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Changes to the District Court Rules
District Court proceedings are often a drawn out and expensive process for all parties involved. The parties are required to file claims, notices of defence and sometimes counterclaims before the matter is heard. In some cases this process can take months or even years with the parties incurring significant costs. Many potential litigants are deterred by the cost and decide that the process is not worth the effort.
Parliament's radical new changes to the District Court Rules ('the Rules') are an effort to streamline the proceedings, reduce the volume of paper filed in Court and reduce the cost of filing fees. The new rules completely revamp the District Court process by focussing on the speedy and inexpensive determination of proceedings. Emphasis is now placed on reaching negotiated settlements at an early stage.
- The new Rules came into force on 1st November 2009. The main changes include the following:
- new court forms which are designed for non-lawyers to understand
- online access to court forms
- online examples of court forms to guide non-lawyers when drafting their own documents
- strict deadlines for filing documents to speed up the court process
- the removal of summary judgment application
- access to shorter trials
- pre-hearing matters are removed
- parties only have to provide copies of documents they plan to rely on in the proceedings
At present there is a significant disparity between the maximum amount of a dispute able to be determined by the Disputes Tribunal and the level which practitioners perceive to be the minimum amount of a dispute that is economically viable to be resolved at the District Court. The new Rules seek to close this gap.
The Rules will provide more of a focus on the dispute itself rather than legal procedure. This will make it easier for non-lawyers to understand and engage in the process.
Pre-hearing matters that are often used by parties to draw out the process will be removed. Parties will have to comply with strict timeframes which will lead to more predictable timetabling for hearings.
The pre-hearing process of discovery is all but eliminated. This has historically been an expensive and time consuming process whereby parties must produce for inspection all documents that relate to the proceedings. This included documents that were adverse to the parties' case. The parties will only have to produce documents that they plan to rely on.
The focus of the new Rules is for parties to exchange their evidence and arguments at an early stage and reach a settlement with minimal intervention from the court. Before a hearing, parties will be required to attend judicial settlement conferences. These will last for 90 minutes, presided over by a Judge and will focus on mediation of the issue. If settlement is not reached during the conference then a trial will be allocated according to the complexity, size and value of the dispute.
