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  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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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