Policy swerve from Jackson reforms?
A draft amendment to the model direction for clinical negligence, allowing for time extensions, has been approved by the deputy head of civil justice and the President of the Queen’s Division, in what appears to be a policy swerve in reaction to the Jackson reforms and the Andrew Mitchell case.
The amendment allows parties to agree extensions of time of up to 28 days without the need to apply to court.
For longer periods of extension, the court would require no more than an email with a brief explanation of the reasons, confirmation it would not prejudice any hearing date and a draft consent order in word format. The court would then consider whether a formal application and hearing is necessary.
Claimant lawyer Kerry Underwood, chair of Underwoods Solicitors, said: “It is hoped that it will stem the flow of applications for minor extensions of time.”
A spokesperson for the judiciary said: “A draft amendment to the clinical negligence model direction used by the Queen’s Bench Masters, allowing for times set by the directions to be extended by up to 28 days by agreement, has been approved by the PQBD and Deputy Head of Civil Justice but no decision has been taken on whether there should be any general change to model directions or to standard directions under the Civil Procedure Rules.
“This is the subject of discussion within the Civil Procedure Rule Committee and any decision will require the approval of the Master of the Rolls.”
David Greene, partner at Edwin Coe and NLJ consultant editor, says: “This is hardly the rolling back of the Mitchell principles. It allows parties to agree extensions but this will not assist in relation to budgets, which was at the heart of the Mitchell decision. Further it will not guard against a regime that encourages aggressive litigation tactics. Hopefully however it will assist the parties to run a sensible programme of litigation to resolve disputes.”
Andrew Mitchell MP’s lawyers were sanctioned for not complying with strict deadlines on costs budgeting introduced by the Jackson reforms, in his recent libel case against News International over “plebgate”. This left his solicitors unable to claim costs apart from court fees if they won, a potential loss reported as being as much as £500,000.
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