The steps the court expects parties to take before issuing proceedings — exchanging information, exploring settlement, and the costs of cutting corners.
Litigation conduct is judged from well before a claim form is ever issued, and the courts have real teeth to punish those who skip the groundwork. This chapter opens with the purpose of pre-action protocols, the Practice Direction that fills the gaps where no specific protocol applies, and the place of ADR in the pre-action framework. It then works through the general PDPAC requirements for letters before claim and letters of response, before turning to the specific regimes for debt claims, personal injury and clinical negligence, each with its own timescales and documentary demands. Finally, it examines what substantive compliance means, when non-compliance is justified — including an imminent limitation deadline — and the costs and interest sanctions a court can impose on either party, even one who goes on to win at trial.
