INTRODUCTION

The procedure in civil actions in the High Courts (the ‘Supreme Court’ in Jamaica) and Courts of Appeal in the majority of Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions is now governed by the new Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). Almost identical versions of these Rules are in force in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) jurisdictions (since October 2000), in Jamaica (since January 2003), in Belize (since April 2005), and in Trinidad & Tobago (since September 2006), and are likely to be enacted in Barbados in 2008. In the other jurisdictions (The Bahamas, Guyana, Cayman Islands and Bermuda), the ‘old’ Rules of the Supreme Court (RSC) remain in force, though The Bahamas has adopted some of the case management features of the CPR. It can thus be seen that the CPR now dominate the procedural landscape virtually throughout the Caribbean.