week: Deepfakes demand data law muscle
As AI-generated ‘deepfake’ images proliferate, the law may already have the tools to respond. In NLJ this week, Jon Belcher of Excello Law argues that such images amount to personal data processing under UK GDPR
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