WHAT WENT WRONG FOR LITIGATORS IN 2026 AND HOW DO YOU AVOID PROBLEMS IN 2027 ? WEBINAR ON THE 9th DECEMBER ADDRESSES THESE ISSUES [BUY YOURSELF (OR SOMEONE ELSE) AN EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT…]

This blog, inevitably, tends to cover cases where things have gone wrong (for someone).  The primary aim is to stop the same thing happening to you.  This webinar aims to encapsulate the lessons from procedural problems and issues in 2026.  In addition to the presentation delegates get detailed checklists and questionnaires designed to help you make sure that you do, indeed, have a happy new year.   Booking details are available here.

THE WEBINAR

Procedural default and sanctions in the courts in 2026: Important lessons for practitioners to avoid problems in 2027 (and beyond).

LEARNING FROM THE MISTAKES OF OTHERS: AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF LEGAL TRAINING…

What the cases this year tell us about compliance, sanctions and relief.

Using cases reported and discussed throughout 2026 o the webinar examines the practical operation of the rules relating to procedural default and relief from sanctions.

The emphasis throughout is on avoiding problems before they arise and dealing effectively with them when they do.

Topics include:

• Denton in 2026 – what the courts are actually doing with the three-stage test.
• Serious and significant breaches – what has, and has not, crossed the threshold.
• The search for a “good reason” – and explanations that have failed to impress the courts.
• Stage three of Denton – the circumstances the courts are taking into account.
• Unless orders and peremptory orders – when sanctions take effect and the importance of construing the order correctly.
• When there has not actually been a breach at all – important Court of Appeal guidance on the construction of unless orders.
• Repeated default – what happens when non-compliance becomes a pattern rather than an isolated mistake.
• Delay and inactivity – why doing nothing can be fatal even where the underlying case is substantial.
• Default judgment and Denton – the continuing interaction between CPR 13 and the relief from sanctions principles.
• Costs budgets – the consequences of leaving them until the last minute.
• Appeals and time limits – why getting the date wrong can end the appeal before it starts.
• Whose fault is it anyway? – the significance of default being the fault of the solicitor rather than the client.
• Public bodies and compliance – whether different considerations arise when a public authority is in default.
• The merits of the underlying case – why having a strong claim or defence does not provide a “free pass”.
• Applications for relief from sanctions – evidence, timing, explanation and presentation.
• Preventing procedural default – systems that should be in place in every litigation practice.

SOME OF THE LESSONS FROM 2026

The cases provide a series of stark warnings.

• A party with a bona fide claim does not have a free pass to ignore procedural obligations.
• The seriousness of the consequences of refusing relief does not, by itself, determine the outcome.
• Repeated non-compliance can turn what might otherwise have been an excusable breach into a disastrous one.
• A party cannot ordinarily use an application for relief from sanctions as a means of attacking the correctness of the original order.
• An unless order must be construed carefully before everyone assumes that its sanction has actually taken effect.
• The fact that the client is personally blameless can be relevant – but it does not automatically answer the Denton question.
• Applications must be made promptly.

And one lesson remains remarkably constant:

The best application for relief from sanctions is the one you never have to make.