Richard Harrison scopes out the role of project management in the litigation process
How lawyers and the courts deal with the litigation process can clearly benefit from modern commercial practices. The tenets of modern project management can be applied to progressive dispute resolution methodology. To some extent.
In paras 3.13 and 3.14 of Chapter 48 of his preliminary report on his Review of Litigation Costs (2009), Lord Justice Jackson referred to the work of Professor John Peysner, who had “sought to introduce the concept of project management into the litigation arena”. As Jackson summarises it in the article quoted: “[Professor Peysner] pointed out that project management involved a defined project and the teamwork necessary to achieve the project. He observed that a ‘project’ was a defined task with a beginning and an end, made up of a series of separate activities, each of which absorbs time and money, but which can occur in parallel or subsequently. He concluded that this was akin to litigation and as such litigation was suitable for project management…He concluded that the key was to break down the steps in the
