--(1) The defendant must include in his defence a statement of all the facts on which he relies to dispute the claim against him.
--(2) Such statement must be as short as practicable.
--(3) In his defence the defendant must say-
----(a) which (if any) allegations in the claim form or statement of case he admits;
----(b) which (if any) he denies; and
----(c) which (if any) he neither admits nor denies, because he does not know whether they are true, but which he wishes the claimant to prove.
--(4) Where the defendant denies any of the allegations in the claim form or statement of case-
----(a) he must state his reasons for doing so; and
----(b) if he intends to prove a different version of events from that given by the claimant, he must state his own version.
--(5) If, in relation to any allegation in the claim form or statement of case the defendant does not-
----(a) admit or deny it; or
----(b) put forward a different version of events, he must state each of his reasons for resisting the allegation.
--(6) The defendant must identify in or annex to the defence any document which he considers to be necessary to his defence.
Notes
It was held in M.I.5 Investigations Limited v Centurion Protective Agency Limited Civ. App. 244 of 2008 that this rule puts a duty on the defendant to deal with each fact pleaded against it by either admitting or denying the facts and will only allow a defendant to avoid that duty where that defendant has positively stated that he or she cannot do so because he or she does not know whether that fact is true. It was further held that it was only in the latter case that the defendant would be allowed to put the claimant to proof of the facts relied on by the claimant.
It was held in Scott Fabres v. Suncorp Limited and Ors. CV2006-00876 that a party would not be entitled to raise issues in submissions, other than issues of law, where those issues have no foundation in either pleading or in fact.