What if the directions questionnaire is not returned?

The court file will be referred to the procedural judge immediately after the time for returning the questionnaires has expired, even if only some or none of the questionnaires are returned.

The judge may decide to:

a) allocate the case to a track without the information your questionnaire might have provided, especially if other parties to the claim have filed theirs impose a sanction - this is like a penalty for failing to obey the court's request that you complete and return the questionnaire by a specific date - the sanction could be to send you an order to file a completed questionnaire within three days of the date of service of the order (the day you receive it).

• if you do not comply with that order, your particulars of claim will be struck out.
• if it is the defendant who has not returned the questionnaire, it would be the defence that was struck out.

this means you could not proceed with your claim (or the defendant with the defence) because the documents referred to have been deleted and cannot be used.

b) as an alternative, the judge can order that you come to a court hearing to explain why you did not comply with the court's request. If this happens, you may be told to pay the other party's costs of attending that hearing. You may be ordered to pay these immediately or within a period of time fixed by the court. The judge may use this hearing to ask for the information needed to allocate the case to track.

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