High Court Rules amended THE High Court Amendment Rules 1998, which came into force on 1 November 1998, contain a number of significant changes of which practitioners should be aware. The most important change is new rules for the summary judgment procedure.
Summary judgment is now available to defendants.
The categories of actions in which the summary judgment procedure is available are extended to apply to all proceedings other than those relating to probate and administration, companies' winding up, appeals, cases stated for the opinion of the court, admiralty or applications for a writ of habeas corpus . The rules thus now include proceedings in defamation, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, proceedings under Part IV relating to special cases and proceedings under Part VII of the High Court Rules relating to extraordinary remedies. The court may give judgment against a plaintiff if the defendant satisfies the court that none of the causes of action in the plaintiff s statement of claim can proceed. An application for summary judgment by a plaintiff must be made at the time the statement of claim is served on the defendant, or later with the leave of the court. Similarly a defendant s application must be made when the statement of defence is served on the plaintiff or later with the leave of the court.