IF YOU ARE APPLYING FOR RELIEF FROM SANCTIONS “OWN YOUR MISTAKES”: YOU HAVE TO SERVE THE PARTICULARS OF CLAIM WITHIN FOUR MONTHS: CLAIMANT IN ERROR, BUT RELIEF FROM SANCTIONS GRANTED
The judgment in Holterman v Electrium Sales Ltd & Anor [2020] EWHC 3915 (TCC) shows a “classic” error in relation to service of proceedings. The claimant served the claim form at the end of the relevant period, and the particulars…
RELIEF FROM SANCTIONS WHEN CLAIMANT WAS ONE YEAR LATE IN SERVING PARTICULARS OF CLAIM (BUT THERE IS A LITTLE MORE TO THIS…)
In Excotek Ltd v City Air Express Ltd & Anor [2021] EWHC 2615 (Comm) Mr Justice Henshaw granted a claimant relief from sanctions when it applied to serve Particulars of Claim over a year late. However the parties had agreed…
HOW ISSUING ELECTRONICALLY CAN REALLY CONFUSE CLAIMANTS: PROCEEDINGS SERVED INCORRECTLY AND LATE, SAVED BY SERVICE OF AN UNSEALED CLAIM FORM
Adding to the regular supply of cases on service of the claim form on this blog is the decision of Mr Justice Fraser in Citysprint UK Ltd v Barts Health NHS Trust [2021] EWHC 2618 (TCC). This case contains a…
SERVING PROCEEDINGS ON “PERSONS UNKNOWN”: AN ONGOING ISSUE – WITH NO EASY ANSWER
In the course of his judgment in The London Borough of Hackney v Grant& Ors [2021] EWHC 2548 (QB) Mr Justice Lavender considered the issue of service on persons unknown. WEBINAR ON SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM On the 24th…
SERVICE OF THE PARTICULARS OF CLAIM: IMPORTANT POINTS TO WATCH: “A TRAP FOR THE UNWARY”
We have seen many cases in relation to late service of the claim form. Different rules, and assumptions, apply to the particulars of claim. Over the years there have been many cases where service of the Particulars has caused…
MASTER WAS RIGHT TO SET ASIDE AN EXTENSION OF TIME FOR SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM: ANOTHER CLAIMANT’S ACTION BITES THE DUST
The judgment of Mr Justice William Davis in Qatar Investment And Projects Holding Co & Anor v Phoenix Ancient Art S.A. [2021] EWHC 2243 (QB) adds to the many, many, cases on this blog that deal with the dangers relating…
FAILURE TO SERVE THE CLAIM FORM PROPERLY WHEN YOU ONLY HAVE SEVEN DAYS TO DO SO: THIS MAY NOT BE GOOD LAW BUT IT IS THE LAW…
I have written many times about cases where claimants have come to grief in relation to service of the claim form. Another example can be found in the judgment of Mrs Justice O’Farrell. In R (on the application of The…
CASE STRUCK OUT BECAUSE OF FAILURE TO SERVE PARTICULARS OF CLAIM IN TIME: SECOND REMINDER TODAY THAT LITIGATION CAN SOMETIMES BE HARSH AND BRUTAL
In M/S Unique Part Trading LLC & Anor v Regal Lodge Road Ltd [2020] EWHC 3871 (Ch) Mr Justice Miles upheld an order striking out an action because the Particulars of Claim were served late. It is a reminder of…
“THE PROVISION OF THE CPR FOR SERVICE… SHOULD BE FAMILIAR TO EVERY SOLICITOR WHO CONDUCTS LITIGATION… THE MULTIPLE ERRORS MADE IN PURPORTING TO SERVE THE DEFENDANT COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED WITH A LITTLE DILIGENCE”
Although issues of service are a regular feature on this blog I cannot recall many cases about mis-service of Notice of Commencement of a Bill of Costs. There have been several recently. The claimant failed to serve properly in Gregor…
RETROSPECTIVE VALIDATION OF SERVICE, THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SERVICE AND THE SETTING ASIDE OF DEFAULT JUDGMENT
In YA II PN Ltd v Frontera Resources Corporation [2021] EWHC 1380 (Comm) Mr Justice Butcher considered the question of whether a default judgment was regular when the court had, retrospectively, validated service of the claim form. He found that…
DEFAULT COSTS CERTIFICATE NOT SET ASIDE: SERVICE BY EMAIL WAS WRONG, BUT RECTIFIABLE: RELIEF FROM SANCTIONS REFUSED
Cases on Default Costs Certificates appear to be like London Buses – they come along in twos. Here we have the second case in two days. In Serbian Orthodox Church – Serbian Patriarchy v Kesar & Co [2021] EWHC 1205…
SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM: 12 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO AVOID “DICING WITH PROCEDURAL DEATH”
Service of the claim form remains a continual source of problems for litigators. Issues relating to service of the claim form are often described as “dicing with procedural death”. I am here mainly repeating an earlier post on this issue…
SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM AND THE PARTICULARS OF CLAIM: AVOIDING THE PITFALLS: WEBINAR 11th FEBRUARY 2021
The problems that claimants face when serving the claim form are well documented on this blog. I am presenting a webinar on the 11th February 2021 on identifying and avoiding the (many) pitfalls of service of the claim form and…
FIRST SERVICE CASE OF THE YEAR: SERVING PROCEEDINGS IS NOT ALWAYS A WALK ON THE BEACH
In Alli-Balogun & On The Beach Ltd & Ors [2021] EWHC 83 (QB) Mr Justice Bourne considered an issue relating to mis-service of proceedings. He held that service on a foreign company on another company, in the same group, with…
PROVING THINGS 196: PROVING THAT FILES WERE (OR WERE NOT) DELIVERED IS MORE TRICKY THAN YOU MIGHT THINK
The judgment of Master Clark in The Law Society of England and Wales (Solicitors Regulation Authority) v Sophie Khan & Co Ltd [2021] EWHC 2 (ChD) highlights the difficulties involved in proving, or disproving, that a document was delivered. In…
ADDRESS FOR SERVICE: THE USE OF A POST OFFICE BOX NUMBER OR ACCOMODATION ADDRESS DOES NOT COMPLY WITH THE RULES: (ALSO – THE PRICE TAG FOR LITIGANTS IN PERSON)
In Smith v Marston Holdings Ltd & Anor [2020] EW Misc 23 (CC) HHJ Paul Matthews made some observations about the correct address for service when applications are issued. He also noted the issues that can arise when dealing with…
ANOTHER SERVICE CASE: SERVICE NOT EFFECTIVE WHEN CLAIMANT NOT ABLE TO SHOW WHICH MAILBOX CLAIM FORM WAS POSTED TO
In the judgment today in Ivanchev v Velli [2020] EWHC 1917 (QB) HHJ Lewis (sitting as a High Court judge) held that service of the claim form was not effective. Placing it in the mailbox for an apartment where the…
SERVICE OF CLAIM FORM VALID WHEN LEFT WITH RECEPTIONIST: A CAVITY IN THE DEFENDANT’S SUBMISSIONS
Some interesting points as to the validity of the service of the claim form were raised by the defendant in Bec Construction -v- Melt Hythe Limited [2020] EWHC 970 TCC. The defendant’s arguments were, however, to no avail. Mrs Justice…
ANOTHER FAILED CLAIM FORM SERVICE CASE: SERVICE ON SOLICITORS NOT NOMINATED WAS INVALID: SERVICE BY EMAIL ALSO INVALID
The judgment of Mr Justice Nicklin today in Piepenbrock v Associated Newspapers Ltd & Ors [2020] EWHC 1708is (yet) another action that failed because of incorrect service of the claim form. “This is another case about the problems that can…
SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM: CLAIMANT SURVIVES “BY THE SKIN OF THEIR TEETH”: SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS TO LEARN HERE
Every year brings its own crop of service of the claim form cases. This year is no different. In Oran Environmental Solutions Ltd & Anor v QBE Insurance (Europe) Ltd & Anor [2020] EWHC 1271 (Comm) Mrs Justice Cockerill observed…
SERVICE ON EU-DOMICILED DEFENDANTS: DIFFICULTIES THAT ARISE WITH THE CLOSURE OF THE FOREIGN PROCESS SECTION
I am grateful to barrister James Beeton for drawing my attention to, and giving me permission to cite from, his post on the International Law and Travel Blog “A BIG PROBLEM FOR SERVICE ON EU-DOMICILED DEFENDANTS” THE CLOSURE OF THE FOREIGN…
SERVING PROCEEDINGS: COURT OF APPEAL REFUSE GOOSE’S APPEAL : THE DANGERS OF OVERLOOKING THE BASIC OBLIGATION TO SERVE
In Canada Goose UK Retail Ltd & Anor v Unknown Persons [2020] EWCA Civ 303 the Court of Appeal upheld the judge’s decision not to grant the claimant any kind of relief due to a failure to properly serve the…
RECOGNISING THAT 99.8% OF LITIGATORS ARE STARK RAVING BONKERS: (A REPOST)
This is post that was originally written in May 2014. It followeda talk I gave in Leeds “How to get sued, Make a Loss and be Miserable”. It led to the sharing of ideas between the 40 litigators who attended. …
FIRST CLAIM FORM CASE OF THE YEAR: SERVICE WITHOUT A SEAL IS NOT GOOD SERVICE BUT CPR 3.10 SAVED THE CLAIMANT
NB THE USE OF CPR 3.10 IS MOST PROBABLY NOT AN EFFECTIVE STRATEGY FOLLOWING THE COURT OF APPEAL JUDGMENT IN Ideal Shopping Direct Ltd & Ors v Mastercard Incorporated & Ors [2022] EWCA Civ 14. It took until the 31st January…
SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM ON A SOLICITOR (NOT THE FIRST TIME I’VE WRITTEN ABOUT THIS AND PROBABLY NOT THE LAST…)
Every so often, but sometimes I think not often enough, I write posts on the dangers relating to service of the claim form. Here is a quick reminder about the basic principles of serving on a solicitor. This post has…
2019 AND CIVIL PROCEDURE – THE YEAR IN REVIEW (2): SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM (AND ALLIED ISSUES)
The one “certainty” about writing about civil procedure is that every year there will be a few (often more than few)cases about service of the claim form. This is always a fruitful source of difficulty for claimants. The causes of…
STAYING SANE AS A LITIGATOR 5: THINGS WILL GO WRONG: “YOU GOTTA HAVE A PLAN”: DON’T CRASH…
No matter how hard you try, on occasions, things will go wrong in litigation. Do you have a plan? Here we examine the need to have a plan to cover default and other issues in litigation. We then look in…
“IF COURT PROCEEDINGS ARE SERVED ON A SOLICITOR WITHOUT AUTHORITY – IS THAT GOOD SERVICE?”: A QUESTION WITH AN EASY ANSWER
“If court proceedings are served on a solicitor without authority is that good service” was a search that led to this blog yesterday. This is a question with a very easy answer. This blog has looked at this issue several…
THE BACK TO BASICS SERIES: A RUNNING ACCOUNT: READ THEM ALL HERE
The “Back to Basics” series, as the title suggests, deals with some of the basic elements of civil procedure. It covers everything from applications and bundles to the taking of witness statements. The titles are often prompted by elements…
SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM: FAILURE TO SERVE ANY DEFENDANTS WHEN APPLYING FOR AN INJUNCTION: THE GOOSE IS NOT PROPERLY COOKED…
In Canada Goose UK Retail Ltd v Persons Unknown & Anor [2019] EWHC 2459 (QB) Mr Justice Nicklin refused the claimants’ application for an injunction on several grounds. Here we look at the issues relating to service of the claim…
SERVICE OF CLAIM FORM BY WHATSAPP: A CASE IN POINT: SERVICE BY SOCIAL MEDIA AND EMAIL
In Gray v Hurley [2019] EWHC 1636 (QB) the court allowed service of the claim form by Whatsapp message. THE CASE The hearing was a dispute about jurisdiction. The claimant issued proceedings and obtained an order for service on the…
AVOIDING NEGLIGENCE CLAIMS IN LITIGATION 9: SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM (3): SERVICE AT THE LAST KNOWN ADDRESS
Staying with issues relating to service of the claim form we are looking at another common source of error – service at the “last known address”. The key point here is that a claimant cannot simply serve at the “last…
AVOIDING NEGLIGENCE CLAIMS IN LITIGATION 8: SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM (2) – SERVICE ON SOLICITORS (OR NOT)
We have looked at the problem of service on solicitors many times, including several cases where claimants have come to grief. Anyone proposing to serve on a solicitor must know the basic rules. In some circumstances it is mandatory to…
A SOLICITOR WHO FILES AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SERVICE STAYS ON THE RECORD UNTIL A NOTICE OF CHANGE OR THEY MAKE AN APPLICATION TO BE REMOVED
In Ashley & Anor v Jimenez [2019] EWHC 1806 (Ch) Chief Master Marsh rejected an argument that service on a solicitor who given their address for service in the acknowledgement of service was not good service of an application. For…
EXTENSION OF TIME FOR SERVICE SET ASIDE: THE DANGERS OF SEEKING TO EXTEND THE LIFE OF A CLAIM FORM ON A WITHOUT NOTICE BASIS – EXEMPLIFIED
In Al-Zahra (PVT) Hospital & Ors v DDM [2019] EWCA Civ 1103 the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by defendants who objected to an extension of time being granted for service of the claim form. It is an object…
A PARTY CAN’T DUMP DOCUMENTS ON THEIR OPPONENT THE NIGHT BEFORE A HEARING: JUDGE REFUSES PERMISSION TO RELY ON EVIDENCE SERVED VERY LATE
In Willow Corp S.À.R.L. v MTD Contractors Ltd [2019] EWHC 1591 (TCC) Mr Justice Pepperall refused to allow a party to rely on documents served very late in an application for summary judgment. The late “dumping” of documents, the evening…
SERVING ON NOMINATED SOLICITORS: WHEN, WHERE AND WHY: TRYING TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE
This is not the first time I have written about the need for care when serving the claim form on solicitors. I suspect it won’t be the last. The cases just keep on coming.The Court of Appeal decision in Woodward &…
CLAIMANT LAWYERS: YOU MUST KNOW THE RULES RELATING TO SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM: YOU CAN’T EXPECT THE DEFENDANT TO HELP YOU OUT
One guarantee for anyone writing about civil procedure is that there will be a regular supply of what Master McCloud has described as ” a dry and unlovely crop of procedural service issues”, The Court of Appeal decision in Woodward…
ANOTHER CLAIM FORM CASE: SERVICE AT “LAST KNOWN ADDRESS” FAILS: SERVICE BASED ON COMPANIES ACT SUCCEEDS
Cases on the last known address for service seem to come along like buses – a few at at time. The issue was considered by Mr Richard Salter QC (setting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court) in Idemia…
SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM: DANGERS OF SERVING AT THE LAST KNOWN ADDRESS (2019)
It is difficult for a month, sometimes a week, to pass without there being a service of the claim form case. The issue of service was central to the decision of Mr Justice Martin Spencer in Brayshaw -v- Partners of…
SERVICE, THE CLAIM FORM AND DENTON: THE COURT WOULD NOT TAKE THE HUMP WHEN DOCUMENTS WERE NOT SERVED: NEITHER SERIOUS OR SIGNIFICANT
In Ablynx NV & Anor v Vhsquared Ltd & Ors [2019] EWHC 792 (Pat) HHJ Hacon brushed aside the defendant’s objections in relation to service of the claim form. THE CASE The action was in relation to patents from an…
BANKRUPTCY PETITION NOT SERVED PROPERLY: BANKRUPTCY NOT ANNULLED
There may well be a disturbance in the Force if there is not a service of the claim form case every few weeks. In Ardawa v Uppal & Anor [2019] EWHC 456 (Ch) Mr Justice Roth held that a judge could…
AN ANONYMOUS DRIVER CANNOT BE SUED: YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE SOMEWHERE TO SERVE…
In the judgment today Cameron v Liverpool Victoria Insurance Co Ltd [2019] UKSC 6 the Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeal decision in relation to service when there is an unknown driver. The court cannot make an order that service…
CIVIL PROCEDURE BACK TO BASICS 31: SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM AT THE “LAST KNOWN ADDRESS”: FIVE KEY POINTS
Service at a defendant’s “last known address” is something that can be highly problematic. There are dangers in serving at an address unless you are wholly certain that the defendant still resides there. Here we look at the rules and…
SERVICE OF CLAIM FORM BY EMAIL ALLOWED: THE SAFEGUARDS TO RESPONDENTS TO WITHOUT NOTICE APPLICATIONS.
The case and issues in Linklaters LLP -v- Mellish [2019] EWHC 177 (QB) have already made the headlines. The procedural aspects of the decision are also of interest. Firstly Mr Justice Warby made an order allowing service of the claim form…
ORDER GRANTING TIME TO EXTEND SERVICE SET ASIDE: THE DEEMED DATE FOR SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM: A BLAST FROM THE PAST: STILL APPLIES TO SERVICE ABROAD
The judgment in Punjab National Bank (International) Ltd v Srinivasan & Ors [2019] EWHC 89 (Ch) contains two interesting lessons (i) a court can always set aside an order extending time for service of proceedings; (ii) the “old” rules relating to…
THE DEFENDANT’S “WRONG” APPLICATION TO DISPUTE JURISDICTION WAS STILL VALID: DEFENDANT ALLOWED EXTENSION OF TIME AND TO CORRECT APPLICATION
Twelve years ago, in Hoddinott and others v Persimmon Homes (Wessex) Limited [2007] EWCA Civ 1203; [2008] 1 WLR 806, the Court of Appeal held that the correct way for a defendant to challenge the validity of a claim form was to issue…
CLAIM FORM CASE IN THE COURT OF APPEAL: SERVICE OF CLAIM FORM BY UNAUTHORISED BODY DOES NOT RENDER SERVICE VOID (ALTHOUGH IT IS STILL NAUGHTY)
We have managed to get to the 15th day of the year without a service of the claim form case, to compensate for this there are two today. In Ndole Assets Ltd v Designer M&E Services UK Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ…
BACK TO BASICS 14: SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM ON A SOLICITOR
In the case I wrote about yesterday, Higgins & Ors v TLT LLP [2017] EWHC 3868 (Ch), the very basic errors made by the claimant’s solicitor in relation to service of the claim form were held to amount to “misconduct” (albeit in…
THE CONSEQUENCES WHEN SERVICE OF THE CLAIM FORM GOES WRONG: SOLICITOR’S LIEN OVERRIDDEN: NOT KNOWING THE RULES IN RELATION TO SERVICE AMOUNTS TO “MISCONDUCT”
The judgment in Higgins & Ors v TLT LLP [2017] EWHC 3868 (Ch) shows another case that has been made problematic because of basic errors in failure of service of the claim form. The errors made by the solicitors in that…
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