The approach I am advocating is to preserve the best features of the present adversarial system while giving a more interventionist management role to the courts in order to prevent the excesses which at present distort the system. That approach has, in fact, already been adopted with some success in other common law jurisdictions whose traditions are similar to our own. What case management involves 16. Case management for the purposes of this report involves the court taking the ultimate responsibility for progressing litigation along a chosen track for a pre determined period during which it is subjected to selected procedures which culminate in an appropriate form of resolution before a suitably experienced judge. The objectives of case management 17.
Case management is a process which is being applied in many jurisdictions.
The two essential components of case management systems are the setting of a timetable for pre-determined events and the supervision of the progress of the law suit through its timetable. Most courts have now acted upon this philosophy and introduced a variety of schemes, the common denominator of which is substantially increased court supervision and, in some instances, control. Broadly speaking activity has occurred under the banner of case flow management . The concept means different things to different people. The essence of it is the adoption by courts of a systematic, managerial approach to dealing with case loads.