Judicial Case Management in the High Court

Did you know that judicial case management is a court procedure where the pace of litigation is directly controlled by the Judge? It aims to shorten the length of proceedings by hosting conferences to settle issues in dispute, which tend to cause delays in the finalisation of the proceedings. The registrar will give notice of the date, time and place of the conferences to be held before a Judge, and confirm if the conferences are in person or electronic.

1. What to expect

During judicial case management conferences, the Judge has the following powers:

1.1. To request the discovery of documents;

1.2. To direct that the conference be held in person or electronically, and to direct the attendance of all or some of the parties, using the statement of issues as a deciding factor;

1.3. To record the conference;

1.4. After the conference, the Judge may certify that the matter is trial ready, having made the following considerations:

• issues that may be solved without a trial have been solved;

• remaining issues that require a trial have been defined;

• necessary punitive cost orders for non-compliance with conferences have been granted;

• requested documents have been discovered, inspected and produced; and

• delays in the finalisation of the matter have been pre-empted to the extent practically possible.

1.5. The Judge may elect to:

• Strike the matter from the case management roll for non-compliance and request that it be re-enrolled;

• Direct the parties to apply for an opposed interlocutory hearing date to ventilate issues; and

• Order the separation of issues.

2. What to do

   
   

2.1. Parties must act professionally, comply with the Rules and maintain the initiative and responsibility to settle the matter.

2.2. Parties must have a pre-trial meeting before the conference, wherein the Plaintiff must ensure a minute is signed and filed. If the minute is not countersigned, the Plaintiff must explain why at the conference.

2.3. Parties must file a statement of issues listing the issues that are in dispute and the issues that are not in dispute.

2.4. The Plaintiff must ensure that the court file is in order not less than 2 days before the conference.

2.5. After the conference, the Plaintiff must file a minute of the meeting, if the Judge requests it.

2.6. After the conference, parties must ensure that the minutes, the Judge’s record of the conference and the Judge’s directions are filed.

2.7. Parties must ensure that the case management Judge is not the trial Judge, unless they enter a written agreement stating otherwise.

Nomalanga Langa

LLB

Candidate Attorney at Le Roux Vivier Attorneys

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