Radical Changes To The District Court Procedures In November

The District Court Rules govern the process of bringing civil proceedings in the District Court for amounts of up to $200,000. As from 1 November 2009, that process will radically change.

The focus of the new District Court Rules (Rules) is to encourage the just, economical and inexpensive determination of claims.

Summary of major changes

• The plaintiff will not file a Statement of Claim and the defendant will not file a Statement of Defence.
• There will be no discovery of documents - the current process whereby each party swears an affidavit listing all the documents in its possession that are relevant to the proceedings will no longer be available.
• Each party must serve an 'information capsule' on the other party before the proceeding is allocated a hearing.