New Forms and Practice Directions Amendments

New Forms and Practice Directions Amendments

New Forms and Practice Directions Amendments

10 December 2018

1. New forms are introduced for the Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and amendments are made to the Practice Directions. The new forms may be used straightaway but the Registry will not reject the old versions if they are filed. The changes are explained below.

Forms

2. The forms for the Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee were closely modelled on the forms used in the Court of Appeal in England and Wales but experience has shown that they have a number of drawbacks.

  • In most cases, parties attach separate sheets to the forms instead of completing the boxes, thereby wasting several pages. The new forms delete or reduce many of the boxes and encourage parties to attach separate sheets.
  • An attempt has also been made to make the first page of each form much clearer by indicating on whose behalf it is filed.
  • Two versions of form 1 are to be provided so the same form is not used for permission applications and for cases where permission to appeal has been granted below.
Cases

3. The Court and the Board favour brevity in parties' cases and a page restriction is imposed which should not be exceeded without permission (see PD 6.3.1).

Authorities

4. The provision of authorities has often caused difficulty and the Court has on numerous occasions criticised the over-proliferation of authorities. The Practice Directions for both the UKSC and the JCPC have frequently been amended to try to reduce the number of volumes supplied and the cost to the parties but the problem remains.

5. A more radical approach is now taken and in future a core volume of authorities is to be supplied in hard copy and electronic form. Three sets of those authorities which are not included in the core volume should be filed in hard copy but, apart from these, all authorities not contained in the core volume ae to be provided electronically.

JCPC Appeals as of right: permission

6. Following the Board's decision in A v R [2018] UKPC 41, JCPC PD 3.3.3(c) (cases in which an Appellant had an appeal as of right but the court refused to grant leave) is amended.

JCPC The Record

7. The Board has often criticised reproduced records for including unnecessary material and an attempt is made to resolve the problem by amending the relevant provisions of the Practice Direction.

JCPC Video-link hearings

8. The new annex to PD6 sets out the technical requirements for holding a hearing via video-link. It also contains the hearing protocol.

UKSC Interventions

9. Until now, the Justices have decided applications for permission to intervene in a piecemeal fashion but they now wish to consider all the applications together and UKSC PD 6.9.3 is therefore amended. Interveners are encouraged to file the applications in good time but should be aware that a decision will not be given until closer the hearing.

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