INTERMEDIATE TRACK BANDING: ANOTHER DRAFTING ERROR

Fixed Costs Zoominars

I am running three Fixed Costs Zoominars on the following dates:

– Tuesday, 16 January 2024: 4pm to 5pm

-Tuesday, 19 March 2024: 4pm to 5pm

-Tuesday, 14 May 2024: 4pm to 5pm

Recordings of the Zoominars will be sent whether or not you attend.

Cost £150 + VAT for all three with as many people as you want attending from your organisation.

Full course material – another £150.00 + VAT.

Course information link – https://kerryunderwood.co.uk/courses-and-seminars.html

Course booking form link – https://kerryunderwood.co.uk/zoominar-fixed-costs-choose-places.html

Into which Complexity Band does an Intermediate Track claim go where only one issue, liability, is in dispute, but the trial will last two days?

Assignment within the Intermediate Track is dealt with by CPR 26.16 which has within it Table 2 and the minimalist list of factors governing  Complexity Band assignment.

The fact that the trial will last longer than one day takes it out of Complexity Band 1, as that is factor (b) in Complexity Band 1.

Clearly, the matter could go into Complexity Band 4 as that has no restrictions save that the matter  be unsuitable for assignment to Complexity Bands 1 to 3.

The matter is unsuitable for assignment to Complexity Band 1 as it will last longer than one day.

Clearly it ought to go into Complexity Band 2 or 3, where a two-day trial can be accommodated, but they state that they are restricted to claims where more than one issue is in dispute.

That is obvious madness, but that is indeed what it states.

The High Court recently said the Civil Procedure Rules are not the law of the country, but rather a commentary on them, and we can agree that as commentaries go, they are virtually unintelligible at times.

My view is that a court could take a purposive approach, as they did in the Qader & Esure case and add in words after the first word “any” along the following lines:

 Any “Claim where only one issue is in dispute but which is expected to last more than one day; and”

I am grateful to Simon Gibbs, author of the excellent blog for pointing this further drafting error out to me.