Mr Justice Andrew Smith, Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court, has issued a statement about the Report of the Commercial Court Long Trials Recommendations.

The Recommendations will be put into practice from 1 February. The trial period, however, will run until the end of November 2008, and not just to July as was originally envisaged.

The Statement makes it clear that practitioners will be expected to be familiar with the recommendations and to conduct litigation accordingly. Where relevant, cases which have already had a Case Management Conference will be reviewed to see if further case management orders would be appropriate.

Mr Justice Andrew Smith makes the point that, despite its title, the Report does not relate only to long or complex cases. He envisages that its provisions will apply to most cases in the Commercial Court. Some of the ideas might, indeed, be used elsewhere – the Disclosure Schedule, for example, is a useful aid to identifying areas of agreement or otherwise as to disclosure sources in any case where there are many documents.

In addition to the Report itself, there is a related press release and some articles on this site which relate or refer to the Commercial Court Recommendations.