Judgment_paragraph 31 · Shirley Preston and Othes v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust and Others and Dorothy Fletcher and Others v Midland Bank plc (C-78/98)

31First, it should be borne in mind that, according to settled case-law, in the absence of relevant Community rules, it is for the national legal order of each Member State to designate the competent courts and to lay down the procedural rules for proceedings designed to ensure the protection of the rights which individuals acquire through the direct effect of Community law, provided that such rules are not less favourable than those governing similar domestic actions (principle of equivalence) and are not framed in such a way as to render impossible in practice the exercise of rights conferred by Community law (principle of effectiveness) (see, to that effect, Case 33/76 Reive [1976] ECR 1989, paragraphs 5 and 6, Case 45/76 Comet [1976] ECR 2043, paragraph 13, Fisscher cited above, paragraph 39, Case C-410/92 Johnson [1994] ECR I-5483, paragraph 21, and Case C-246/96 Magorrian and Cunningham v Eastern Health and Social Services Board [1997] ECR I-7153, paragraph 37).