The new edition has been fully updated to include: new sections on clinical negligence; holiday claims; skeleton arguments and PI claims in contract; recent decisions on animals act and vicarious liability; mesothelioma; RTA claims process; Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010; Insolvency provisions of the Companies Act 2006 and new applications. The guide also comes with a CD-ROM.

10% discount for APIL Members, to take advantage of this offer please call Customer Services on 0117 918 1492 and quote your APIL membership number.

General Editors
Martin Bare, Partner, Morrish Solicitors LLP
Leila Benyounes, Park Lane Plowden
Richard Copnall, Barrister, Park Lane Plowden

Contributors
Andrew Axon, Barrister, Park Lane Plowden
Dominic Hughes, Solicitor, Morrish Solicitors LLP

Pleadings

• Pleadings – General Introduction
• Employers’ Liability
• Industrial Disease
• Road Traffic
• Highways
• Occupiers’ Liability
• Defective Premises
• Consumer Protection and Product Liability
• Fatal Accidents
• Miscellaneous

Applications

• The Insolvent Corporate Defendant
• Permission to Sue a Company in Compulsory Liquidation
• Permission to Sue a Company in Administration
• Application to Restore the Name of a Company to the Register under s 653 of the Companies Act 1985
• Application to Void the Dissolution of a Company under s 651 of the Companies Act 1985
• Pre-Action Disclosure
• Enforcement of Pre-Action Disclosure
• Application to Commit to Prison
• Extension of Time for Serving Claim Form
• Application to Amend the Statement of Case under CPR 17.3
• Admission by Notice in Writing – Application for Judgment Pursuant to CPR 14.3
• Application for Further and Better Particulars Under CPR 18
• Application for Disclosure and Inspection of Documents Post Issue Pursuant to CPR 31.12
• Application to Vary Case Management Timetable under CPR 28.4
• Application for Summary Judgment Under CPR 24
• Application to Strike Out the Defence Under CPR 3.4(2) for Failure to Disclose Reasonable Grounds for the Defence
• Application for an Order for the Issues of Liability and Quantum to be Tried Separately Pursuant to CPR 3.1
• Application for an Interim Payment Under CPR 25.6
• Application for Provisional Damage
• Application for Court Approval on Behalf of a Child (‘Infant Settlement’)
• Change of Solicitor
• Costs Proceedings Under CPR Part 8

FOREWORD TO FIRST EDITION

The art of litigation is practised best by lawyers who are well prepared and confident. As long as avoidable injuries occur victims will need expert legal representation to obtain justice. Whilst the modern trend is towards cooperation in dispute resolution, the threat of proceedings is the best
incentive for encouraging defendants to settle claims. In the face of unmeritorious denials we must use the courts as a weapon.

In this work the authors explain the necessities of drafting pleadings and precedents, simultaneously educating us in the essential evidence to be captured at the outset of our instructions. They provide a clear and practical guide to solving the problem of defendants that have gone out of business or are threatening to do so. CPR only works if parties comply with the pre-action protocols and the precedent to enforce compliance is here. There is a comprehensive armoury of interlocutory applications. The reader is guided through the approach of the courts with helpful tips and appropriate warnings in a concise but readable way.

This is a book to read from cover to cover and then keep close to hand. It will be profitably read by the trainee and the most experienced. Enjoy!

Richard Langton
APIL President
February 2007

Claimant lawyers have always been under a duty to work as effectively and efficiently as possible. Commercial pressures have increased even further since the first edition of this book was published in 2007, but practitioners ought not fear litigation as a result of the altered commercial landscape. Indeed the opposite is probably true; as civil litigators our aim, first and foremost, is to act in the best interests of our clients to ensure that they receive full compensation for their injuries and to achieve this, litigation, however counterintuitive it may seem, might be even more important than ever. But for the minority of claims that do not settle or discontinue before issue, the margin between success and failure is often small and no opportunity to gain a proper advantage can be safely overlooked.

Our aim has been to guide readers towards using pleadings and applications in the most efficient and, crucially, effective way. In the section on applications, we hope to have given much needed guidance on the often problematic area of insolvent defendants and, more generally, precedents that will allow the claimant’s lawyer to be where they should be – in the driving seat, forcing the case forward to the earliest proper resolution.

Active case management by the court, a once desirable, if as yet still unattained objective, and the have-no-fear approach both require a pro-active claimant lawyer who, we hope, will now have a database of appropriate applications.

To those brought up in the tradition of ‘prayers’, ‘aforesaids’ and blunderbuss particulars, our approach to pleadings will be a revelation. We have deliberately removed legalese and verbiage to create an approach that is clear, precise, efficient and, above all, effective. As with all precedents, it is important to use the documents in this book with care. Many areas of personal injury law are complex. The precedents are intended to be a useful addition to a sound understanding of the
substantive law; they cannot replace it. Similarly, the variety of factual situations is limitless and each precedent should be carefully tailored to the circumstances of the case.

We have had considerable help from many people both in the preparation of this book and the work leading up to it. We would particularly like to thank Dominic and Andrew for their contributions, inspiration and willingness to hold their own when we disagreed and Tony Hawitt at Jordans for his encouragement and patience. Martin would like to thank Dominic Hughes and Nicky Knutton at Morrish for all their help.

Leila would like to thank Stuart for his support and her colleagues at Parklane Plowden for all their help with this edition. Richard would also like to thank Anne, Philippa and Isabel for sacrificing too many of their weekend plans and his colleagues at Parklane Plowden for knocking the rough edges off his emergent ideas. The law is, we hope, up to date as at 1 March 2012.

Marin Bare, Leila Benyounes and Richard Copnall
Leeds
March 2012