LEGAL STUDIES UNIT 3

Civil Pre-trial procedures

Civil pre-trial procedures are those processes which occur before a trial commences in a civil case.
Many of these procedures are mandatory and will differ according to which court the case is being
heard in.

Supreme Court: Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2015 (Vic)

County Court: County Court Civil Procedure Rules 2008 (Vic)

You are required to know the types and purposes of a number of pre-trial civil procedures. Using
your text (pages 221 – 226) and the relevant PowerPoint complete the detail in the table below.

PRE-TRIAL PROCEDURE (DEFINITION) PURPOSE

PLEADINGS

Pleadings are a series of documents filed and - Achieve procedural fairness.

exchanged between the parties. They set out
and clarify the claims (Statement of Claim) and
the defences (Defence) of the parties so that
the parties are fully aware of the issues that are
in dispute.
- Compel each party to state the material
facts.
- Remove the element of surprise.
- Give the court a written record of the case.
- Reach an out-of-court settlement – pursue
a strategy to settle the claim before trial.

Disclosure and reveal all documents

DISCOVERY OF DOCUMENTS - Reduce the element of surprise.
- Determine the strength of the other party’s
Discovery is where parties receive copies of case.
documents relating to the case and inspect
one another’s to ensure they are
primed for the arguments being brought
against them. Each party is entitled to
inspect the other documents (the right to
inspections).

- Reduce the element of purpose in trial.

EXCHANGE OF EVIDENCE - Determine the strength of the other party’s
case.
Exchange of evidence is the process where - Provides the opportunity to ‘rebut’ the
all evidence is disclosed against the other other sides expert evidence.
including disclosing all documents, - Understand the amount of damages that
laypersons and experts whom they may call the plaintiff is seeking.
to give evidence. Such evidence may
include witness outlines, viva voce vidence,
oral testimony from lay-persons (ordinary
people) as well as recruited expert witness
statements.