CIVIL LITIGATION SGSs
SGS1
CASE ANALYSIS AND INVESTIGATION
EXTRA INFO ABOUT THE COURSE:
So there’s civil litigation and criminal litigation, separate exams but in the end you get one
grade for the overall subject ‘litigation.’
Its split 65% civil, and 35% criminal.
20% of the civil lit exam is MCQs.
We will have a mock exam half way through the course.
After this you should be able to:
1. Analyse a case and be able to tell a client on any causes of action and the remedies
available
2. Analyse a case and find the evidence
3. Tell your client of the costs, benefits and risks of suing/starting litigation/taking
someone to court
Lecture notes:
So, what IS civil litigation?
One party suing another party. Maybe where one party fails to pay a debt, so gets sued. In civil
litigation, a judge decides merit of case after listening to evidence from both sides.
Procedure for civil lit is governed by CPR civil litigation rules. These are supplemented by case
law.
It’s the courts role to balance both sides. So there’s this thing called the overriding objective.
This ensures the court deals with cases justly and at proportionate cost. And its important to
consider this overriding objective at every stage of the civil litigation process.
There is a pre-action protocol and this is basically where the courts encourage the parties not to
start litigation but perhaps sort the issue out themselves. If however, the matter cant be
resolved, then the matter will obviously be taken to court.
Here, the claimant tells the court to issue a claims form which forms part of statements of case,
and this must be issued/sent to the defendant within 4 months of the the it was issued at court.
, The particulars of claim is the statement of case which contains full details of the claimant’s
claim. These can be dealt with in different ways:
1. It may be included on the claim form
2. It can be in a separate document and served WITH the claim form
3. It can be in a separate document and served within 14 days of when the claim form is
served
With the particular of claim, it must also be served with notes for the defendant and the
response pack.
Now, we move on to responding to the claim. If the claim form is served without the particulars
of claim, the respondent doesn’t actually need to respond until the particulars of claim are
served.
In the SGS:
We’ll be acting for ritchsons.
Ritchisons has come to see us for some advice bch es going through some problems with his
solicitor when buying some land to build a hypermarket.
KEY TERMS.
RETAINER: this refers to the contract between the solicitor and the client
So, when investigating a case. First, you must identify the legal issues that are involved. Most
claims involve the 4 elements of a cause of action:
1. Duty
2. Breach
3. Causation
4. Loss
DUTY:
The first thing you must establish is that the defendant owed a duty to the claimant.
You need to show:
1. there was a contract between C and D
2. That a duty was owed under that contract (whether that was from an
express/implied/oral term)
BREACH OF DUTY:
So once you’ve established a duty, you need to show that this duty was breached. To do this,
you need to establish certain facts in the first place
SGS1
CASE ANALYSIS AND INVESTIGATION
EXTRA INFO ABOUT THE COURSE:
So there’s civil litigation and criminal litigation, separate exams but in the end you get one
grade for the overall subject ‘litigation.’
Its split 65% civil, and 35% criminal.
20% of the civil lit exam is MCQs.
We will have a mock exam half way through the course.
After this you should be able to:
1. Analyse a case and be able to tell a client on any causes of action and the remedies
available
2. Analyse a case and find the evidence
3. Tell your client of the costs, benefits and risks of suing/starting litigation/taking
someone to court
Lecture notes:
So, what IS civil litigation?
One party suing another party. Maybe where one party fails to pay a debt, so gets sued. In civil
litigation, a judge decides merit of case after listening to evidence from both sides.
Procedure for civil lit is governed by CPR civil litigation rules. These are supplemented by case
law.
It’s the courts role to balance both sides. So there’s this thing called the overriding objective.
This ensures the court deals with cases justly and at proportionate cost. And its important to
consider this overriding objective at every stage of the civil litigation process.
There is a pre-action protocol and this is basically where the courts encourage the parties not to
start litigation but perhaps sort the issue out themselves. If however, the matter cant be
resolved, then the matter will obviously be taken to court.
Here, the claimant tells the court to issue a claims form which forms part of statements of case,
and this must be issued/sent to the defendant within 4 months of the the it was issued at court.
, The particulars of claim is the statement of case which contains full details of the claimant’s
claim. These can be dealt with in different ways:
1. It may be included on the claim form
2. It can be in a separate document and served WITH the claim form
3. It can be in a separate document and served within 14 days of when the claim form is
served
With the particular of claim, it must also be served with notes for the defendant and the
response pack.
Now, we move on to responding to the claim. If the claim form is served without the particulars
of claim, the respondent doesn’t actually need to respond until the particulars of claim are
served.
In the SGS:
We’ll be acting for ritchsons.
Ritchisons has come to see us for some advice bch es going through some problems with his
solicitor when buying some land to build a hypermarket.
KEY TERMS.
RETAINER: this refers to the contract between the solicitor and the client
So, when investigating a case. First, you must identify the legal issues that are involved. Most
claims involve the 4 elements of a cause of action:
1. Duty
2. Breach
3. Causation
4. Loss
DUTY:
The first thing you must establish is that the defendant owed a duty to the claimant.
You need to show:
1. there was a contract between C and D
2. That a duty was owed under that contract (whether that was from an
express/implied/oral term)
BREACH OF DUTY:
So once you’ve established a duty, you need to show that this duty was breached. To do this,
you need to establish certain facts in the first place
