Tracey Stretton & Mark Surguy offer some tips on litigation tactics in the post-Jackson world
The Jackson reforms brought disclosure practice in line with the regime that was already developing after the implementation of the Woolf reforms in 1999, culminating in the introduction of Practice Direction 31B to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) in October 2010.
PD 31B aimed to encourage parties to collaborate over the scope of the search for relevant material. It was intended that the parties seek to agree an approach to disclosure. It was even stated that a report, or summary, setting out the areas of agreement and disagreement in relation to electronically stored information, should be provided at the case management conference (CMC).
All of these requirements are reiterated in the amended disclosure rules. For example, r 31(5)(3) requires a report describing the approach to be taken to disclosure. Similarly, the introduction of the “menu” approach to disclosure in the new r 31.5(7), really only emphasises the wide range of options that were always available to
