Pre-Trial Checklists (Listing Questionnaire)

The Royal Courts of Justice
Chancery and Queen's Bench Divisions

With effect from the beginning of Easter Term, which commences on the 29th April 2003, a Pre-Trial Checklist will be required in all actions to be listed for trial on or after that date. A Pre-Trial Checklist will be required from every party to the action irrespective of any previous dispensation whether by a Master of either Division or by the Clerk of the Lists Office. In future the Pre-Trial Checklist (Listing Questionnaire) will not be dispensed with save in exceptional circumstances.

The Pre-Trial Checklist, as it will be commonly known, arises out of the substantially modified Listing Questionnaire. An abridged version of the Pre-Trial Checklist (Form N170) is being introduced into the two Divisions in that only sections A, E and F of the form will require completion.

From the date of this notice the Listing Officer, when arranging the date of the trial, will specify that the Pre-Trial Checklist must be returned not later than eight weeks prior to the fixed date or the first day of the trial period [See Part 29.2 (3) (b) of the Civil Procedure Rules].

Eleven weeks before the trial date the Listing Office will send a copy of the Pre-Trial Checklist form to all parties to the action for completion. The form must be returned not later than eight weeks before the trial date [See Part 29 PD 8.1 (3)].

Failure to return the Pre-Trial Checklist within the prescribed period may result in the action being listed for further directions [See Part 29 6 (3)].

In accordance with Fee 2.2, detailed in the Supreme Court Fees Order, the trial fee shall be payable by the Claimant on the filing of the Pre-Trial Checklist.

This notice follows amendments to the rules in October 2002

The Clerk of the Lists
February 2003