Administration of
Justice (Interim Payments and Provisional Damages) (Jersey) Law 1993
A LAW to enable the making of interim
payments of damages in civil proceedings and orders for provisional awards of
damages for personal injuries
Commencement
[see
endnotes]
1 Meaning of “interim payment”
In
this Law “interim payment”, in relation to a party to any
proceedings, means a payment on account of any damages, debt or other sum
(excluding any costs) which that party may be held liable to pay for the
benefit of another party to the proceedings if a final judgment or order of the
court in the proceedings is given or made in favour of that other party.
2 Orders for interim
payment
(1) Provision may be made
by Rules of Court for enabling the court in any pending proceedings, in such
circumstances as may be prescribed by those Rules, to make an order requiring a
party to the proceedings to make an interim payment of such amount as may be
specified in the order, with provision for the payment to be made to such other
party to the proceedings as may be specified in the order or, if the order so
provides, by paying it into court.
(2) Such Rules of Court may
include provision for enabling a party to any proceedings who, in pursuance of
such an order, has made an interim payment, to recover the whole or part of the
amount of the payment in such circumstances, and from such other party to the
proceedings as may be determined in accordance with the Rules.
3 Orders for provisional
damages for personal injuries
(1) This Article applies to
an action for damages for personal injuries whether commenced before or after
this Law comes into force, in which there is proved or admitted to be a chance
that at some definite or indefinite time in the future the injured person will,
as a result of the act or omission which gave rise to the cause of action,
develop some serious disease or suffer some serious deterioration in the
injured person’s physical or mental condition.
(2) Subject to Article 5
of this Law, as regards any action for damages to which this Article applies in
which a judgment is given by a court, provision may be made by Rules of Court,
in such circumstances as may be prescribed by those Rules, to award the injured
person –
(a) damages
assessed on the assumption that the injured person will not develop the disease
or suffer the deterioration in the injured person’s condition; and
(b) further
damages at a future date if the injured person develops the disease or suffers the deterioration.
4 Rules of Court
The power of the Royal
Court to make Rules of Court under Article 13 of the Royal Court (Jersey) Law 1948, shall include a power to make Rules for the purposes of Articles 2
and 3 of this Law.
5 Saving
Nothing in this Law
shall be construed –
(a) as affecting the
exercise of any power relating to costs including any power to make Rules
relating to costs; or
(b) as prejudicing any duty
of the court under any enactment or rule of law to reduce or limit the total
damages which would have been recoverable apart from any such duty.
6 Citation
This Law may be cited as
the Administration of Justice (Interim Payments and Provisional Damages)
(Jersey) Law 1993.