CPR reforms spur faster system

The civil justice reforms have led to a drop in claims issued and a rise in early settlements, but a levelling off in the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), research has found.

The report issued by the Lord Chancellor's Department as part of a continuing evaluation of the civil procedure rules (CPR) also said that the time between issue and hearing for cases that go to trial has fallen, while there has been a sharp drop in appeals during proceedings.

There are now around 150,000 county court claims issued a month, compared to around 190,000 before April 1999, when the CPR were introduced.

There were more than 10,000 Queen's Bench claims a month pre-CPR, but that had fallen sharply to fewer than 2,000 by the end of last year.

Claims in both courts continue to decline gently.

On settlements, the report said: 'There is evidence to show that settlements at the door of the court are now fewer and that settlements before the day of the hearing have increased.'

In fast-track cases, the proportion of settlements or withdrawals before the trial day rose from 50% pre-CPR to 69% by the end of 2001.

The proportion of cases that went to a full hearing fell from 33% to 23%.

The changes were less marked for multi-track cases.

A fifth of these cases reach trial.

The report found that the growth in the use of ADR has levelled off.

However, it pointed to the Court of Appeal's ruling in Dunnett v Railtrack earlier this year - in which a successful party was refused costs because they declined to mediate - as 'a major endorsement of Lord Woolf's exhortation to solicitors to mediate more and litigate less'.

The average time from issue to trial in the county courts is heading down to 400 days, compared to nearly 700 pre-CPR.

In the Queen's Bench Division, it is down from 1,235 days to 1,188.

However, this period has actually risen in small claims to around 190 days, which is in part down to the rise in the upper limit of small claims bringing in more complex cases.

Lord Woolf's aim to keep appeals from case management decisions to a minimum has worked well.

There were only 70 applications for permission to appeal in the year to September 2001, compared to pre-CPR figures of more than 500.

A Law Society spokeswoman said: 'It is clear the reforms have introduced a less adversarial culture and encourage earlier settlement.

However, care must be taken when looking at how long cases take...

Our research [conducted recently with the Civil Justice Council] showed that the protocol requirements have slowed the pre-issue stage.

This leads to more cases settling early but where cases need to go to trial the overall time taken is much the same as before.'