Appointment of a District Judge member to the Civil Procedure Rule Committee

Following an Expression of Interest (EoI) exercise, The Master of the Rolls has appointed DJ Paul Clarke as a District Judge member of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee (CPRC) for 3 years commencing 1 February 2022.

The CPRC is a non-departmental public body. It was established under the Civil Procedure Act 1997 (CPA 1997) to make rules of court, setting out the practice and procedure, for the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the County Court.

The Lord Chief Justice has the power (under the CPA 1997) to appoint judicial members to the CPRC and that power has been delegated to the Master of the Rolls, Head of Civil Justice and statutory Chair of the CPRC.  Lord Justice Birss, Deputy Head of Civil Justice and defacto Chair of the CPRC, led the selection panel considering the EoIs. The appointment is made following the selection panel’s recommendation and subsequent consultation with the Lord Chancellor.

Biography

District Judge Clarke was appointed to the District bench in 2014 and sits full time at the County Court at Burnley.  In 2017, he was appointed as a Regional Costs Judge for Lancashire; he is also an IT Liaison Judge. Prior to judicial appointment, he was a solicitor in private practice, specialising in commercial litigation.