Litigation 2025

BAHAMAS Law and Practice Contributed by: John F. Wilson KC and Adrienne N. Bellot, McKinney, Bancroft & Hughes

3. Initiating a Lawsuit 3.1 Rules on Pre-action Conduct

(CMC) or at any time upon application to the court. A statement of case may be amended once without the court’s permission at any time prior to the date fixed by the court for the first CMC. Any amendment that (i) adds or substitutes par- ties after the end of the relevant limitation period or (ii) makes changes to statements of case after the end of the relevant limitation period, requires The initiating party is responsible for bringing the proceedings to the attention of the defendant(s) by serving them. Parties outside the jurisdiction can be sued. The Civil Procedure Rules provide for service outside the jurisdiction. 3.6 Failure to Respond Where the defendant fails to file an acknowl- edgment of service or fails to file a defence, the claimant can obtain default judgment. However, some types of claims are exempted from default judgment. 3.7 Representative or Collective Actions The court has the power to appoint one or more persons with sufficient interest in the proceed- ings to represent all or some of those persons with the same or similar interests. The parties to a representative action must have the same or similar interests. 3.8 Requirements for Cost Estimate There are no requirements to provide clients with a cost estimate of the potential litigation at the outset, although it is good practice to do so. the court’s permission. 3.5 Rules of Service

There are no rules requiring parties to take pre- action steps before commencing an action. 3.2 Statutes of Limitations The limitation period for instituting actions in simple contract or tort is six years. The limitation period for instituting actions for personal injuries is three years generally and one year where the action is against a person acting in execution of statutory or other public duty. 3.3 Jurisdictional Requirements for a Defendant Regardless of the defendant’s location, the Bahamian courts have jurisdiction over any action arising from acts or events that took place within the country. 3.4 Initial Complaint Save for bankruptcy and insolvency proceed- ings, family proceedings, non-contentious pro- bate proceedings and proceedings instituted under any enactment where the enactment regu- lates the proceedings, the following documents are filed to initiate a lawsuit: • standard claim form; If standard claim and fixed date claim forms are used, they must be accompanied by a statement of case except in urgent cases where the court allows the claim form to be filed without a state- ment of case. The court may allow a statement of case to be amended at a case management conference • fixed date claim form; or • originating application.

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