Costs management & docketed judges: are you ready for the big bang next year, asks HH Judge Simon Brown QC
Chapters 39 and 40 of the Jackson Report on Case Management and Costs Management have not grabbed the headlines as other parts of the seismic report have done. However, they are now coming to the fore: in his recent interview with Professor Regan (NLJ 9 March 2012, p339) Lord Justice Jackson was asked: What should practitioners do to prepare for the big bang next year? His answer was: They should start to think about costs budgeting and also to embrace technology.
If civil litigation practitioners have not prepared themselves they will have a nasty (and expensive) shock in a yearís time if they turn up for a routine case management conference (CMC) expecting the judge to rubber stamp their draft directions. They will, instead, find themselves in front of a docketed judge trained by the Judicial College in active case management of his cases, demanding the parties to justify the proportionality
