New court rules in personal injury actions

New procedural rules are to apply in the Court of Session and followed in certain personal injury actions with effect from 1 March 2020.

The rules have been developed to address operational issues identified by the Court of Session Personal Injury Users Group, which highlighted that there was insufficient time between the closing of the record and the hearing of the case on the By Order Adjustment Roll.

The key changes to the existing rules are as follows:

• the By Order Adjustment Roll Hearing is re-named ‘Case Management Hearing’
• the pursuer has to lodge their Closed Record in process within 14 days of the closing of the record
• an extended period between the record closing and the Case Management Hearing;
• for the staggered exchange of information in the period between the lodging of the closed record and the Case Management Hearing
• for a new notification procedure where a party seeks to have the action appointed to debate;
• for the lodging of statements of proposals and joint minutes
• that should a party fail to comply with certain specified rules concerning the exchange of information then that party may be ordained to appear before the court to explain their non-compliance.

The new Act of Sederunt (Rules of the Court of Session 1994 Amendment) (Case Management of Certain Personal Injuries Actions) 2019 will apply to actions commenced on or after, 1 March 2020 and at the discretion of the Lord Ordinary may apply to an action raised before 1 March.

You can access details of the changes on the UK Government website.

A new Practice Note for Chapter 42A actions has also been made – Court of Session Practice Note No. 2 of 2019 – which replaces Practice Note No. 6 of 2017 and has effect from 1 March 2020.