Practice Direction update 110: Electronic Working Pilot Scheme
Practice Direction update to the Civil Procedure Rules relating to PD 51O Electronic Working Pilot Scheme.
Applies to England and Wales
Documents
Details
110th Practice Direction update
These amendments are effective from 7 October 2019.
The main changes effected by this PD are:
- extending the application of the existing Electronic Working Pilot Scheme (PD 51O) to within the Senior Courts Costs Office (SCCO)
- related changes to the Procedure for Detailed Assessment of Costs and Default Provisions (PD 47) by modifying para 5.1A and adding para 5.1B
The changes are, therefore, modest and straightforward. Essentially, adding the SCCO to the list of jurisdictions to which the pilot Practice Direction 51O applies, and indicates the applicable start and end dates.
The existing scheme under PD 51O came in by way of the 100th PD update which introduced a pilot scheme for electronic working in the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court and that became effective from 1 January 2019, operating until 6 April 2020. The out-of-London Business and Property Court centres were added by way of the 105th PD update on 25 February 2019.
The SCCO is part of the High Court. Broadly, it assesses the costs and expenses incurred in civil litigation in order to decide how much:
i. a successful party can recover from their opponent
ii. a barrister or solicitor can recover from public funds
iii. a client should have to pay their solicitor
The SCCO can reduce these costs and expenses if necessary. It also deals with appeals against costs decisions made by the Legal Aid Agency.
The SCCO jurisdiction includes some proceedings which are not governed by the CPR (for example Court of Protection and Criminal cases) and they will be the subject of a Practice Note by the Senior Costs Judge; consequently they are not part of this PD Update.
Find out more about the Senior Courts Costs Office.
No forms have been created or modified as part of this update.
Take notice and looking ahead
The Civil Procedure Rule Committee Secretariat is now operating a new email address. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the secretariat via cprc@justice.gov.uk.
The next series of adaptions to the Online Civil Money Claims Pilot scheme (PD 51R and consequential changes to PD 51S) is due out imminently and possibly for immediate effect. It is therefore anticipated to be the 111th PD update and will be issued in the usual way, once approved.
Revised Costs Forms N260A and N260B
These forms relate to PD 51X Costs for Summary Assessment Pilot:
- Form N260A applies when the costs have been incurred on an interim application
- Form N260B applies when the costs have been incurred up to trial.
Since they were released in April 2019 in support of the pilot scheme, the forms have been further modified in response to user feedback. In summary, the Civil Procedure Rule Committee’s Costs Sub Committee have:
- identified some general areas that could be presented in a better way
- redrafted the guidance notes (contained at Tab 6 on each form), which are quite detailed but serve to address the issues raised by court users
- ensured the same information is being obtained, but changed the layout and used the same language as in Precedent S (where possible) in the interests of consistency
These changes do not change the PD itself. However, please note that Word/pdf versions are not being issued. Please use the Excel versions for this pilot from now on.