Prior to 26 April 1999, practitioners - and, no doubt, their clients - took a fairly leisurely view of applications to the court for a new lease under part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.

On many occasions proceedings were issued and then the matter was left, perhaps to be resurrected several years later when negotiations failed.The landscape changed with the advent of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR) and these applications are now subject to active case management.

But the courts recognise that in such cases the parties are usually of approximately equal bargaining strength who generally try to agree terms.

Those terms are more likely to be approved by the courts if the philosophy of the CPR is embraced in orders put to the court for approval, either as paper consent orders or at a hearing.In the county court the application is made using form N397 and, as it is a claim form, it requires a statement of truth in accordance with CPR 22.

In the High Court, the part 8 procedure is used to bring the claim in the Chancery Division or in a district registry in which the property is situated by CPR schedule 1 RSC order 97.Under CPR r.8.9 (c) all claims commenced using the part 8 procedure are treated as allocated to the multi-track (and so para 1 of the draft order below will not be required in High Court claims).There could be a preliminary issue such as the landlord's intention to redevelop the property or the validity of the notice which may be tried first to save costs.

The nature of the preliminary issue should be identified in the answer and accurately described in the draft order.

Consequential directions for the trial of the preliminary issue should be specified to be as such.Disclosure is initially standard disclosure and the procedure in CPR part 31 must be complied with.

If there is to be a trial of a preliminary issue, the documents to be disclosed are limited to those which go to that issue.Expert evidence is usually required, for example, as to comparables or redevelopment, and if the parties cannot agree a joint report the court generally authorises separate experts provided the issues are sufficiently complex.

While simultaneous exchange of reports is the norm, a case can also be made for sequential disclosure.

When separate experts are instructed, the court requires them to meet on a without-prejudice basis to narrow issues and this should be reflected in the draft order.

The disciplines of the experts and the issues on which they will give evidence should be stated in the order so that the judge can consider whether this is reasonable.The practice of courts in fixing trial dates for multi-track cases appears to vary nationally and solicitors should check this with their local court so that orders reflects that practice.

The listing questionnaire will need to be filed as it provides the court with information as to whether the case is ready for trial and, if not, whether additional orders should be made with the appropriate sanctions.

If it is necessary to have a case management conference or a pre-trial review after directions have been complied with, this should be included in the order together with a provision that dates to avoid are brought to the appointment in order that the trial can be fixed, if not already fixed.And finally, beware of CPR part 51 PD para 19 which provides for an automatic stay if proceedings started before 26 April 1999 do not come before a judge between 26 April 1999 and 26 April 2000.Draft order: allocationThe action is allocated to the fast track/multi-track with a provisional time estimate of ** days.AnswerThe defendant shall file and serve an answer to the claim by 4pm on **.Preliminary issueThere shall be a trial of the preliminary issue as to, for example, the defendant's intention to redevelop the property, and the following directions shall apply to the trial of that issue.DisclosureThe parties shall give standard disclosure of documents by serving a list of documents by 4pm on **.

The latest date for service of any request to inspect or for a copy of a document is 4pm on **.ConveyancingThe defendant shall serve on the claimant a draft lease i n the form proposed to be granted by 4pm on **.The claimant shall serve on the defendant the proposed amendments to the draft lease by 4pm on **.The defendant shall by 4pm on ** notify the claimant which amendments if any are disputed and specify the defendant's additional amendments.Witness statementsEach party shall serve on every other party the witness statements of all witnesses of fact by 4pm on ** and in default no evidence not so disclosed shall be admissible at the trial of the claim except with permission of the court.Joint expertsThe expert evidence on the issue of ** shall be limited to a single expert jointly instructed by the parties.If the parties cannot agree by 4pm on ** who that expert is to be and about the payment of his fees, either party may apply for additional directions.Unless the parties agree in writing or the court orders otherwise, the fees and expenses of such an expert shall be paid by the parties equally/as to **% by the claimant and **% by the defendant (and be limited to £**).The report of the expert shall be filed at the court no later than 4pm on **.Neither party shall be entitled to recover by way of costs from the other party more than £** for the fees and expenses of the expert.Separate expertsThe parties shall exchange reports as to ** setting out the substance of any expert evidence on which they intend to rely.The exchange shall take place simultaneously no later than 4pm on ** or, the (claimant) (defendant) shall serve report(s) relating to ** no later than 4pm on ** and the (claimant) (defendant) shall serve report(s) relating to it no later than 4pm on **.Reports shall be agreed if possible no later than **.

If the reports are not agreed within that time there shall be a without prejudice discussion between the relevant experts no later than ** to identify the issues between them and to reach agreement if possible.

The experts shall prepare for the court a statement of the issues on which they agree and on which they disagree with a summary of their reasons, and that statement shall be filed with the court no later than the date for filing the listing questionnaire.Expert evidence at trialEach party has permission to use ** as expert witness(es) to give evidence in the form of a written report at the trial in the field of ** provided that the substance of the evidence to be given has been disclosed as above and has not been agreed.The court will consider when the claim is listed for trial whether expert oral evidence will be allowed.Questions to expertsThe time for service on another party of any question addressed to an expert instructed by that party is not later than ** days from service of that expert's report and if no question is served within that period the party wishing to serve a question shall not be entitled to do so.Any such question served within the time mentioned above shall be answered within ** days of service.Requests for additional informationEach party shall serve any request for clarification or additional information based on any document disclosed or statement served by another party no later than ** days after disclosure or service and if no request is served within that period the party wishing to serve a request shall not be entitled to do so.Any such request served within the time mentioned above shall be dealt with within ** days of service.Interim rentAny application for determination of an interim rent shall be heard with the main application for a new lease.Listing questionnairesEach party shall file a c ompleted listing questionnaire by **.The parties shall file with their listing questionnaires copies of their experts' reports, including a list of comparables, witness statements and replies to requests for additional information, if any.Trial bundle, case summariesThe claimant shall lodge at the court not more than seven days and not less than three days before the start of the trial an indexed bundle of documents contained in a ring binder or lever arch file and with each page clearly numbered.The bundle, which shall be agreed if possible, must include the documents mentioned in para 3.2 of the practice direction supplementing CPR part 39, the case summary/summaries mentioned below, and all other documents on which both parties intend to rely or which either party wishes to have before the court at the hearing.A case summary not exceeding ** words shall be agreed between the parties if possible.

If the case summary cannot be agreed, each party may prepare its own case summary not exceeding ** words.The case summary/summaries should include a chronology, outline the matters still in issue and refer where appropriate to the relevant documents.