Woolf Reforms 1999 Flashcards
What were the key problems identified in the existing system?
Cost, delay, stress and time.
What were the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) 1999?
It made radical changes to civil litigation such as encouraging settlement out of court and the opportunity for claimants to make offers to settle and making taking civil cases to court easier.
How does a payment into court work for the defendant?
The defendant pays a lower sum of money than claimed in to court. The claimant can then choose to accept this and end the case. If they choose to reject and the reward is less than the payment into court they must pay the legal fees for the defendant and themselves.
How does a payment into court work for the claimant?
The claimant can make an offer to settle if the defendant rejects this and the reward is greater than the settlement the defendant must pay a high rate of interest on the whole or part of the sum awarded.
What are the three tracks for civil claims?
Small track, fast track and multi-track.
What does the small claims track involve?
This is for claims of £10,000 or less. This aims to provide a simple procedure to allow ordinary people/ businesses to bring small simple claims to court without a solicitor.
What does a fast track claim involve?
This is form claims between £10,000-£25,000. This is to avoid wasting time and money on cases which are relatively small and simple.
What does the multi-track claim involve?
This is for claims over £25,000 and is used to avoid claims which go on for months/ years.
How to start a claim?
The Lord Woolf reforms made it easier to start a claim as they all begin in the same way. A claim form is filled in by the claimant which is submitted to the court. The court serves the claim on the defendant. They have 14 days to acknowledge the form and 28 days to submit a defense. Once the defence is submitted the case will be allocated to the correct track.
