RULES & PRACTICE DIRECTIONS | SCHEDULE 1 - RSC | SCHEDULE 2 - CCR | PRE-ACTION PROTOCOLS | GLOSSARY | FORMS | COURT GUIDES | INDEX

See also Part 5
| PRACTICE DIRECTION - PILOT SCHEME FOR COMMUNICATION AND FILING OF DOCUMENTS BY E-MAIL
| THIS PRACTICE DIRECTION SUPPLEMENTS RULE 5.5
| Contents of this Practice Direction
Scope of this Practice Direction |  | Para. 1.1
Communications and documents which may be sent by e-mail |  | Para. 2.1
Form and contents of e-mail |  | Para. 3.1
Filing of documents by e-mail |  | Para. 4.1
Statement of truth in document filed by e-mail |  | Para. 5.1
Scope of this Practice Direction
1.1 | This practice direction provides for a pilot scheme to operate from 2nd December 2002 to 31st January 2004 permitting parties to claims in specified county courts to -
(1) | communicate with the court by e-mail, and
(2) | file specified documents by e-mail.
1.2 | This practice direction initially applies only to claims in Walsall County Court. (The practice direction may later be extended to apply to other county courts.)
1.3 | This practice direction does not apply to family proceedings, adoption proceedings or insolvency proceedings.
Communications and documents which may be sent by e-mail
2.1 | A party must not use e-mail to take any step in a claim which requires a fee to be paid for that step. If a party sends by e-mail a document for which a fee is payable upon filing, the document will be treated as not having been filed.
2.2 | Parties to claims in a court to which this practice direction applies may send to the court by e-mail -
(1) | general correspondence and enquiries;
(2) | notice by solicitor of acting;
(3) | notice of change of address;
(4) | any of the following documents -
(a) | acknowledgment of service;
(b) | admission, other than one under rule 14.4;
(c) | defence, provided that no counterclaim is made;
(d) | reply to defence;
(e) | allocation questionnaire, provided that no fee is payable by the party filing the questionnaire;
(f) | pre-trial check list (listing questionnaire), provided that no fee is payable by the party filing the check list;
(g) | certificate of service;
(h) | request for judgment in default or upon admission;
(i) | claimant's response to notice of admission under rule 14.5(3) or rule 14.7(3);
(j) | claimant's response to notice under rule 15.10, where defence is that money claimed has been paid;
(k) | notice of discontinuance, provided that the claimant does not require permission to discontinue, and is not required to attach to the notice the consent of another party;
(l) | notice of change of solicitor.
2.3 | Where a party files a document by e-mail he must still comply with any rule or practice direction requiring the document to be served on any other person.
2.4 | Nothing in this practice direction requires any person to accept service of a document by e-mail.
Form and contents of e-mail
3.1 | The subject line of the e-mail must contain -
(1) | the claim number;
(2) | the title of the claim (abbreviated if necessary);
(3) | the subject matter (e.g. defence); and
(4) | if the message relates to a hearing, the date and time of the hearing.
3.2 | The message must contain the name, telephone number and e-mail address of the sender. The court will normally send any reply to messages by e-mail.
3.3 | Correspondence and documents may be sent either as text or attachments, except that documents required to be in a practice form must be sent in that form as attachments. Court forms may be downloaded from the Court Service website www.courtservice.gov.uk.
3.4 | Attachments must be in one of the following formats -
(a) | Rich Text Format as (.rtf) files
(b) | Plain/Formatted Text as (.txt) files
(c) | Hypertext documents as (.htm) files
(d) | Microsoft Word viewer/reader (.doc) in Word97 format
(e) | Adobe Acrobat as (.pdf) minimum viewer version 4
(f) | Lotus Notes Web Access (.nsf).
3.5 | Parties are advised not to send by e-mail any correspondence or documents of a confidential or sensitive nature, as security cannot be guaranteed.
3.6 | If a document sent by e-mail requires urgent attention, the sender should contact the court by telephone.
Filing of documents by e-mail
4.1 | Where a party files a document by e-mail, he must not send a hard copy in addition.
4.2 | A document is not filed until the e-mail is received by the court, whatever time it is shown to have been sent.
4.3 | The time of receipt of an e-mail will be recorded.
4.4 | If an e-mail is received after 4 p.m. it will be treated as filed on the next day the court office is open.
4.5 | Where a time limit applies, it remains the responsibility of the party to ensure that the document is filed in time.
4.6 | The court will send an automatic acknowledgment when an e-mail is received. The acknowledgment is merely to confirm receipt and does not indicate that a filed document has been accepted. If no acknowledgment of an e-mail is received, the sender should assume that the court has not received it and should send the e-mail again, or file the document by another means.
Statement of truth in document filed by e-mail
5.1 | CPR Part 22 requires certain documents to be verified by a statement of truth. These include a statement of case, and an acknowledgment of service in a claim begun by way of the Part 8 procedure.
5.2 | Rule 22.1(6) (which requires a statement of truth to be signed by the person making it) is satisfied by that person typing his name underneath the statement of truth in a document filed by e-mail. However, the statement of truth must still be signed in any copies of the document which are served on other parties.
5.3 | Attention is drawn to -
(1) | paragraph 3 of the practice direction supplementing CPR Part 22, which provides who may sign a statement of truth; and
(2) | rule 32.14, which sets out the consequences of making, or causing to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth, without an honest belief in its truth.

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