6.2 Case Management, Sanctions and CCMCs

The overriding objective

CPR 1.1 is a procedural code whose overriding objective is to enable the court to deal with cases justly and at proportionate cost. From the 1 October 2024 restatement, that includes, so far as practicable:

• ensuring the parties are on an equal footing, can participate fully, and that parties and witnesses can give their best evidence (vulnerability is developed in CPR 1.6 and Practice Direction 1A);
• saving expense;
• dealing with the case in ways proportionate to money, importance, complexity and each party's financial position;
• dealing with it expeditiously and fairly;
• allotting an appropriate share of the court's resources;
• promoting or using alternative dispute resolution; and
• enforcing compliance with rules, practice directions and orders.

The court must give effect to that objective when it exercises any power or interprets any rule (CPR 1.2). The parties must help (CPR 1.3). Active case management under CPR 1.4 includes encouraging co-operation and ADR, identifying issues early, disposing summarily of issues that do not need a trial, making use of technology, and giving directions so that trial proceeds quickly. An SQE1 item that still recites the pre-2024 list and omits ADR as part of the objective is out of date. Welsh-language rights in proceedings in Wales sit in CPR 1.5; they are not optional courtesy.

Track allocation (CPR 26.9)

There are four tracks (CPR 26.1(2)). The court assesses financial value disregarding interest, costs, amounts not in dispute and contributory negligence. The normal track is as follows.

A claim brought by two claimants against two defendants, or by one claimant against three defendants, is outside the CPR 26.9(7)(d) party shape, so the intermediate track is not the normal track even if the value is £80,000. The court may still put a claim on that track where it considers it in the interests of justice (CPR 26.9(9)).

On allocation to the fast or intermediate track the court must assign a complexity band unless a Part 45 exception applies (CPR 26.14). The band, not the solicitor's optimism, drives the Part 45 table that will later cap recoverable costs. Parties may agree a band; the court is not bound.

Directions. On the fast and intermediate tracks the court gives a timetable and must make a disclosure order and either fix the trial date or a trial period not exceeding three weeks (CPR 28.2). Intermediate-track directions, unless the court otherwise orders, cap oral expert evidence (generally one oral expert per party unless a second is reasonably required and proportionate), keep the trial estimate at no more than three days, and commonly cap witness statements (total 30 pages) and the body of an expert report (20 pages). Multi-track directions are bespoke: disclosure, witness statements, experts, a window for a CCMC, and a trial period. Small-claims directions are short and standard.

Non-compliance, sanctions and relief

A sanction specified by a rule, practice direction or order has effect unless the defaulting party obtains relief (CPR 3.8). Parties may agree in writing to extend time by up to 28 days where the order specifies a consequence, provided the extension does not put a hearing date at risk. Beyond that, you apply — you do not quietly ignore an unless order.

Relief from sanctions (CPR 3.9) requires the court to consider all the circumstances so as to deal justly with the application, including (a) the need for litigation to be conducted efficiently and at proportionate cost and (b) the need to enforce compliance. Denton v TH White Ltd [2014] EWCA Civ 906 supplies the method:

1. Identify and assess how serious or significant the breach is. A late budget that wrecks a CCMC is significant; a filing 20 minutes late that hurts nobody often is not.
2. Why the default occurred. Overwork is rarely a good reason. A genuine medical emergency may be.
3. All the circumstances, including the two 3.9 factors, promptness of the application, and prejudice.

Do not advise that "Mitchell means relief is never granted." Denton is the current Court of Appeal structure. Do not advise that a trivial breach still requires a full three-stage opera if stage one is "not serious or significant" — the court still looks at all the circumstances, but the other stages weigh less.

Costs and case management conferences

A case management conference (CMC) is the hearing at which the court gives or varies directions, identifies issues, and may try a preliminary issue. A costs and case management conference (CCMC) does that work and considers costs budgets on a costs-managed multi-track claim (CPR 3.12–3.18). Precedent H budgets are filed and exchanged (generally not less than 21 days before the first CMC unless the court orders otherwise). The budget discussion report records what is agreed and what is not. At the CCMC the court records agreed figures and revises or approves the rest. Failure to file a budget is brutal: the party is treated as having filed a budget comprising only the applicable court fees unless the court otherwise orders (CPR 3.14) — which is itself a sanction that then needs Denton relief.

On the intermediate track the court may give directions on paper or fix a CMC (CPR 28.2 / 28.12). Do not assume every £80,000 claim gets a full High Court-style CCMC. Do not assume a multi-track clinical-negligence claim can skip budgets because "we will sort costs at the end."

Exam traps

• Reciting three tracks. There are four.
• Treating £100,000 as automatically multi-track. Value is necessary but not sufficient for the intermediate track; trial length and experts matter, and some categories are forced onto the multi-track.
• Applying for summary judgment because the client is "very likely to win." That is the wrong test.
• Using without-notice procedure because the client is impatient.
• Forgetting the cross-undertaking in damages and the return date.
• Telling the trial judge about an interim payment.