Attend a civil case conference

When attending the PTC, you should inform the court of the following:

• The number of witnesses you would like to call for the trial.
  • You should check with your witnesses on their availability to attend court. This is to ensure that your witnesses will be available on the trial dates.
• The estimated number of trial days.
  • In general, the court will only allocate limited days for the trial and for parties to subsequently request further trial dates only if necessary. This is to prevent wastage of trial days in the event parties settle their case before or on the first day of trial.

Once all pre-trial matters and applications are dealt with, the court will schedule a date for the civil trial.

Specially managed civil list (SMCL)

Certain categories of cases take a significantly longer time to be resolved due to their complexity. These categories of cases are known as the specially managed civil list (SMCL).

The following categories of cases are included in the SMCL where the value of the claim exceeds $150,000:

• Banking.
• Corporate finance.
• Company law.
• Intellectual property.
• Securities.
• Equity and trust.
• Professional negligence.
• Construction disputes.
• Medical law.
• Defamation actions commenced in the District Court.
• Representative proceedings under Order 15 of Rule 12 of the Rules of Court.
  
• Consolidated suits where the total claim exceeds $150,000.
• Cases that do not fall within the above categories but are included by the registrar or PTC judge for special reasons, upon application by the parties involved.
• Any case deemed suitable at the discretion of the registrar.
• Cases that are transferred to the State Courts from the High Court.
  • All motor and industrial accident cases will not be identified for SMCL even if they were transferred to the State Courts from the High Court.
    

After the close of pleadings, SMCL cases are tracked by a designated team of judicial officers who will deal with all the pre-trial matters during PTCs. In general, SMCL PTCs are conducted asynchronously.

Refer to the State Courts Registrar's Circular No. 3 of 2020 to find out how SMCL PTCs are conducted and what you can expect.

If you are the plaintiff and do not serve the Writ, the first PTC will usually be scheduled 6 weeks after the filing of the Writ.

PTCs in the General Division of the High Court are usually conducted by court officers called registrars. At PTCs, the registrar may give directions on any of the following to progress the case in a quick and fair manner:

• The filing of the list of documents for discovery and inspection.
• The filing of interlocutory applications.
• The filling of summons for directions.
• The filing of the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) Offer Form (Form 28, Supreme Court Practice Directions) and the Response to ADR Offer Form (Form 29, Supreme Court Practice Directions).
  • The registrar will ask whether parties wish to pursue ADR to resolve their dispute. If parties indicate an interest to attempt ADR, the registrar may give directions for the parties to make arrangements with the relevant organisation.
• The filing of the Notice for Setting Down Action for Trial.

• For State Courts: the Guide to Common Civil Justice Processes (PDF, 1476 KB).

• For Supreme Court: The Supreme Court Practice Directions for various matters on pre-trial conferences, such as Paragraph 66 of the Supreme Court Practice Directions for fixing of dates for hearing.
• For State Courts: The State Courts Practice Directions for various matters on pre-trial conferences, such as Paragraph 67 of the State Courts Practice Directions for fixing of dates for hearing.