Practice Direction 57AA – Business and Property Division

PRACTICE DIRECTION 57AA – BUSINESS AND PROPERTY Division

Contents of this Practice Direction

Title	Number
	Para 1
Starting proceedings	Para 2
Transfers	Para 3
Business and Property work in the district registries and the County Court	Para 4
Appeals in BPD DRs	Para 5

1.1 The locations of the Business and Property Division and the courts, lists and sub-lists in which proceedings may be started in each of those locations are as follows—

Location	Courts, lists and sub-lists in which proceedings may be started
Royal Courts of Justice, Rolls Building, London (in this Practice Direction, “Rolls Building, London”)	Admiralty Court Appeals List Business List (including a Financial Services and Regulatory List and a Pensions List) Commercial Court (including the London Circuit Commercial Court) Competition List Financial List Insolvency and Companies List Intellectual Property List (comprising the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, a General IP List and the Patents Court) Property, Trusts and Probate List Revenue List Technology and Construction Court
District registries in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle	Appeals List Business List (including the Financial Services and Regulatory List and the Pensions List)
		Circuit Commercial Court Competition List Insolvency and Companies List Intellectual Property List (comprising the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, the General IP List and the Patents Court) Property, Trusts and Probate List Revenue List Technology and Construction Court

1.2 Where appropriate, specialist judges may be made available for cases started in the Business and Property Division to be case managed and heard in Caernarfon, Mold, Preston, Wrexham and such other locations as the court may direct.

1.3 The district registries specified in paragraph 1 .1 are BPD DRS.

1.4 Parties should note the following Parts and Practice Directions—

Practice Direction 49A — Applications under the Companies Acts and Related Legislation

Part 57 (Probate, Inheritance, Presumption of Death and guardianship of missing persons)

Part 58 (Commercial Court)

Part 59 (Circuit Commercial Courts)

Part 60 (Technology and Construction Court Claims)

Part 61 (Admiralty Claims)

Part 62 (Arbitration Claims)

 Part 63 (Intellectual Property Claims)

Part 63A (Financial List)

Part 64 (Estates, Trusts and Charities)

Practice Direction — Insolvency Proceedings

Practice Direction: Directors Disqualification Proceedings

Practice Direction — Competition Law (Claims Relating to the Application of Chapters I and •Il of Part I of the Competition Act 1998 and Claims Made Under Section 101 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024).

1.5 In the event of inconsistency between this Practice Direction and any other Practice Direction the provisions of this Practice Direction shall prevail.

1.6 Parties will also need to give careful consideration to the court guides of the Chancery Business and Property Division.

Starting proceedings

2.1 Starting proceedings in the Business and Property Division is subject to CPR Parts 7 and 8.

2.2

(1) A claimant wishing to issue a claim in the Business and Property Division must choose the court, list or sub-list in which to issue its claim, based (subject to subparagraph (2)) on the principal subject matter of the dispute.
(The courts, lists and sub-lists in which proceedings may be started are set out in the table at paragraph 1.1.)

(2) In cases where different aspects of the dispute indicate that the case be issued in different lists, sub-lists or courts, the claimant must consider whether there are aspects requiring the expertise of a specialist judge and choose the list, sub-list or court in which the relevant specialist judges sit.

2.3

(1) Before a claimant issues a claim in the Business and Property Division, the claimant must determine the appropriate location in which to issue the claim.

(2) With the exception of claims started under Parts 58, 60, 61 and 62, claims which are intended to be issued in the Business and Property Division and which have significant links to a particular circuit outside London or anywhere else in the South Eastern Circuit must be issued in the BPD DR located in the circuit in question.  If a claim has significant links with more than one circuit, the claim should be issued in the location with which the claim has the most significant links.

(3) A link to a particular circuit is established where—

(a) one or more of the parties has its address or registered office in the circuit in question (with extra weight given to the address of any non-represented parties);

(b) at least one of the witnesses expected to give oral evidence at trial or other hearing is located in the circuit;

(c) the dispute occurred in a location within the circuit;

(d) the dispute concerns land, goods or other assets located in the circuit; or

(e) the parties’ legal representatives are based in the circuit.

(4) A claim which raises significant questions of fact or law in common with another claim already proceeding before a B&PCs District Registry may be regarded as having significant links with the circuit in question.

2.4

(1) Where a claim is issued in the Rolls Building, London and in the following courts or lists, a hearing may, where appropriate, take place in a BPD DR—

(a) the Commercial Court;
(b) the Admiralty Court;
(c) the Financial List;
(c) the Technology and Construction Court.

(2) A judge of the Commercial Court may, where appropriate and subject always to available judicial resources, be made available to hear a claim issued in a Circuit Commercial Court.

2.5 While any appropriate claim may be issued in any of the BPD DRs, the following are circumstances in which case management or trial may instead occur in the Rolls Building, London—

(1) Where a claim is issued in a Revenue List in one of the BPD DRs,, HM Revenue and Customs may nevertheless seek to have the proceedings case managed and/or tried in the Rolls Building, London, in accordance with CPR 30.3(2)(h) and Annex 1 of Practice Direction 66.

(2) A claim meeting the definition established in paragraph 1.1 of the Practice Direction – Competition Law may be issued in an appropriate BPD DR, but its case management and/or trial in the district registry in question will be dependent on an appropriate judge being made available in the district registry in question.

(3) A claim in an Intellectual Property List, which comprises the Patents Court, a General IP List and the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (“IPEC”) (and includes the IPEC small claims track to which rule 63.27 applies), may be issued in an appropriate BPD DR.  However the case management and/or trial of a claim in the BPD DR in question will be dependent on an appropriate judge being made available in the district registry in question.

Transfers

3.1

(1) Subject to rules 30.2, 30.5 and 59.3, a court may, having regard to the criteria in paragraph 3.1 (3) below, order proceedings in the Rolls Building, London or in a BPD DR, or any part of such proceedings (such as a counterclaim or an application made in the proceedings), to be transferred—

(a) from the Rolls Building, London to a BPD DR; or

(b) from a BPD DR to the Rolls Building, London or another BPD DR.

(2) An application for an order under paragraph 1(b) must be made to the court from which the transfer is sought, and notified to the intended receiving court at the same time by the applicant, and must be consented to by the receiving court before any order for transfer is made.

(3) When considering whether to make an order under rule 30.2(4)(the court must also have regard to—

(a) significant links between the claim and the circuit in question, considering the factors listed in paragraph 2.3(3) and (4) above;
(b) whether court resources, deployment constraints, or fairness require that the hearings (including the trial) be held in another court than the court into which it was issued;
(c) the wishes of the parties, which bear special weight in the decision but may not be determinative;
(d) the international nature of the case, with the understanding that international cases may be more suitable for trial in centres with international transport links;
(e) the availability of a judge specialising in the type of claim in question to sit in the court to which the claim is being transferred.

3.2 In addition to the provisions set out in CPR 30.3, the court must have regard, when considering whether to make an order for transfer from the Business and Property Division to a county court hearing centre:

(a) to the nature of the claim, in accordance with the guidance provided at paragraphs 4.1 to 4.4; and,
(b) to the availability of a judge specialising in the corresponding type of claim to sit in an appropriate court in the circuit;

3.3 When considering the availability of a judge under paragraph 3.1(e), the listing office of the court to which the claim is being transferred will be consulted before the order is made by the court.

Business and Property work in the County Court

4.1 Where the nature of the claim relates to the work of any court, list or sub-list of the Business and Property Division but the claim is suitable to be heard in the County Court, proceedings may instead be started in and heard by—

(a) (for TCC claims) the County Court hearing centres specified at paragraph 3.4 of Practice Direction 60;

(b) (for all other claims) the County Court hearing centres at Central London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool and Preston.

4.2 The following proceedings, which must not be started in the Business and Property Division or under paragraph 4.1, may be started in any County Court hearing centre—

(a) Claims for possession of domestic property and rent and mesne profits, or in respect of domestic mortgages;
(b) Claims for possession of commercial premises or disputes arising out of business tenancies that are routine in nature;
(c) Claims falling under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, unless combined with other specialist claims;
(d) Hearings of applications to set aside statutory demands, unopposed creditors’ winding-up petitions or unopposed bankruptcy petitions;
(e) Building claims, other than adjudication claims, of a value under £75,000;
(f) Invoice and other straightforward business claims of a value under £75,000;
(g) Boundary and easement disputes involving no conveyancing issues;
(h) Claims to enforce a charging order;
(i) Applications under the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992;
(j) Proceedings under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.

4.3 Proceedings started or heard in the County Court under paragraph 4.1 will be marked “Business and Property work” by the court upon allocation if they have not already been marked in that way by the claimant, and will be managed and heard only by judges specialising in this work.

4.4 Judges specialising in Business and Property work in the County Court must spend a minimum of 20 percent of their time either sitting in the Business and Property Division or handling Business and Property work in the County Court.

Appeals in BPD DRS

5.1 Specific appeal slots will be created in listing in the BPD DRS to accommodate blocks of applications for permission to appeal and appeals which are to be heard by a Group A judge (as defined in PD52A) in accordance with PD52A.

5.2 So far as possible these slots will be concomitant with the slots identified for cases listed in BPD DRS requiring a Group A judge as defined in PD52A to hear them and transferred cases referred to in paragraph 3.