PART X: JUDGMENTS AND ORDERS
76. Draft orders of Court
77. Unnecessary extraction of orders of Court
78. Judgments in default
79. Consent judgments
80. Judgment Interest
Pre-Judgment Non-contractual interest
Pre-Judgment Contractual Interest
Interest on costs
Post-judgment interest
76. Draft orders of Court
(1) In this Practice Direction, “order” has the same meaning as that given in Order 17 of the Rules of Court 2021.
(2) Parties to summonses shall, after agreeing on the draft judgment, engross a final copy of such draft for the Registrar’s signature. Draft orders of Court for summonses without notice may be submitted with the summons and the supporting affidavit when these are filed.
(3) Unless the Registrar or the Court orders otherwise, draft orders shall be composed in electronic form through the Electronic Litigation System.
(4) Subject to paragraph (6), parties in applications made with notice should proceed to engross a final copy of the draft judgment for signature by the Registrar after agreeing on the draft.
(5) Draft orders of Court for applications without notice should be submitted to the Registrar.
(6) For draft orders in electronic form that are composed online through the Electronic Filing Service, the process for extracting judgments and orders shall be as follows:
(a) Parties have the option of filing a system-generated order of Court through the Electronic Filing Service.
(b) Before filing the system-generated order of Court, the party extracting the order must review and edit the order of Court electronic form to ensure that it accurately reflects the orders made by the Court and obtain the approval of all other parties to the application and provide evidence of such approval when filing the draft order of Court, for example, a Portable Document Format copy of a draft order of Court signed by the solicitors of all parties to the application.
(c) A party writing to the Court to resolve a dispute on the terms of a draft pursuant to Order 17, Rule 3(7) of the Rules of Court 2021 must include in its letter to Court all versions of the disputed terms put forth by the parties as well as all relevant correspondence concerning the dispute.
(d) The Registry will seal and issue an engrossed order of Court once its terms are approved.
(7) Order 17, Rule 3(5) and (6) of the Rules of Court 2021 place the burden of approving the drafts of judgments and orders on the solicitors themselves. The solicitors should therefore approve the drafts and not submit these drafts to the Registrar for approval.
(8) The Registrar’s signature on a judgment or order is only for the purpose of validity and does not in any way affect the regularity or irregularity of the contents of any judgment or order.
(9) Order 17, Rule 3(7) and (8) of the Rules of Court 2021 will continue to apply. Specifically:
(a) In any case where there is a dispute on the terms of the draft, the party who drew up the order may write to the Court to resolve the dispute and the letter must set out the areas of dispute.
(b) The party who drew up the order is responsible for including in the letter all versions of the terms of the draft in dispute between the parties and all relevant correspondence.
(c) The Court may give its decision on the dispute on the terms of the draft without the attendance of the parties or fix a hearing to hear the parties on the dispute.
77. Unnecessary extraction of orders of Court
To reduce unnecessary documentation and to expedite proceedings, solicitors are requested not to extract orders that need not be drawn up, as provided for in Order 17, Rule 3(1) of the Rules of Court 2021.
78. Judgments in default
(1) This Practice Direction applies to an application for judgment, to be given against a defendant in an Originating Claim, where the defendant:
(a) fails to file and serve, within the time permitted for the same:
(i) a notice of intention to contest or not to contest; or
(ii) a Defence or Defence to Counterclaim; or
(b) states in his notice of intention to contest or not to contest that he does not intend to contest all or some of the claims.
(2) A claimant (or a party in an equivalent position) may apply for a default judgment by filing the following documents through the Electronic Filing Service:
(a) an application in Form 11 or Form 14 of Appendix A2 (found under “Judgment for Failing to File a Notice of Intention to Contest or Not Contest” or “Judgment in Default of Defence / Defence to Counterclaim” respectively in the Orders/Judgments category in the Electronic Filing Service) to these Practice Directions;
(b) a memorandum of service in Form 12 of Appendix A2 to these Practice Directions (if not already filed);
(c) a draft judgment setting out the terms of the judgment to be made against the defendant;
(d) an itemised Note of Costs, stating the costs and disbursements to which he is entitled (if any);
(e) the necessary supporting documents where there is a claim for contractual interest (see Practice Direction 80); and
(f) where the judgment is for possession of immovable property, a certificate by the claimant’s solicitor (or where the claimant is acting in person, an affidavit) stating that no relief is sought in the nature of the reliefs under Order 52, Rule 1 of the Rules of Court 2021.
(3) In order to satisfy itself that a defendant is in default of a notice of intention to contest or not contest a claim or service of defence or defence to counterclaim, the Court may require an affidavit to be filed stating the time and manner service of the Originating Claim (or counterclaim, where judgment is sought for failure to file and serve a defence to counterclaim) was effected on the defendant, as well as the steps taken to ascertain that the defendant had failed to serve a notice of intention to contest or not contest a claim or a defence or a defence to counterclaim, as the case may be.
79. Consent judgments
(1) The parties in an Originating Claim or Originating Application may inform the Registrar that they wish to record a consent judgment or order without appearing before the Court by filing an “Other Hearing Related Request” through the Electronic Filing Service.
(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), the parties must inform the Registrar of the terms of the consent judgment or order that they wish to record, and enclose with the “Other Hearing Related Request” referred to in paragraph (1) above a copy of the draft consent judgment to be recorded, duly endorsed by all the consenting parties.
(3) The Court may record the consent judgment or order without requiring the parties to appear before the Court.
(4) Where the Court has recorded a consent judgment or order under paragraph (3), the Registrar will inform the parties of —
(a) the recording of the consent judgment or order; and
(b) the Judge or the Registrar who recorded the consent judgment or order.
(5) In any request or application for a consent judgment or order involving any disposition or transfer of property made pursuant to paragraph (1) of this Practice Direction, the parties must provide the following additional information to the Court:
(a) the identity of the owner of the property subject to disposition or transfer;
(b) whether the owner of the property is incapacitated by reason of insolvency from effecting a disposition or transfer of the property;
(c) whether the property is subject to any encumbrance which would affect a disposition or transfer thereof; and
(d) any other relevant information which ought to be considered by the Court in granting the consent judgment or order.
(6) The Court may require the information referred to in paragraph (5) to be provided by way of an affidavit, which should exhibit the relevant searches where applicable.
80. Judgment Interest
(1) This Practice Direction shall apply to any sum (other than costs) payable under a judgment granted pursuant to an application for judgment for failure to file and serve a notice of intention to contest or not contest, in default of filing and service of a defence or a defence to counterclaim (the “JID Application”).
Pre-Judgment Non-contractual interest
(2) For non-contractual interest:
(a) As provided for under Order 6, Rules 6(7) and 7(8) of the Rules of Court 2021, the rate of interest is 5.33% per year.
(b) The period of interest is from the date of the originating process to the date of the judgment.
(c) The total amount of interest payable need not be specified.
Pre-Judgment Contractual Interest
(3) Where interest is agreed between the parties, the draft judgment tendered to the Court as part of the JID Application must:
(a) state the period and rate of such interest; and
(b) attach evidence of the agreement as to the contractual interest claimed.
(4) For a fixed or constant interest rate, the agreed rate of interest must be specified in the draft judgment.
(5) For a fluctuating interest rate —
(a) there shall be an appendix attached to the judgment in the following form, with rows two to four repeated as many times as necessary:
1 | Principal sum | $ |
2 | Rate of interest |
|
3 | Period of interest | From |
4 | Amount of interest for relevant period | $ |
5 | Total amount of interest payable to date of judgment | $ |
(b) the period of interest shall be as pleaded, except that it shall end on the date of judgment and not on the date of payment; and
(c) the total amount of interest payable up to the date on which the JID Application is made shall be specified in the judgment.
Interest on costs
(6) Interest on costs awarded by the Court shall be payable in accordance with Order 21, Rule 29 of the Rules of Court 2021.
Post-judgment interest
(7) In accordance with Order 17, Rule 5(1)(b) of the Rules of Court 2021, where there is no agreement on interest, the interest on any sum (other than costs) payable under a judgment granted pursuant to a JID Application shall be stated as simple interest at 5.33% per year.
(8) In accordance with Order 17, Rule 5(2) of the Rules of Court 2021, interest is to be calculated from the date judgment is granted pursuant to the JID Application until the date of payment.
(9) The total amount of interest payable need not be specified in the draft judgment tendered to the Court as part of the JID Application.
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