The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 8) Rules 2014
These Rules amend the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR) (SI 1998/3132), by—amending rule 21.12, which concerns expenses incurred by a litigation friend, so that it covers the position where full recovery of costs from the other party to the proceedings is not achieved or is not possible by virtue of the changes brought about by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012;amending rule 30.3, which concerns the criteria for transferring proceedings to another court and, which includes the availability of a specialist judge. The amendment will require the court, when considering making a transfer order, to consider the availability of a specialist judge sitting in an appropriate regional specialist court;substituting for Part 36 (offers to settle) a revised Part (together with consequential changes elsewhere in the CPR) which aligns the rules with case law developed since the Part was last amended and re-arranges the order of the rules in the Part;amending rules 45.19 and 45.29I to reflect amendments made to the Pre-Action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury Claims in Road Traffic Accidents (“the RTA Protocol”), which require initial fixed cost medical reports in personal injury claims for whiplash (referred to as “soft tissue injuries”) to be obtained from medical experts who have been accredited, and who have been selected via a Portal operated, by MedCo Registration Solutions;inserting new paragraph (2A) in rule 45.24, to provide that claimants who do not comply with paragraph 6.3A(2) of the RTA Protocol (requirement to include the unique reference number on the Claim Notification Form as evidence of having undertaken a search of askCUEPI.com) will only be awarded the costs of their claim in exceptional circumstances;inserting a new Section VI in Part 74, together with related and consequential amendments elsewhere, to make provision in relation to the recognition and enforcement as between courts in England and Wales and courts in other EU Member States other than Denmark of protection measures (as defined by Regulation (EU) No 606/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 June 2013 on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters (the “Protection Measures Regulation”)); andinserting a new Part 87 – Applications for Writ of Habeas Corpus, and as a consequential amendment, omitting RSC Order 54 – Applications for Writ of Habeas Corpus.