READ LITIGATION FUTURES TODAY: VIEWS OF THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS ON MITCHELL

March 24, 2014 · by · in Applications, Civil Procedure, Relief from sanctions

Anyone interested in how the Mitchell principles should be construed and may develop should read Litigation Futures  today and its report of the Civil Justice Council of the 24th March 2014.

CLOSING REMARKS FROM THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS

In summary:

  • The Master of the Rolls is “fairly unrepentant” about what was said.
  • “nobody had criticised the principle that relief should be granted if a breach is trivial or occurs for good reason – the problems had come in the application of this approach, and he said he had heard of some “ridiculous” decisions by district judges not granting relief.”
  • The guidance had to be applied in a sensible way.
  • He could not give extra judicial guidance on how Mitchell should be applied.
  • “I am in no doubt that over the next 12 months there will be cases in which the Court of Appeal will have to decide whether a lower court has applied the Mitchell guidance properly, so you will have to be a little patient.”

However this is no substitute for reading the report.

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