Short But Mighty ?

The Shorter Trials Scheme (ST") is one of a raft of measures designed to improve the customer experience of civil justice.

In the face of ever greater competition between jurisdictions, the Woolf and Jackson Reforms sought to open up litigation procedure, demystifying it, and reducing costs and timelines into the bargain. In developing the STS, their Justices Hamblen (as he was), Edwards-Stuart, Birss and Jay picked up the baton. With support from Sara Cockerill QC (Essex Court Chambers, now Mrs Justice Cockerill) and Ed Crosse (Partner, Simmons & Simmons LLP), they prepared the draft Practice Direction (51N, which also covers the Flexible Trial Scheme) for the pilot scheme. The pilot opened for business in October 2015 and, if you haven't had cause to test it out yet, fear not, at a conference on 2 July 2018 Mr Justice Birss announced the STS is now a permanent option for High Court litigation.

The STS aims to "achieve short and earlier trials for business related litigation, at a reasonable and proportionate cost."1a The focus on commercial timescales for dispute resolution is key but so too is maintaining the quality of decisions.

If it all sounds a bit familiar to IP lawyers...it is!

In establishing the STS, the High Court appears to have drawn on the highly successful Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court (IPEC) model, something which may not surprise more eagle eyed readers, given the role that Birss J played in establishing the new regime in IPEC.

Details, details, details

The STS is available in the Chancery Division (including the Patents and Companies Courts), the Commercial, London Circuit Commercial and Technology and Construction Courts in the Rolls Building. It is most suitable for time-sensitive cases of moderate complexity (given the four day trial limit) requiring little evidence or disclosure, where damages may exceed those recoverable in IPEC, or the costs caps are not desirable.

To achieve its goals, the STS employed a number of mechanisms, the most significant of which are:

Strict timelines - the desired efficiency and cost savings cannot be achieved without them, so this is a very desirable feature of the STS. They cover most phases of litigation including: a defendant should respond to a letter of claim within 14 days; the Claim Form and Particulars of Claim should be served promptly following a defendant's response to the Statements of Case; 28 days after service of the Claim Form and Particulars the Defence...