ABSTRACT
Mark Davies considers the new Civil Appeal Rules which came into effect on 2 May 2000, as part of the on-going 'revolution' brought about by the Civil Procedure Rules 1998. For most litigators, 26 April 1999 will forever be etched on the memory as 'Woolf day'. But as yet, no name has been coined for 2 May 2000, that being the date when the new Civil Appeal Rules came into effect. Perhaps the central aims of the rules in pt 52 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) has been to introduce a uniform system of appeals and to weed out and to deter unmeritorious appeals. Several months on, how are these changes working in practice, and are they to be welcomed? The most important lesson for practitioners is that it is more vital than ever to get things right and be properly prepared at the initial hearing, as the opportunity to appeal against the decision is now more restricted. Permission will be needed to pursue an appeal in virtually all cases, obtained either from the lower court or appellate court. This is a radical departure from the previous rules where a party had an automatic right of appeal on interlocutory orders and in most cases on final orders.
