Case management Information Sheet

From Consumer Wiki

Case Management Info Sheet

From Calculator on this thread

Here is an Updated Example CMI Sheet (see below).

I have put the questions and answers together on one sheet as an example of a completed CPR59 CMIS. It is stressed that the example sheet given below represents the views of lay persons only. The answers are not ‘cast in stone’. It is up to the user to decide what best suits them and to amend the answers if they so wish.

The example and notes are provided primarily to assist those claimants who have been thrust into the 'Mercantile arena' and do not know where else to turn for assistance, possibly never having heard of the Mercantile Court until receiving their Court notice of transfer and hearing.

The CMI Sheet is not as daunting as it may first seem. I hope the example and explanations given below will ease any doubts you may have. Also keep the matter in perspective – you will have been requested by the Court to submit a CMI sheet as the current stage in the process leading up to the case management conference / directions hearing. The submission of the CMI sheet is a means to an end and hopefully your case will get settled either before or at the case management conference / directions hearing without the case proceeding to trial.

Some Mercantile Courts up to now have dealt with the bank charges cases slightly differently depending on which Mercantile Court. For example Leeds Mercantile state in the letter of invitation to the Hearing that the claimant is to send a CPR 59 Case Management Information Sheet (CMI sheet) to the Court prior to the hearing. Other Mercantile Courts (eg London) have not made any mention of a requirement for a CMI sheet. If in doubt, I suggest you phone the Court to ask what they require to be sent prior to the hearing.

Also Leeds Mercantile mention the Multi-Track (see CPR 29) which is the normal method in the Mercantile Court, whereas London Mercantile mentions the Multi-Track but has specifically stated the intention that the 'Small Claims' rules for costs will apply even though it is the Mercantile Court. (See further notes at the bottom of this post regarding items 35 and 36 of the CMI sheet)

If a CMI sheet is required by the Court, you should also serve a copy on the defendant. (For the defendant’s address to which documents should be served, (a) look at the Acknowledgement of Service form returned by the defendant to the Court and copied by the Court to you, or (b) if you do not have that, send the copy of the CMI sheet to the defendant's address that you put on the original claim form. (If the defendant's solicitor has already contacted you to make an offer of settlement which you have not yet accepted, you might wish to send a copy of the CMI to that solicitor providing you have their address).

(If you are not intending to take the the CMI sheet to the Court by hand, you may wish to consider Royal Mail 'Special Delivery' (£4.30 for guaranteed next day delivery) or Royal Mail 'Recorded Signed For' delivery (£1.04 for normal 1st Class timescales, but not guaranteed next day delivery). That way by either method you will be able to track it to make sure it gets to its intended destination with a signature of recipient as proof if necessary. Also similarly consider for sending the copy to the defendant).

On the example CMI sheet shown below, the text in bold italics in square brackets are notes that I have made for use in completing the sheet and should be deleted from the finished sheet.

It is OK to refer to yourself as ‘the Claimant’ and the bank as ‘the defendant’ when answering the questions.

See also the additional notes at the bottom of this example sheet.

Copying the CMI sheet: You should be able to lift this example sheet from here by clicking and outlining all of the CMI sheet text and using the ‘copy’ function in the ‘Edit’ icon in the tool bar at the top of the page. Open Microsoft Word (or whatever you have) on your PC and paste the CMI sheet there and you can then amend it as you wish.





Case Management Information Sheet


Case No: ………………….. [Insert Case No.]


[Insert names] ………………… - v - ………………………..


Party filing: Claimant

Solicitors: Claimant in person

Advocate(s) for trial: ––

Date: ............... [insert date of completing this CMI sheet]


Substance of case

1. The Claimant seeks repayment of unfair and unlawful bank charges and interest.

Parties

2. Are all parties still effective? - Yes.

3. Do you intend to add any further party? - No.

Statements of case

4. Do you intend to amend your statement of case? - No.

5. Do you require any “further information” - see CPR 18? -Yes. The Claimant seeks the Court to order the defendant to provide a full breakdown of the actual cost incurred by the defendant in respect of each of the said bank charges.

Disclosure

6. By what date can you give standard disclosure? - Within 7 days of being requested by the Court.

7. Do you contend that to search for any type of document falling within CPR 31.6(b) would be unreasonable within CPR 31.7(2)? - No.

8. Is any specific disclosure required - CPR 31.12? - Yes. Disclosure of documents by the defendant showing the defendant’s costs incurred and its profit on bank charges relative to the claim.

9. Is a full disclosure order appropriate? - Yes.

10. By what dates could you give:

(i) any specific disclosure referred to at 8? - Within 7 days of the Court’s directions.

(ii) full disclosure? - Within 7 days of the Court’s directions.

Admissions

11. Can you make any additional admissions? - No.

Preliminary issues

12. Are any issues suitable for trial as preliminary issues? - No.

Witnesses of fact

13. On how many witnesses of fact do you intend to rely at the trial (subject to the court’s direction)? - One.

14. Please name them, or explain why you do not. - The Claimant.

15. Which of them will be called to give oral evidence? - The Claimant.

16. When can you serve their witness statements? - Within 7 days of the Court’s directions.

17. Will any require an interpreter? - No.


Expert evidence

18. Are there issues requiring expert evidence? - No.

19. If yes, what issues? - N/A.

20. Might a single joint expert be suitable on any issues (see CPR 35.7)? – N/A.

21. What experts do you intend (subject to the court’s direction) to call? Please give the number, their names and expertise. - N/A.

22. By what date can you serve signed expert reports? - N/A.

23. Should there be meetings of experts of like disciplines, of all disciplines? By when? - N/A.

24. Which experts, if any, do you intend not to call at the trial? - N/A.

25. Will any require an interpreter? - N/A.

Trial

26. What are the advocates’ present estimates of the length of the trial? - 2 hours.

27. What is the earliest date that you think the case can be ready for trial? - 4 weeks from the Case Management Conference / Directions Hearing.

28. Where should the trial be held? - ………….....…. [State the city/town where your Mercantile Court is located, ie probably where the court documents were sent from, as long as you are happy with that location. Mercantile courts are only located at Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Chester, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Newcastle].

29. Is a Pre-Trial Review advisable? - No.

A.D.R.

30. Might some form of Alternative Dispute Resolution assist to resolve the dispute or some part of it? - No

31. Has this been considered with the client? - No.

32. Has this been considered with the other parties? - No

33. Do you want the case to be stayed pending A.D.R. or other means of settlement - CPR 26.4; or any other directions relating to A.D.R.? - No.

Other applications

34. What applications, if any, not covered above, will you be making at the conference? - None.

Costs

35. What, do you estimate, are your costs to date? - Claimant in Person costs £9.25 per hour plus expenses. ..*.. hours research and preparation plus sundry expenses, total £..**.. . [ *Insert your own number of hours for your time researching, preparing and submitting your Claim, Allocation Questionnaire (if you submitted one) and CMI sheet, calculate at £9.25 per hour and add sundry expenses eg printing, postage etc and insert the total amount at .. **.. . The court fee for submitting the Claim will already have been included in your original claim value. If you subsequently paid a court fee to submit an Allocation Questionnaire, then add an extra sentence on to this item stating the amount of that court fee.. Also see the notes below}.

36. What, do you estimate, will be your costs to end of trial? - Claimant in Person costs £9.25 per hour plus expenses. .***. hours research and preparation plus sundry expenses, total £..****.. from now to the end of the trial. [ *** Insert your own estimated number of hours for your time researching, preparing and submitting the Court Bundle, attending the hearing(s) and the trial, calculate at £9.25 per hour and add sundry expenses eg printing, postage, travel expenses etc and insert the total amount at ****. Also see the notes below].


Signed (Claimant):




Don't forget to delete the text in bold italics in square brackets from the finished sheet!


Additional Notes

My additional notes/suggestions for completing the CMI sheet:

Item 1. You may wish to tailor the answer to tie in with what you entered on the ‘Brief details of claim’ on your claim form.

Item 4. The ‘statement of case’ can also be taken as being the ‘Particulars of Claim’ on the N1 claim form. If you have made any error in your claim, here is a good place and opportunity to correct matters. If you want to fundamentally change your claim, eg the amount of the claim or the items claimed for, then you can say so here at item 4 (and enclose a revised schedule of charges if you have altered those), but I think you may also need to complete the N244 court form and send to the court click Form N244 - application notice . I suggest you check with the Court as to whether an N244 is needed in those situations or whether the CMI Sheet will suffice.

Items 5, 8 and 9. Note that CPR 18 is entitled 'Further Information' whilst CPR 31 is entitled 'Disclosure and Inspection of Documents'. Therefore if you want the bank to provide information, I assume this is under CPR 18. If you want the bank to disclose documents that it has in its possession then I assume it comes under CPR 31. For those wanting to read the CPRs, for CPR 18 click here and for CPR 31 click here

Don't forget to click on the top right of the front page of each of the CPR documents to get into the 'Practice Directions' document for that particular CPR. You might also find the HMCS guidance booklet EX305 for the Multi-Track useful, click here

Items 6, 10, 16 and 27. If you are not happy with the example time periods stated, you may wish to amend them to suit your particular circumstances.

Item 13, 14 and 15. If the claim were to be dealt with on the Small Claims Track, the claimant would be able to take a ‘lay representative’ (e.g. a friend or a relative) to any hearing/trial to speak on the claimant’s behalf if the claimant did not feel confident enough to speak him/herself (HMCS Booklet EX307 ‘The Small Claims Track’ page 9 states so).

The Mercantile Court normally only deals with cases on the Multi-Track and as such normally only recognises the claimant (ie 'the litigant in person') and the claimant's professional legal representative if the claimant has one. The fact that your case has been transferred to the Mercantile Court, not the County Court Small Claims Track, should not preclude you from taking a lay representative with you, but you will need to write to the Mercantile Court to ask the Court's permission for you to take a ‘lay representative’ with you stating the reason as being that the Small Claims Track would have allowed you to do so and through no fault of your own the case has been transferred to the Mercantile Court. You should give the Court the name and address of your intended lay representative. If you are taking a lay representative with you, the answer to item 13 should be 'two' and the answer to item 14 should be 'the claimant and his/her representative', and then answer 15 accordingly.

Item 26. Amend the estimate of the length of trial if you wish to suit the size/complexity of your case.

Items 35 and 36. Up to now, some Mercantile Courts have dealt with the bank charges claims differently to other Mercantile Courts. For example, the Leeds Mercantile Court’s notice of case management conference/ directions hearing has referred to allocation of cases to the Multi-Track (which is usually the only track used in the Mercantile), not the Small Claims Track which is particular to the County Court. Under the Multi-track, the winning party can request that the losing party pays the winning party’s costs.

However, up to now, the London Mercantile Court’s notice of hearing has referred to a Small Claims Hearing (even though it is the Mercantile Court) and the intention that the Small Claims rules for costs will apply.

For those on the Multi-Track in the Mercantile Court, the rate of £9.25 per hour is the allowable charge for ‘claimant in person’ (also often referred to as ‘litigant in person’). If the matter gets as far as the Court hearing, you may have to justify the hours claimed and the expenses. (Where possible keep a log of your time spent and receipts for expenses e.g. photocopying, Special Delivery postage etc.). I suggest that you be sensible about the hours claimed - do not go 'over the top' if, as a novice, you wasted an unreasonable/unjustifiable amount of time getting nowhere before you eventually found what you were looking for.

For those at the London type of hearing you might wish to delete the answers given at items 35 and 36 on the example answer sheet and insert ‘See the Court’s notice of hearing dated ………… regarding costs’. . There are no standard times for items 35 & 36. Times should include:

Item 35 (This is stated as an estimated time on the CMI sheet, but you will know the actual time):

Research and complete the N1 claim form (or MCOL money claim on line) including updating your schedule of charges that you previously sent to the bank including adding the interest calculation.

Research and complete the CMI sheet.

Also add research and submit an Allocation Questionnaire (if you did one).

The time that you insert should be the time that you have spent, a time that you are able to justify.

(Without wishing to sway you, 25 hours seems to have been an average sort of 'ball park' figure for anybody making a bank charges claim for the first time from what I have seen on past examples, most of which originate from the early days when there was little information to hand to help newcomers to the Mercantile. (The 25 hours also ties in with my own experience of the process).

In those early days, there was not this CMI sheet thread and there was not as much info on the 'Mercantile Court Guide' thread as there is now, i.e. claimants were 'thrown in cold' and had to do a lot more research and consequently spend a lot more time. Therefore with the enhanced information that is now available on this and other web sites it may be that newcomers don't spend as much as 25 hours these days.

Also bear in mind that if you have made more than one claim, the second claim will involve much less cost because you will not have as much research/preparation to do. You will already have the knowledge and the claim wording and the draft CMI sheet from your previous claim(s). I reckon in those circumstances on your second claim you could do everything in about 6 or 7 hours, or even less!).

Item 36 (This is only an estimate of what you anticipate is going to happen, ie it is not fact at this stage so not too critical at this stage): I would have thought:

Attending the hearing on 28th June is going to be nearly a full day including travel. say 7hrs.

Preparing for the trial (not that it is going to happen) and submitting further documents could be say 1 or 2 days, say 2 days = 15 hours.

Attending the trial could be say 1 day including travel = 8 hours

Total 30 hours (my view only).

It will also be influenced by whether it continues as a group hearing or whether you are hived off as a single case. (Group hearings by their nature will take longer).

There could even be be a second hearing before the trial. On the other hand if yours is a small claim it could be straight to a 1 or 2 hours single trial only, and the total hours could be a lot less.

You just don't know at this stage, so the hours could be up or down. It is just an estimate.

If you are submitting a revised schedule of charges at with the CMI sheet, stick to the charges and interest only on that schedule. (Its the first I have heard of the Court asking for a revised schedule. it may be worth double checking with them). The costs are shown on the CMI sheet and no need to state them anywhere else. I do not think you need to restate the Court fee unless you are claiming the AQ fee not previously claimed.




Other useful links:

CAG Mercantile Court Guide click Mercantile Court Guide

CPR 27: The Small Claims Track click here

HMCS guidance booklet EX305 for the Multi-Track, click here

CPR 29: The Multi-Track click here

CPR 48: Costs - Special Cases click here see section 'Litigant in Person'

CAG thread click here Barclays settling these - claim your costs

I am not an expert and if anybody feels that the answers on the example CMI sheet do not suit their particular circumstances you are free to amend for your own CMI sheet. It would be useful to know of any items which you feel need amendment. I am particularly interested in items 5, 8 and 9. Item 5 relates to provision of 'further information' CPR 18 and items 8 and 9 relate to 'Disclosure of Documents' CPR 31. I have given details in my notes as to how to access those CPRs. If you wish to comment on those particular items, it is important that you read CPR 18, CPR 31 and HMCS booklet EX305 before you do so.