The Master of the Rolls has appointed Mr Justice Michael Green, a Chancery Division judge, as a High Court judge member of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee for three years from 1 November, following an Expression of Interest exercise.
The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary said the Lady Chief Justice has the power under the Civil Procedure Act 1997 to appoint judicial members to the committee, and that the power has been delegated to the Master of the Rolls. He is Head of Civil Justice and statutory chair of the committee.
The Civil Procedure Rule Committee (CPRC) is a non-departmental public body. It makes the rules of court, setting out practice and procedure, for the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the County Court.
Mr Justice Green studied law at Jesus College, Cambridge, and was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn in 1987.
His practice was in commercial and chancery litigation, with an emphasis on company, insolvency, financial services and tax. He took silk in 2009.
He acted in international cases and was called to the Bars of the Cayman Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the British Virgin Islands, Samoa and Uganda for specific cases.
For over 11 years he was on the Attorney General’s A Panel of Treasury Counsel, handling directors’ disqualification, public interest winding up and tax evasion matters.
He was appointed a Deputy High Court Judge in 2018. In 2019 he sat as a High Court Judge in the Commercial Court of the British Virgin Islands, and in November 2019 he was appointed a High Court Judge in the Chancery Division.
Since 1 October 2024 he has been Business and Property Courts Supervising Judge for the Midland Circuit.
The committee’s membership list shows him alongside Mr Justice Pepperall as the other High Court judge member. It also lists barrister, solicitor and lay advice members. Terms of office generally last a minimum of three years and a maximum of six, and the role is unremunerated.
For practitioners, the committee’s output is the Civil Procedure Rules themselves. Under section 2(7) of the 1997 Act, as enacted, the committee must try to make rules that are both simple and simply expressed.
The committee said it began a project in 2021 to simplify the rules under that duty. A sub-committee works in phases, and drafting proposals are published for consultation before changes are introduced. The committee said the project has reduced the overall length of the rules and that simplification remains an active part of its main work.
Several consultations are before the committee. It is seeking comments on amendments to CPR Part 5 and Practice Directions 5A and 5B on electronic signatures, by 13 November 2026.
A consultation on deciding small claims without a hearing, which closed on 31 July, followed a pilot under PD51ZC. The pilot ran from June 2022 to October 2025 across six court centres in England and Wales.
The proposed amendments to CPR Part 27 and Practice Direction 27A would allow a judge to direct that a matter be decided on the papers without the consent of all parties.