# The Civil Procedure Rules 1998, Rule 1.4: Court’s duty to manage cases

Extent: E+W

(1) The court must further the overriding objective by actively managing cases.
(2) Active case management includes —
(a) encouraging the parties to co-operate with each other in the conduct of the proceedings;
(b) identifying the issues at an early stage;
(c) deciding promptly which issues need full investigation and trial and accordingly disposing summarily of the others;
(d) deciding the order in which issues are to be resolved;
(e) ordering or encouraging the parties to use, and facilitating the use of, alternative dispute resolution;
(f) helping the parties to settle the whole or part of the case;
(g) fixing timetables or otherwise controlling the progress of the case;
(h) considering whether the likely benefits of taking a particular step justify the cost of taking it;
(i) dealing with as many aspects of the case as it can on the same occasion;
(j) dealing with the case without the parties needing to attend at court;
(k) making use of technology; and
(l) giving directions to ensure that the trial of a case proceeds quickly and efficiently.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/3132/rule/1.4 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/civil-procedure-rules-1998/rule-1.4
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.