INTRODUCTION
The preceding chapter concerned the first two stepping stones for the opening stages of the case: issue of the originating process (a document formerly known, within the pre-CPR High Court practice, as a ‘writ’, but now known, both in the County Courts and in the High Court, as a ‘claim form’); and service of the claim form on the defendant.
The present chapter continues the sequence, examining:
(i) the crafting and delivery of the parties’ main contentions, known now as ‘statements of case’, but historically referred to as ‘pleadings’;
(ii) the process of amending pleadings;
(iii) addition, etc, of parties;
(iv) contribution;
(v) interpleader proceedings.
NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF STATEMENTS OF CASE (‘PLEADINGS’)
The matters in dispute are to be ascertained from the ‘statement of case’, a portmanteau phrase embracing the claim form, particulars of claim (if separate from the claim form), the defence, a possible reply to defence, as well as ‘further information’ (formerly ‘further and better particulars’) and a counterclaim or third party proceeding (now both known as ‘a Part 20 claim’). Even so, the verb ‘plead’, as distinct from the noun ‘pleadings’, is still used. It is also the language used throughout the Common Law world, including the USA.
‘Pleadings’, now known as ‘statements of case’, serve six main functions:
(i) they enable the parties to define the essence of their dispute and so facilitate an orderly process, perhaps culminating in a trial;
(ii) they give each party notice of the relevant issues, thereby preventing surprise or ambush tactics, and also satisfying in part the principle of due notice; Lord Millett suggested that this is the primary function of pleadings;
(iii) clear pleadings can prevent a party from inadvertently making a false admission;
(iv) they set procedural parameters which enable other rules to be applied precisely; they offer guidance as to the scope of ‘relevant’ material which must be disclosed during the disclosure process; this remains important even though the scope of disclosure is now circumscribed by the definition of ‘standard’ disclosure in the CPR; pleadings also determine the scope of any subsequent judgment; the doctrine of res judicata prevents the same matter from being heard twice in separate actions;