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Table of Contents

                        
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Executive Summary
Proposals for Consultation
THE WORKING PARTY
ParasPART I - THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM
§  4 - 8A.The Civil Justice System
B.Pressures Felt by Many Civil Justice Systems
§  9 - 14B1.Historically
§  15 - 22B2.Current criticisms of civil justice systems in other jurisdictions
§  23 - 24B3.The main defects identified
§  25B4.The desired characteristics of a civil justice system
§  26 - 35B5.The principal perceived causes of the maladies
§  36 - 37C.Pressures Felt by The Hong Kong System
D.Expense and The Hong Kong Civil Justice System
§  38 - 40D1.Perception as major barrier to legal access
§  41 - 51D2.Cost of legal services and competitiveness
§  52 - 57D3.Evidence of the expense of litigating in Hong Kong
§  58 - 60D4.The Working Party's figures
§  61 - 62D5.The picture emerging from the taxed bills
§  63 - 74(a)Appendix B Tables 1 to 6, Graphs 1 to 5
§  75 - 77(b)Appendix B Tables 7, 8 and 11 to 14
§  78 - 80(c)Appendix B Tables 9 and 10
§  81 - 84(d)Appendix B Tables 15 to 32
§  85 - 87(e)Appendix B total sums
E.Delays and The Hong Kong Civil Justice System
§  88 - 90E1.The adverse effects of delay
§  91 - 92E2.The mechanisms of delay
§  93 - 94E2.1.Duration where no defence exists
§  95 - 98E2.2.Causes of delay in contested cases
§  99E2.3.Proceedings commenced for special purposes
§  100E3.The overall picture in relation to delay in Hong Kong
§  101 - 102E3.1.The overall case-load
§  103 - 108E3.2.The level of judicial resources
E3.3.How cases are disposed of
§  109 - 110(a)Default judgment
§  111 - 113(b)Summary judgment
§  114 - 116(c)Inactive cases
§  115 - 116(d)Cases listed for trial
§  117 - 123E3.4.Waiting-times
§  124 - 125E4.Some conclusions drawn from the Appendix C figures
F.The Complexity of The Civil Justice System
§  126 - 128(a)Complexity under the RSC
§  129 - 133(b)Replacing the RSC with the CPR
§  134 - 138(c)The new approach to procedural questions
G.Unrepresented Litigants
§  139 - 145G1.The challenges generally posed by unrepresented litigants to civil justice systems
§  146G2.Unrepresented litigants in Hong Kong proceedings
§  147G3.The percentage of cases involving unrepresented litigants
§  148 - 151G4.Judiciary's survey of representation at certain hearings
§  152G5.Litigants in person - a substantial call on the system's resources, particularly its bilingual resources
§  153G6.Measures being developed in other jurisdictions towards meeting the needs of unrepresented litigants
§  154 - 158G6.1.Getting representation for litigants in person
§  159 - 164G6.2."Unbundled legal assistance"
§  165 - 166G6.3.Streaming unrepresented litigants to small claims courts
§  167 - 172G6.4.Encouraging free legal advice and help for unrepresented litigants
§  173G6.5.Getting the court to provide assistance by providing information
§  174 - 175G6.6.Enhancing systems for delivering information and assistance
§  176G6.7.Simplifying the rules, procedures and court forms
§  177 - 180G6.8.Encouraging or requiring unrepresented litigants to use ADR schemes
§  181 - 183G6.9.Training judges and court staff
§  184 - 187G7.Unreasonable litigants abusing the process
PART II - POSSIBLE REFORMS
§  188 - 189H.The Need for Reform
§  190 - 195H1.Coordinated reforms on a broad front
§  196 - 199H2.Reforms and reducing costs
§  200 - 211H2.1.Pre-action protocols and "front-end loading" of costs
§  212 - 216H2.2.Reforms and the legal fees market
§  217 - 222I.The Woolf Reforms As A Useful Framework
§  223 - 224J.The Main Concepts Underlying The Woolf Reforms
J1.Overriding objective and CPR
§  225 - 233J1.1.The purpose of the overriding objective
J2.Case management and the CPR
§  234 - 239J2.1.Case management: a response to adversarial excesses
§  240 - 244J2.2.Case management: part of the overriding objective of the CPR
§  245 - 250J2.3.Objections to case management
§  251 - 256J2.4.Case management and costs
§  257K.Possible Reforms In Specific Areas
K1.Pre-action protocols
§  258K1.1.The problems addressed
§  259 - 261K1.2.The idea behind pre-action protocols
§  262K1.3.Implemented by the CPR
§  263 - 266(a)Operation of pre-action protocol illustrated
§  267 - 269(b)Non-compliance and the CPR
§  270 - 275K1.4.Experience of the pre-action protocols
§  276 - 277K2.Mode of commencing proceedings
§  278K3.Disputing the court's jurisdiction
§  279 - 283K4.Default judgments and admissions
K5.Pleadings and statements of truth
§  284 - 287K5.1.The problems with pleadings
§  288 - 294K5.2.The main responses in the CPR
§  295K5.3.Requests for further and better particulars
§  296 - 298K5.4.Amendent
K6.Summary disposal of cases or issues in cases
§  299 - 300K6.1.The changes proposed and their aims
§  301 - 309K6.2.As Implemented
§  310 - 316K6.3.Should the changes be adopted in Hong Kong
§  317 - 318K7.Offers of settlement and payment into court
§  319 - 321K7.1.The main changes effected by Part 36
§  322 - 323K7.2.Operation of Part 36 in practice
§  324 - 331K8.Interim remedies and security for costs
K9.Case management - timetabling and milestones
§  332 - 335K9.1.The current position in Hong Kong
§  336 - 338K9.2.The need for timetables initiated and supervised by the court
§  339 - 341K9.3.Timetabling and the allocation process under the CPR
§  342 - 350K9.4.A case management questionnaire and bilingual proceedings
§  351 - 355K9.5.Timetabling and saving costs
§  356 - 358K9.6.Timetabling sanctions and additional resources
§  359 - 370K10.A docket system
§  371 - 376K11.Specialist Lists
§  377 - 382K12.Multi-party Litigation
§  383 - 387K12.1.The main approaches to multi-party litigation
§  388 - 390K12.2.Issues inherent in multi-party litigation
§  391 - 396K12.3.The CPR Group Litigation Order provisions
§  397 - 402K12.4.Certain matters not provided for
§  403K12.5.Derivative actions
K13.Discovery
§  404 - 407K13.1.The nature of the problem
§  408 - 409K13.2.Cutting down the scope of the obligation
§  410 - 415K13.3.Disclosure under the CPR
§  416 - 419K13.4.The effect of the changes
§  420 - 425K13.5.A different approach
K14.Interlocutory applications
§  426 - 429K14.1.The problems and countermeasures
§  430K14.2.Reducing the need for interlocutory applications
§  431 - 432(a)Leaving matters to the parties to agree without involvement of the court
§  433 - 435(b)Court acting on own initiative
§  436 - 441(c)Making orders "self-executing"
§  442K14.3.Streamlining interlocutory applications
§  443(a)Dealing with the application on paper
§  444 - 448(b)Skipping the hearing before the master
§  449 - 450(c)Use of telephone and other means of communication
K14.4.Deterring unnecessary or abusive interlocutory applications
§  451 - 454(a)Summary assessment of costs
§  455 - 459(b)Moving away from "costs follow the event"
§  460 - 462(c)Reaction to summary assessment of costs
§  463 - 468K14.5.Wasted costs orders
§  469 - 470K15.Witness statements
§  471 - 473K15.1.Problems have developed
§  474 - 479K15.2.Greater powers to regulate the evidence
§  480 - 483K15.3.Greater flexibility in the treatment of witness statements
§  484K15.4.Deterring over-elaboration by costs orders
K16.Expert evidence
§  485 - 489K16.1.The problem
§  490 - 493K16.2.Inappropriate or excessive use of experts
§  494 - 506K16.3.Partisan experts
§  507 - 509K16.4.Single joint experts
§  510 - 518K16.5.How the reforms have been received
§  519 - 528K17.Trials and case management
§  529K18.Appeals
§  530 - 534K18.1.Requiring leave to appeal
§  535 - 539K18.2.The test for granting leave to appeal
§  540 - 543K18.3.Case managing appeals and efficiency
§  544 - 551K18.4.The role of the appellate court and the test for determining appeals
K19.Costs
§  552 - 554K19.1.The role of costs orders in our present system
§  555 - 557K19.2.A different emphasis in the reforms
§  558 - 561K19.3.Factors contributing to the cost of litigation
§  562K19.4.Costs payable to a party's own lawyers
§  563 - 575(a)Promoting transparency, client control and consumer choice
§  576 - 583(b)Restricting fees by regulation
§  584 - 598(c)Benchmark costs
§  599K19.5.Costs orders in favour of the other side
§  600 - 604(a)Transparency of the other side's costs
§  605 - 609(b)Taxation of costs
§  610 - 615(i)Avoiding taxations
§  616 - 617(ii)Streamlining the process of taxation
§  618 - 619(iii)Improving practice standards in relation to taxations
§  620 - 622K20.The CPR Schedules of provisions from the RSC
K21.Possible reforms and ADR
§  623 - 624K21.1.Litigation vs ADR
§  625 - 628K21.2.Types of ADR
§  629 - 636K21.3.ADR as an adjunct to court proceedings
§  637 - 639K21.4.Mandatory ADR
§  640 - 643(a)ADR made mandatory by rule
§  644 - 645(b)ADR made mandatory by a court order
§  646 - 651(c)ADR made mandatory by one party electing for ADR
§  652 - 654(d)ADR a condition of granting legal aid
§  655 - 661(e)ADR voluntary but unreasonable refusal posing risk of costs sanction
§  662 - 665(f)Voluntary ADR
§  666 - 672K21.5.Hong Kong's Pilot Scheme for Mediation in Family Cases
§  673 - 678K21.6.Choosing among and implementing the alternatives
§  679 - 692L.Judicial Review
§  693 - 701M.Implementing The Reforms
§  702 - 707N.Resources
§  708 - 711N1.Deployment of resources
§  712 - 715N2.Training
§  716 - 721N3.Information technology
§  722N4.Research
Appendix A  -  Report on Survey of Litigation Costs
Appendix B  -  Tables and Graphs
Appendix C
 
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