We are looking at a case where we get a hint of a defence that was so defective that, ultimately, the defendant agreed it should be struck out and entirely repleaded. It provides an object lesson on how a defence…
This blog celebrates its 13th birthday later this year. Civil Litigation Brief started as a series in the Solicitors Journal 35 years ago. Needless to say it has a large “back catalogue”. I wanted a regular opportunity to bring important…
Here we are looking at an old case. However it has only recently arrived on BAILII and deals with an issue that remains relevant today. The Court of Appeal considered the issue of when is it appropriate for a judge…
As promised we are looking at a second case where an expedited hearing was refused. The judge here went through the principles relating to expedition and found that good reasons had not been made out. The judge also rejected an…
Here we are looking at an argument by a paying party that costs payable at an application should be reduced because the work would be required to be done at a later stage in any event. (The judge has no…
This is the first of two cases today where we look at examples where the courts have refused to grant an order for an expedited trial. This case was an unusual one, the judge reviewed the established principles and found…
In this case the claimant appealed against the findings of fact that the court made at first instance. However those findings were made on the basis of written evidence that was before the court. The claimant had not applied for…
A party liable to pay the costs of a successful opponent is always keen to reduce that liability, not least by arguing that they should have a reduction in costs because of their opponent’s conduct. We see such an argument…
We are returning to the issue of hourly rates. In this case the receiving party sought hourly rates that were above the London 1 band. The judge held that the case did not fall within that band and certainly did…
Here we look at a case where, unusually, the judge overturned first instance findings of dishonesty. The circumstances in which those findings were made were seriously flawed. Important procedural safeguards had not been in place, not least the allegations…
This is an interesting “cost bite” issue. What is the position on VAT when an insurer is being sued under the Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010 but the insured has gone into voluntary liquidation? Is a paying party…
Here we have problems with the way in which handwriting experts were instructed. The difficulty being that different experts were given different documents. This led to difficulties at trial. However, ultimately, it did not favour the defendants. The judge was…
There have been a number of cases in recent years where judges have been wary (sometimes highly sceptical) of expert witnesses who make their living solely from being involved in litigation. We have another example here. There is no indication…
Here we have an interesting case about the alleged professional negligence of solicitors. The case did not get very far, being struck out at first instance and with that decision upheld by the Court of Appeal. Put simply the claimants…
In this judgment today the Court of Appeal refused an application by an appellant to rely on amended Particulars of Claim or adduce new evidence in a case where the claim was struck out. The Court made the point that…
Here we have an example of a case where the allegations against the proposed (Part 20) defendant were inadequately pleaded. So inadequate that the judge struck out the particulars and refused the applicant’s permission to rely on amended particulars (which…
Practitioners in every field of litigation need to be aware of the need to prove causation in addition to breach. This requirement can sound particularly harshly in clinical negligence. We see an example here. There were some breaches of the…
Last week we looked a case where the parties to a day long application had incurred costs over of £1.3 million. That case emphasises that applications can be expensive. Further they can sometimes be expensive, leaving the applicant in a…
Keeping things running smoothly is an essential part of the litigator’s job. It is not easy. This series of webinars looks at key practice and problem areas with the specific aim of avoiding problems and (if necessary) dealing with difficulties…
The previous post on the updating of the Guideline Hourly rates leads us to this next case. It poses the question – are the rates “somewhat out of date”. As we shall see the judge gives a clear answer. (There…
The new Guideline hourly rates were published yesterday. They take effect from 1st January 2026 (for anyone working on that day…). They have been updated using service producer price inflation (SPPI). THE INCREASES The increases are 2.28%, using the…
We look at many cases on this blog where litigants (often more accurately – litigators) experience major procedural difficulties. It is surprising how often these difficulties arise from a very basic failure. That is a failure to follow a rule,…
There are some interesting observations here about the strategy a party should adopt when facing an application to amend. Such an application is not a “mini trial”. It is clear from this case that substantial costs can be incurred in…
The last Witness Evidence Wednesday of the year deals with an unusual case relating to relief from sanctions following a failure to serve witness evidence timeously. The judge at first instance had refused the claimant’s application for relief from sanctions. …
If a claimant serves proceedings and then does nothing the rules impose an automatic stay on proceedings. CPR 15.11 states that a stay takes effect from 6 months after the date on which a defence should have been filed. Here…
It is always interesting to look back and see what are the most popular posts each year. Sometimes this contains surprises, sometimes it says something about the state (or at least the interests) of the legal profession. Here are…
Here we look at an unusual application to challenge jurisdiction under CPR Part 11. It was unusual because it invited the court to consider the case on the merits. The court was not impressed with this approach, declaring it to…
I have saved this topic from being the 13th in the series. However it may be fitting if it was. From the moment I read the the Mazur judgment for the first time it was clear that it was going…
Consideration of the opening lines of judgments has been a feature of this blog for some years now. It has sometimes been a way of providing a little light relief towards the end of what is often a 12 month…
Issues relating to bundles have always been a part of this blog. These are issues that litigators ignore at their peril. Judges coming to the case afresh will not know your legal qualifications, the eminence of your practice and initially…
There have been times in the past when it has felt that the issue of sanctions for non-compliance was the only issue in civil procedure. The number of (reported) cases has reduced, possibly because the relevant principles are now clear….
A judgment debtor is in a vulnerable position. There are companies out there taking advantage of that vulnerability by pretending to be official enforcement agencies and taking money off the debtors. We have such a case reported here. The judge…
The “Proving things” series is the longest running feature of this blog. Initially I thought it would be a series of then posts. I was planning to end it at a hundred when a chance conversation on the Leeds Legal…
The Court of Appeal is to hear the appear in the Mazur decision on the 24th February. Here we re-visit the arguments that the Law Society and the SRA put forward at first instance. It will be interesting to see…
It is clear that many judge’s approach witness statements with a degree of scepticism, regarding them more as a lawyer’s construct than the actual recollection of the witness. In this case the defendant’s own witness statement included passages that were…
The “Current importance of Pleadings” series started in March of this year. It is another one of those issues that has featured heavily throughout. Being able to focus on “pleading” issues in a particular series has been useful. The problems…
Later this month we are taking our traditional end of year look at “opening lines of judgments”. Sometimes opening lines provide a clue as to the judge’s thinking. When the first sentence contains the words “I think it is considerably…
I am surprised (but perhaps shouldn’t be) at the sheer number of cases involving experts that the blog has covered this year. In July I started the “Expert Watch” series to focus on cases about the conduct of experts and…
It is unusual for a judge to consider the admissibility of witness evidence on the first day of a trial. However, in some ways, this is an unusual case. The judge found that the statement was relevant to the pleaded…
Here we have an all too familiar story of a claimant’s case coming to grief because proceedings were not issued in time. The unusual aspect is that this happened because his solicitors lodged papers at court asserting that no court…
There is no doubt at all that the Costs Bites series is one of the most widely read on this blog. The series started in July 2022 and the aim is to look at what is happening in relation to…
The previous post looked in detail at the issues in a solicitor and own client assessment caused by the solicitor’s use of WhatsApp. That judgment gives rise to much wider issues in relation to how solicitors communicate with clients. In…
This case raises highly significant issues for all firms of solicitors. It relates specifically to whether messages sent by WhatsApp form from private phones form part of a solicitor’s file. However the case extends to any type of electronic communication,…
I am aware of the danger that issues relating to service of the claim form could come to dominate the end of year review. However this arises because of the number of cases considered over the year. What is worrying…
The issue of the citation of false cases generated by Artificial Intelligence is, it is clear, an international one. Here we have a decision from the Court of Appeals in the State of Oregon. Among other things it challenges the…
Do the normal Part 36 consequences apply when the parties agree damages and lodge a consent order after a trial on liability? That is the issue considered by the High Court here. (Part 36 consequences apply – the writing is…
Last Friday I wrote that one of the most worrying developments of the year was the growing trend of “hallucinated” cases being cited in court and appearing in judgments. Now newspaper headlines contain details of a judicial judgment which may contain…
Here we have another case in the long-running battle over the disclosure of agency fees. I am grateful to Claire Kewin from Keoghs solicitors for sending me a copy of the judgment and for her summary of its practical implications…
It may say something that the “Service Points” series started on August 14 this year and there are already 24 posts under that heading. Claim form problems continue to be a prominent issues in the courts. The series started because…
One important aspect of civil procedure that is often overlooked is the importance of an applicant providing a draft order to the court. As the case we are looking at shows this is not a mere formality. A draft order…
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