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,[1] 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.