The Rules of the Supreme Court (Amendment No. 2) 1980

6.  Order 25 shall be amended as follows:—

(1) Rule 1(2) shall be amended by deleting the word “and” from the end of sub-paragraph (h), by substituting “; and” for the full-stop at the end of sub-paragraph (i) and by adding the following sub-paragraph:—

“(j) actions for personal injuries for which automatic directions are provided by rule 8.”.

(2) At the end of Order 25 there shall be inserted the following rule:—

““Automatic directions in personal injury actions

8.— (1) When the pleadings in any action to which this rule applies are deemed to be closed the following directions shall take effect automatically:—

(a) there shall be discovery of documents within 14 days in accordance with Order 24, rule 2, and inspection within seven days thereafter, save that where liability is admitted, or where the action arises out of a road accident, discovery shall be limited to disclosure by the plaintiff of any documents relating to special damages;

(b) subject to paragraph (2), where any party intends to place reliance at the trial on expert evidence, he shall, within 10 weeks, disclose the substance of that evidence to the other parties in the form of a written report, which shall be agreed if possible;

(c) unless such reports are agreed, the parties shall be at liberty to call as expert witnesses those witnesses the substance of whose evidence has been disclosed in accordance with the preceding sub-paragraph, except that the number of expert witnesses shall be limited in any case to two medical experts and one expert of any other kind;

(d) photographs, a sketch plan and the contents of any police accident report book shall be receivable in evidence at the trial, and shall be agreed if possible;

(e) subject to Order 77, rule 13, the action shall be tried in London, if the action is proceeding in London, but if it is proceeding in a District Registry it shall be tried at the trial centre for the time being designated for the District Registry;

(f) the action shall be tried by Judge alone, as a case of substance or difficulty (Category B), and shall be set down within six months;

(g) the Court shall be notified, on setting down, of the estimated length of the trial.

(2) Where paragraph 1(b) applies to more than one party the reports shall be disclosed by mutual exchange, medical for medical and non-medical for non-medical, within the time provided or as soon thereafter as the reports on each side are available.

(3) Nothing in paragraph (1) shall prevent any party to an action to which this rule applies from applying to the Court for such further or different directions or orders as may, in the circumstances, be appropriate.

(4) For the purposes of this rule—

“a road accident” means an accident on land due to a collision or apprehended collision involving a vehicle; and “documents relating to special damages” include

(a)

documents relating to any industrial injury, industrial disablement or sickness benefit rights, and

(b)

where the claim is made under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976, documents relating to any claim for dependency on the deceased.

(5) This rule applies to any action for personal injuries except—

(a) any Admiralty action; and

(b) any action where the pleadings contain an allegation of a negligent act or omission in the course of medical treatment.”