Supreme Court Civil Procedure Rules 2022: Now Transforming Litigation in The Bahamas

The Bahamas has welcomed the most significant modernisation of civil and commercial litigation in more than 40 years. After a lengthy wait, partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the new and long-anticipated Supreme Court Civil Procedure Rules come into effect on March 1 2023, bringing major reforms to the court system.

The expert litigation solicitors at ParrisWhittaker are familiar with the new rules and are experienced in advising and representing commercial and other litigants in all types of civil and commercial proceedings.

The new rules will apply to all civil proceedings that are commenced in the Supreme Court from  March 1, except for those commenced earlier – but where a trial date has not been fixed (or the trial date was adjourned).

What’s changed?

There is a new overriding objective – to enable the Court to deal with cases justly and at proportionate cost. This includes (but isn’t limited to):

• Ensuring the parties are on an equal footing
• Saving on expenses
• Dealing with a case proportionately in relation to the amount of money the claim involves, the importance of the case, the complexity of the issues and the parties’ respective financial position
• Ensuring cases are dealt with expeditiously and fairly
• Allotting the case an appropriate share of the Court’s resources, while taking into account the need to allot resources to other cases, and
• Enforcing compliance with court rules, practice directions and orders of the Court

One benefit of the changes is that it is expected to drive down the costs of litigation and transform and simply the process. Specifically, the rules relating to case management, discovery and disclosure, evidence preparation and expert witnesses, and costs have been reformed.

The new 370-page Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) were passed by the Rules Committee in July last year. Until then, Bahamian law had been fully based on the English common law; with case law from the English courts having persuasive authority on the courts in The Bahamas.

The new CPR were drafted not only on the basis of the English CPR, but also those of New Zealand, the Cayman Islands and Barbados.

How we can help

We at ParrisWhittaker are excited at the prospect of working with our litigation clients under the new CPR process and we fully expect to see a positive impact on litigation. Our clients can look forward to a more cost-effective and time-efficient experience of the court process than they may have done previously.

For further information and advice about how the rules can help you in your dispute, contact the experienced litigation lawyers at ParrisWhittaker on info@parriswhittaker.com or +1.242.352.6112