For both personal injury and clinical negligence claims, court proceedings must be issued within three years of the date of the accident or the “date of knowledge” (this usually refers to industrial disease or clinical negligence cases).
Following the implementation of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, there is a new procedural code in relation to the manner in which personal injury and clinical negligence court cases are dealt with. There is an overriding objective that the courts will deal with personal injury and clinical negligence cases justly, and that the court will actively manage the case to ensure that the claim comes to trial without undue delay.
Once court proceedings are served, the Defendant (your opponent) will file a Defence and then (based on the likely value of your claim and other factors relating to the length of trial and witnesses being called) the court will “allocate” the claim to a track.
Court Proceedings - Three Tracks
There are three tracks in the County Court when dealing with personal injury claims and clinical negligence claims, namely:
- small Claims track - which deals with personal injury claims where damages are unlikely to exceed £1,000.
- fast Track - which deals with personal injury claims where damages are likely to exceed £1,000 but unlikely to exceed £15,000.
- multi Track - which deals with personal injury claims where damages are likely to exceed £15,000 but unlikely to exceed £50,000.
If the likely award of damages claim will succeed £50,000, then the claim may be commenced in the High Court.
Outline of Fast Track Personal Injury Claim
Below is an outline of the court procedure involved in a fast track personal injury claim in the County Court:
- The Personal Injury Claim is issued, with Particulars of Claim, a Medical Report and full details of your financial losses. You will be named as the Claimant (the injured party) and your opponent will be named as the Defendant. It is usual for the court to effect service of the proceedings on the Defendant by ordinary first class post, and the Court will also enclose a Response Pack, which contains forms entitled “Admission”, “Defence”, “Acknowledgment of Service”. If the claim is served by first class post, it will be regarded as served on the second day after posting.
- Once served. The Defendant has 14 days to file either the admission, defence or acknowledgment of service forms. If the Defendant is unable to file a Defence within the 14 day period, he may file the acknowledgment of service form, in which case, he will automatically have a further 14 days to file his Defence.
- If the Defendant fails to do anything within the 14 day period following service, then your solicitor can apply for judgment “with damages to be assessed”. This means that the final amount due to you has yet to be decided and this will be done either by negotiation or by a decision of the court, if no agreement can be reached.
- Once a Defence has been filed, the Court will issue an Allocation Questionnaire that needs to be completed by both parties and returned to the Court. It is this document that assist the Court in deciding which “track” is most suitable for dealing with the claim.
- When the Court has the completed Allocation Questionnaires from both sides, the matter will be referred to the District Judge who, if satisfied with the contents of the Allocation Questionnaire, will issue a timetable consisting standard directions as to how the claim is to be conducted up to trial.
- It is envisaged that, under the standard directions timetable, the claim should be ready for trial 30 weeks from the date of allocation to the fast track. There may well be variations and necessary delays in this timetable, for example, where further medical evidence is necessary, but as a general guideline, the court will endeavour to stick to this timetable, whenever possible.
