OPINION ON MITCHELL: ARTICLE IN PERSONAL INJURY FOCUS
I decided from the outset that this blog will be a medium for information rather than opinion.However Rachel Rothwell asked me to write an article for the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers Personal Injury Focus. She wanted my opinions. The article (together with wonderful graphics) is attached. PI Focus Article
My blogs would be quite short if I cut out the opinions 🙂 Excellent piece Gordon.
Kerry
Very good point: “The tension that the courts face (although this is never made explicit) is that the parties do not actually want a trial.”
Neither the claimant or defendant want to spend money preparing for trial when there is a hope for a settlement. As a result the time-frame for preparation of the bundle is often too short. Then we can add another tension that is not explicit: A good bundle is the result of a collaborative process, but this is typically not available between two hostile parties.
These two built-in tensions are sufficient to produce rule breaches. We should encourage efficient and collaborative preparation.
I think this should be required reading for the Civil Justice Council and the Rules Committee. They have requested submissions in early March and I hope they get a lot like this.
I am doing a submission along these lines. Are you?
I am working on it. And will try not to plagiarise yours. 😉