Revised Practice Directions
Changes that have come into effect from April 2015
1 April 2015
This note outlines the changes which are made to the Practice Directions for the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
Practice Direction 1
1. Practice Direction 1 is amended to highlight recent jurisdictional developments.
Practice Direction 2
2. The Rules make specific provision for cases in which the Appellant seeks assistance from public funds in his own jurisdiction and is unable to file his papers until funding is in place. In these circumstances the relevant time limits can be extended automatically if the Registrar is informed of the position. But Respondents and other parties often have difficulties in complying with relevant time limits and the Registry is always prepared to assist in such circumstances. Paragraph 2.1.15 of Practice Direction 2 is amended to encourage parties i n these circumstances to seek guidance from the Registry.
Practice Direction 3
3. Practice Direction 3 is amended to highlight the fact that, in the Supreme Court, an Appeal Panel directed that, irrespective of the outcome of the appeal, the costs of preparing the permission application were not to be recoverable in a case where it considered that a very long application did not assist the Panel.
4. Paragraph 3.3.8 of Practice Direction 3 is amended to make it clear that an Appellant is not encouraged to file further submissions following the filing of the Respondent's notice of objection.
Practice Direction 5
5. Paragraph 5.1.3 is amended to make clear the distinction between the certified record and the reproduced record.
Practice Direction 6
6. Paragraph 6.2.2 is amended to require the order of speeches and timetable for the hearing to be submitted at least 3 working days before the hearing. Problems have arisen in the past where timetables have been filed shortly before the hearing date.
7. As a consequence of the new revised Practice Direction on costs (Practice Direction 8), paragraph 6.3.7 and paragraph 6.5.5 of Practice Direction 6 are amended to reflect the current practice.
8. Paragraph 6.4.2 is amended to make it clear that the indexes must be included in the pagination of the volumes of authorities and the Practice Direction is also amended to emphasise that, when the parties consider that a different order or arrangement of the volumes of authorities would be of greater assistance than that provided by the Practice Directions, that order or arrangement should be adopted.
9. Paragraph 6.5.9 reflects the fact that hearings are now streamed live on the Board's website and explains the arrangements for making footage available.
10. Paragraphs 6.7.3 to 6.7.6 place on a formal footing the practice which the Board has adopted in recent times of making draft judgments available to practitioners.
Practice Direction 7
11. Paragraph 7.5.2 is amended to specify the time limit within which an application for permission to cross-appeal must be filed in cases where the Board has granted permission to appeal.
Costs in the Judicial Committee - Practice Direction 8
12. Practice Direction 8 is revised to reflect the changes which have recently been made to Practice Direction 13 which governs costs in the Supreme Court. The opportunity has also been taken to make a number of changes and to simplify the practice direction wherever possible. The following paragraphs explain the substantive changes which have been made.
Fees for work done outside the United Kingdom
13. Paragraph 2.2 of the current practice direction limits recoverable costs to those incurred in the United Kingdom except that counsel's fees for work done outside the UK in advising on an appeal to the Privy Council, preparing an application for permission to appeal to the Privy Council, preparing a case on an appeal and preparing for a hearing are treated as having been incurred in the United Kingdom. The new paragraph 3.2 relaxes this provision so that fees incurred by counsel and attorneys overseas are recoverable if they have been incurred in preparing for a proceeding before the Judicial Committee.
Bills of Costs
14. Paragraph 5 requires a claim for costs (a bill of costs) to be made in Form 5. The new form is a much simplified version of the form of bill which is currently used and its introduction is designed to reduce costs and simplify the assessment procedure.
Provisional Assessment
15. Paragraph 7 sets out and expands the use of the procedure for the provisional assessment of costs which is conducted without a hearing.
Guideline Rates
16. Paragraph 13 proposes modest increases to the guideline rates for the fees for agents and counsel. But the general scheme for fees is largely unchanged.
Practice Direction 9
17. Practice Direction 9 is amended to specify the order in which documents should appear in the electronic bundles.