The New High Court Case Management Regime

Published: 19-03-2013 Authors: The Hon Justice Winkelmann, The Hon Justice Asher, The Hon Justice Fogarty, The Hon Justice Miller Pages: 120
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Published: March 2013
Pages: 120

 

The new Part 7, Subparts 1 to 4 of the High Court Rules came into force on 4 February 2013.1 They form a critical part of the case management regime that will now operate in the High Court.

An underlying objective of the Rules is to ensure that adjudication in the Courts remains the accepted and practical means by which civil disputes may be resolved. This objective is important to ensure that the courts in their civil jurisdiction remain at the heart of our system of civil justice. A necessary condition for a society that exists under the rule of law is that we have a just and efficient court system which deals with civil as well as criminal cases.

The rules are designed to facilitate this objective by achieving targeted and proportionate case management, assisting the parties in managing the costs of litigation by focusing case management on discovery and identification and refinement of issues, and by providing prompt hearing dates. With this in mind, the new case management regime will:

(a) Impose an expectation that counsel will co-operate to identify issues, agree the scope of discovery and plan for hearing;
(b) Delay the timing of the first case management conference to allow time for counsel to undertake these tasks;
(c) Move the focus of case management away from timetable setting and monitoring toward a focus on discovery and defining issues;
(d) Institute a longer first case management conference, which in most cases will be face to face;
(e) Impose an expectation that for non-complex (ordinary) proceedings there will be only one case management conference;
(f) Create a new form of case management conference called the “issues conference” (expected to be used in complex proceedings) of up to a half day duration, which will allow for counsel, parties and judges to analyse, refine, and potentially reduce the issues in the proceeding;
(g) Reduce the extent to which judicial settlement conferences are offered.
Hon Justice Winkelmann Hon Justice Asher
The Hon Justice Winkelmann
Chief High Court Judge
The Hon Justice Asher
Auckland
Hon Justice Fogarty Hon Justice Miller
The Hon Justice Fogarty
Christchurch
The Hon Justice Miller
Wellington

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