Procedures
ECSC Civil Procedure Rules 2000 over a civilian substantive law
Procedure is common law and follows the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Civil Procedure Rules 2000, identical in form to those used in the other ECSC states. A claim form and statement of claim start proceedings, with 14 days to acknowledge service and 28 days to file a defence. Substantive rights, however, are often codal, and prescription periods come from the Civil Code rather than a limitation statute.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — ECSC High Court in Castries; itinerant Court of Appeal; CCJ final
- Deadline — Acknowledgment of service: 14 days from service
- Deadline — Defence: 28 days from service of the claim form
- Deadline — Appeal to the Court of Appeal: 42 days final, 21 days interlocutory
- Deadline — Claim against a public authority: within one year of the act
Governing law
- Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Civil Procedure Rules 2000
- Civil Code of Saint Lucia (prescription (arts. 2101 onward))
- Public Authorities Protection Act
- Code of Civil Procedure
In practice
The interaction of common law procedure and civilian substance produces the jurisdiction's characteristic trap: counsel look for a Limitation Act that does not exist, because extinctive prescription is in the Civil Code and the periods differ from the English ones. Claims against public authorities are separately cut to one year, and that statute does apply notwithstanding the Code.