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Guidelines for Litigants in Person

Some guidelines about Procedure in the Environment Court

  1. You will be expected to observe timetables and the rules relating to the way in which cases are conducted, in the same way as parties who are represented by lawyers are expected to do so. The Court's Consolidated Practice Note 2006 is a useful guide to the way in which cases are prepared for hearing, and the way in which the hearings themselves are conducted. You can access the Practice Note here.
  2. In the first document you lodge with the Court, you must give an address for "service", where documents can be posted or delivered to you. If you change that address you must notify the Court and the other parties
  3. Any documents which you file in Court must:
    • Be clearly typed, with 1.5 or double line spacing. Paragraphs are to be consecutively numbered.
    • Be on standard A4 paper.
    • Be "served" or sent to all the other parties in the case at the addresses for service they have given, at the same time as the document is lodged with the Court.
  4. Written Statements of Evidence must be set out in numbered paragraphs. All documents annexed to a statement must be separately identified and signed at the same time as the statements. Statements of evidence are to set out facts about the case and should not include legal submissions.
  5. The evidence you intend to rely upon must be put into a statement which is lodged and served on other parties before the Court hearing, in accordance with any timetable directions which the Court may have made. You will have a limited right to give updating oral evidence at the hearing. Where the Court has made timetable directions, with time limits for lodging statements and documents, it is imperative that these are followed. If the time limits are not complied with, you will be prevented from giving that evidence, unless there are truly exceptional circumstances.
  6. Like other parties you will have the right at the hearing to cross-examine the other witnesses if you tell the other side you require those witnesses for cross-examination. Evidence given by witnesses which you seriously dispute should be the subject of cross-examination, so that the witness knows why you disagree with him or her, and is able to comment on the reasons for disagreement.
  7. At the beginning of your case you will be given an opportunity to outline your case and to make submissions about the law. It is important for you to remember that anything you say when outlining or summarising your case must be in the evidence that the Court has to consider.

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