TNAG-1589-FCO40-21741-Future-of-the-judiciary-in-Hong-Kong.-Part-1-of-2-1987 — Page 202

32.

The ultimate structure could be a single civil court with threc levels of function: first, valuable, complex or important cases; secondly, all other formal cases; thirdly, small claims. The lower level might be manned by selected Magistrates at both principal and crdinary level. In the absence of an all embracing system of that kind I would not recommend a transfer of civil business to Hagistrates.

Civil Claims of Low Value

33.

The Small Claims Tribunal can deal with civil claims for not

more than 48,000. It was set up in 1975 to enable small claims to be brought informally, inexpensively and simply. My Study has produced extremes of opinion about provision for small claims ranging from a desire for abolition of the Tribunal to suggestions for increasing its Jurisdiction in terms of both money and categories of business. One school of thought would transfer the jurisdiction to the Magistracy. There are varying suggestions about procedure. Some of them would preserve the principle of informality and the right to have proceedings conducted in Cantonese; others would prefer a greater degree of legal formality; yet others would give litigants the choice of proceedings in either Cantonese or English with or without interpretation.

34.

It is complained that the Tribunal's procedures are not uniformly applied. The Adjudicators are said to have different

approaches to contested cases and to use the Tribunal Officers in different ways. Some prefer a degree of formality. ·In one approach the Adjudicator is present at the call-over of cases and plays a full part in the process of narrowing the issues and keeping the evidence within bounds. The Adjudicator then decides whether the papers are in sufficient order and, if not,

instructs the Tribunal Officer in the presence of the parties. In this system most cases are finally disposed of on the call-over day. In another approach most of the pre-trial work is left to the Tribunal Officer including the conduct of the call-over. This inevitably means that disputes cannot be resolved

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