District Judge Michael Walker alerts personal injury practitioners

The Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR) PD 22 is amended by the 33rd update - the amendment comes into force on 8 December 2003 - to introduce a revised paragraph 1.4(3) providing that 'a schedule or counter-schedule of expenses and losses in a personal injury claim, and any amendments to such a schedule or counter-schedule, whether or not they are contained in a statement of case' must be verified by a statement of truth.

In a way, this already happens.

Normally.

Schedules are part of the statements of case to which they may be attached, and therefore effectively verified by the statement of truth endorsed on the statement of case itself.

Where statements of case themselves are amended the amendments must be verified by a statement of truth unless the court orders otherwise.

CPR rule 22.1(2) so provides.

The problem, of course, is that not all schedules, counter-schedules, amended schedules and amended counter-schedules are actually annexed to statements of case.

A defence might admit liability and the first time a counter-schedule materialises is shortly before the hearing fixed to assess the level of damages, after service of an updated schedule from the claimant.

All judges have had cases where the parties (usually, but not exclusively, the claimant) are giving evidence in the witness box and start to disagree with items included in updated schedules filed on their behalf.

It is not to say that the claim for special damage has been deliberately inflated.

Advisers may advance the case for substantial damages to cover the cost of long-term care; in the witness box the family may indicate they wish to take on much of it themselves.

Or figures in a counter-schedule may be over-depressed based on a view of the medical evidence that turns out to be unsupported.

Putting it neutrally, there has been some cause for concern.

This is the same problem it has always been.

It is well understood that for many defendants it is the insurers, rather than the defendants themselves, conducting the defence.

To have a party personally verify an amended or counter-schedule 'of expenses and losses' will take time; allowance needs to be made for that in the pre-trial case management process.

As to who should sign the statement of truth, it will be for the fee earner running the case to decide - just as now.

District Judge Walker sits at Wandsworth County Court and is a contributor to Jordan's Civil Court Service