Reporting on Intermediate Track Cases

As you will be aware, the Civil Procedure Rules governing the Intermediate Tack (IT) stipulate that, without the permission of the Courts, medical reports are limited to 20-pages.  The Rules provide some additional guidance as to which content is included within the 20-page limit and which can be added as appendices. 

Despite the 20-page cap currently only being mandated for IT cases, we would suggest that using the new Rules and guidance become general best practice, where appropriate, and we would prefer you to adhere to the same constraints for cases outside of the IT.  This is because reports for other case types which are longer could be challenged for reasons of proportionality if it is deemed that those in the IT are ‘setting the example’.  It is therefore very important that if you are preparing reports on these cases that you comply with the rules.

To assist in ensuring that the main content of a report is kept within the 20-page limit, we have itemised below those items which the new rules state could be classified as appendices:

• Medical Record extracts
• CV or qualification documents
• Academic or technical references
• Necessary photographs

The link to the new rules within the protocol can be found here: PART 28 - THE FAST TRACK AND THE INTERMEDIATE TRACK - Civil Procedure Rules (justice.gov.uk)

Please be advised that this applies to cases where the “cause of action” (accident date) falls on or after 1st October 2023.  There are some case types which are excluded from the Intermediate Track. At present, we are aware that these case types include:

• Mesothelioma / asbestos claims.
• Clinical negligence claims where there is NOT a full admission of liability on both breach of duty and causation.
• Harm, abuse or neglect claims of, or by children or vulnerable adults.
• Various claims against the police.

If, when dealing with a known IT case (or cases falling into other tracks), you are of the opinion that the report will need to exceed 20 pages, then you must let us know as soon as possible so that we can inform the instructing party. If it is an IT case, the instructing law firm will need to seek permission from the court for a longer-from report to be recoverable.

If you have already been sent instructions which you believe fall into the IT since the effective date, but are not case types which fall into the exclusions outlined above, and have not included this information, please contact the relevant operational team in the first instance, or email mail@premex.com and we will ensure this gets picked up at the earliest opportunity.