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The Working Party recommends a somewhat altered approach, summarised as follows
:-
(a)
A rule should be introduced expressly acknowledging as legitimate aims of
judicial case management :-
(i)
increasing the cost-effectiveness of the court's procedures;
(ii)
encouraging economies and proportionality in the way cases are mounted
and tried;
(iii)
the expeditious disposal of cases;
(iv)
greater equality between parties;
(v)
facilitating settlement; and,
(vi)
distributing the court's resources fairly;
always recognizing that the primary aim of case management is to secure the
just resolution of the parties' dispute in accordance with their substantive rights.
(b)
These aims should be referred to as the "underlying objectives" of the civil
justice system to avoid misunderstandings which may result from describing
them as "overriding".
(c)
The concept of "proportionality" should form part of the underlying objectives,
but without the specificity attempted in the CPR provisions. This is to avoid
spawning minute analysis and argument. The concept should import merely
commonsense notions of reasonableness and a sense of proportion to inform the
exercise of procedural discretions.
(d)
It is desirable to have a rule, linked to the underlying objectives, which draws
the court's case management powers together and places them on a clear and
transparent legal footing.
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