Rules of Court 2021

Status:

Published in Subsidiary Legislation Supplement
on 01 Dec 2021

ORDER 5

AMICABLE RESOLUTION OF CASES

Duty to consider amicable resolution of disputes (O. 5, r. 1)

1.—(1) A party to any proceedings has the duty to consider amicable resolution of the party’s dispute before the commencement and during the course of any action or appeal.

(2) A party is to make an offer of amicable resolution before commencing the action unless the party has reasonable grounds not to do so.

(3) An offer of amicable resolution in this Order means making an offer to settle the action or appeal or making an offer to resolve the dispute other than by litigation, whether in whole or in part.

(4) A party to any proceedings must not reject an offer of amicable resolution unless the party has reasonable grounds to do so.

Terms of amicable resolution (O. 5, r. 2)

2.—(1) An offer of amicable resolution and any rejection must be in writing.

(2) An offer of amicable resolution must be open for acceptance within a reasonable period of time and in any case, for at least 14 days, unless the parties otherwise agree.

(3) The terms of an offer that has been made and not accepted must not be relied upon or made known to the Court until after the Court has determined the merits of the action or appeal and is dealing with the issue of costs.

(4) Any offer of amicable resolution which does not state an expiry date expires once the Court has determined the merits of the action or appeal to which it relates unless the offeror has stated otherwise.

Powers of Court (O. 5, r. 3)

3.—(1) The Court may order the parties to attempt to resolve the dispute by amicable resolution.

(2) In deciding whether to exercise its power under paragraph (1), the Court must have regard to the Ideals and all other relevant circumstances, including whether any of the parties have refused to attempt to resolve the dispute by amicable resolution.

(3) Without affecting the Court’s power under paragraph (1), if a party informs the Court that the party does not wish to attempt to resolve the dispute by amicable resolution, the Court may order the party to submit a sealed document setting out the party’s reasons for such refusal.

(4) The sealed document will only be opened by the Court after the determination of the merits of the action or appeal and its contents may be referred to on any issue of costs.

(5) The Court may suggest solutions for the amicable resolution of the dispute to the parties at any time as the Court thinks fit.

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