Steven Lynch traces trends in personal injury disposal hearings
A defendant who fails to file an “acknowledgment of service” in response to a claim may have a default judgment entered against him. In such cases, and where liability of personal injury (PI) is not in dispute, costs of a defence are reduced and time in completing necessary quantum allocation questionnaires is saved.
Further, the court is given the opportunity to exercise its case management powers earlier as a “disposal” hearing will usually be listed within six to eight weeks from the date judgment was entered.
According to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR), in PI claims the default judgment is “for an amount to be decided by the court and costs”. Paragraph 12.4 of Practice Direction [PD] 26 states:
l The disposal hearing will not last longer than 30 minutes.
l Oral evidence is not usually heard.
l The court can either assess damages or give directions as to the future conduct of the proceedings.
l Evidence at a disposal hearing is by witness statement and statement of cases/application notices provided
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