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K9.5. Timetabling and saving costs
| 351. | The flexibility of the rules enables costs to be saved. The scheme encourages the court to aim for procedural proportionality, avoiding the expense of court events where the case can be managed without them, and tailoring all needed directions and hearings where this is required in more complex cases. |
| 352. | Moreover, as Appendix B, Table 10 indicates, in a large percentage of cases, applications for extensions of time are made to comply with the rules or directions given. (Note 310) The CPR contain an interesting attempt to reduce the need for such applications while at the same time holding the parties firmly to a timetable. This involves two rules operating in conjunction. |
| 353. | The first is CPR 29.5 which states :- |
| (1) | A party must apply to the court if he wishes to vary the date which the court has fixed for - |
| (a) | a case management conference; | ||
| (b) | a pre-trial review; | ||
| (c) | the return of a listing questionnaire under rule 29.6; | ||
| (d) | the trial; or | ||
| (e) | the trial period. |
| (2) | Any date set by the court or these Rules for doing any act may not be varied by the parties if the variation would make it necessary to vary any of the dates mentioned in paragraph (1)." |
| 354. | The second is CPR 2.11 which provides :- |
| "Unless these Rules or a practice direction provides otherwise or the court orders otherwise, the time specified by a rule or by the court for a person to do any act may be varied by the written agreement of the parties." | ||
| 355. | By their combined effect, parties are given ample latitude to agree extensions of time without any need to go to court provided that the timetable for the milestone events identified in CPR 29.5 is not affected. A party who is late in complying with some direction can therefore, with the other side's agreement, make up time to ensure that the next milestone event is met. |
Note
| 310 | In the HCAs whose bills were being taxed time applications were made in 89 (44%) of 202 cases. <back> |
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