Farewell to the allocation questionnaire?

Since 8 July 2002, a small claims pilot scheme has operated in Lincoln, Wandsworth and Wigan County Courts, pursuant to a practice direction supplementing CPR Part 27. It has been extended until the end of the year. The purpose of the pilot scheme is to provide for allocation to the small claims track without the need for the court to serve allocation questionnaires or to make an order dispensing with them. Commenting on the scheme in the Law Society’s Gazette of 4 July, District Judge Michael Walker explained that the reasons for the scheme were: (i) little or no useful information is garnered from the allocation questionnaire; (ii) litigants in person often do not understand what allocation is about and answering the questionnaire may put some claimants off pursuing their cases, while insurers and their solicitors may see little merit in completing the form; and (iii) much Court Service time is spent chasing missing allocation questionnaires, monitoring their progress and having to take routine, but cumulatively costly, administrative steps. On the other hand, he observed, one of the principles behind the Woolf reforms was the application of a ‘one size fits all’ approach to civil procedure, and the pilot is a major dent in that principle.