“PROCEDURAL RIGOUR IS IMPORTANT NOT FOR ITS OWN SAKE. IT IS IMPORTANT IN ORDER FOR JUSTICE TO BE DONE”
In R v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Secretary of State for Education ex parte Dolan and Others. [2020] EWCA Civ 1605 the Court of Appeal rejected an argument that the “lockdown” regulations were unlawful. However,…
“WHEN MUST AN UNSUCCESSFUL LITIGANT ACCEPT “NO” FOR AN ANSWER?”: COURT OF APPEAL DECISION
In Wingfield, R (on the application of) v Canterbury City Council & Anor [2020] EWCA Civ 1588 the Court of Appeal considered the provisions of CPR 52.30 which provide an extremely limited chance of persuading a court to reconsider a…
HOW TO LOSE A CASE: SILKY GUIDANCE: IGNORE THE FACTS (THAT ALWAYS HELPS)
Today I am encouraging you to read one of the most authoritative and witty articles I have read about being involved in the civil litigation process. How to Lose a Case is a post by Edmund King QC on the…
RELIEF FROM SANCTIONS GRANTED WHEN NOTICE TO RELY ON HEARSAY EVIDENCE NOT SERVED AHEAD OF TRIAL
In ST (A Minor) & Anor v L Primary School (Rev 2) [2020] EWHC 1046 (QB) Deputy Master Hill QC granted relief from sanctions where the claimant failed to serve a notice of intention to rely on hearsay evidence prior…
CORONAVIRUS LAW: FURTHER STATUTORY STAY ON EVICTIONS AND TAKING CONTROL OF GOODS
The Public Health (Coronavirus) (Protection from Eviction and Taking Control of Goods) (England) Regulations 2020 come into force tomorrow. They prevent residential evictions (for the most part) until the 11th January 2021. THE REGULATIONS Citation, Commencement and Application 1.—(1) These Reg……
CIVIL PROCEDURE: BLOG AND ARTICLES ROUND UP OCTOBER 2020
This round up covers specific posts and articles in relation to civil procedure . There is a monthly round up of a wide range of legal issues and coronavirus on the Kings Chambers blog, Coronavirus: Guidance for Lawyers and Business….
CORONAVIRUS AND CIVIL PROCEDURE: THE PRACTICE DIRECTION ENDS TOMORROW: REVIEW OF THE CASES
Practice Direction 51ZA which allows parties to extend time limits for up to 56 days comes to an end on the 30th October 2020. Unless there is a further rule change then parties can only agree extensions of 28 days. …
COURT SET ASIDE A JUDGMENT OBTAINED 10 YEARS LATER: COURT FINDS THAT DOCUMENTS WERE FORGED BY DEFENDANTS: ANOTHER ROUND IN A BARE KNUCKLE FIGHT
In March last year I wrote about the Supreme Court’s decision in Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd & Ors [2019] UKSC 13. In that case the Supreme Court held that a claimant could bring an action to set aside an earlier judgment which,…
10 TIPS ON WHAT TO DO WHEN THINGS GO WRONG: “FESS UP”, “SEEK HELP”, “THEY SKY WON’T FALL IN”
Here I have selected 10 pieces of advice from Twitter on what to do when things go wrong. These are not the “top 10” tips because, frankly, every one of the pieces of advice given in the original post are…
A FURTHER TEN PIECES OF ADVICE FOR THE YOUNG, AND NOT SO YOUNG, LAWYER: AVOIDING THAT “SPECIAL RING IN HELL”
Continuing with the review of those series on this site which collate the guidance that judges have given to lawyers. In series three we looked at everything from going to hell; brevity (the absence of which leads you rapidly towards…
WHAT THEY DIDN’T TEACH YOU AT LAW SCHOOL: 10 KEY POSTS FOR THOSE JUST STARTING OFF (AND THE REST OF US TO BE HONEST)
The transition from learning to practice is not an easy one. It is even more difficult for litigators starting their careers now – with training contracts and pupillage being delayed because of COVID problems. Even if training has started much…
ODE TO A DYING CORPORATION: “THE SMELL OF CORDITE, GUN POWDER AND NAPALM NO LONGER FILLS THE AIR”
The heading of the judgment of Master Sanderson in Bell Group (UK) Holdings Limited (In Liquidation) [2020] WASC 347 includes “Corporations law – Ode to a dying corporation – Turns on own facts”. This led me to want to investigate…
CIVIL PROCEDURE: BLOG AND ARTICLES ROUND UP – SEPTEMBER 2020
This round up also covers specific posts and articles in relation to coronavirus. There will no longer be a specific round up covering coronavirus and and civil procedure. There is, however, a monthly round up of a wide range of…
ONLINE COURTS DURING THE PANDEMIC: RESEARCH AND QUESTIONS: LESSONS FROM TEXAS
The problems of keeping the courts going during a pandemic are universal and worldwide. Countries throughout the globe are getting to grips with the problems caused by remote hearings. Professor Elizabeth Thornburg from the Southern Methodist University has written a…
CIVIL LITIGATION BRIEF 25 YEARS AGO: A QUARTER OF A CENTURY OF CIVIL PROCEDURE
Nobody knew what a “blog” was 25 years ago. However at that time Civil Litigation Brief did exist, it was a monthly column in the Solicitors Journal. It is interesting to see how much (or how little) matters have moved…
PART 18 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ABOUT DAMAGES REFUSED: “NEITHER REASONABLE OR PROPORTIONATE”
In Kings Security Systems Ltd v King & Anor [2019] EWHC 3620 (Ch) Master Kaye refused an application that a party provide further information in relation to damages. “Part 18 requests should be for the purpose of providing further information…
SENSIBLE COVID PRECAUTIONS TAKEN WHEN IMPLEMENTING A SEARCH ORDER: APPLICANT TAKES A VERY NUANCED APPROACH
The judgment of Mr Justice Fordham in Calor Gas Ltd v Chorley Bottle Gas Ltd & Anor [2020] EWHC 2426 (QB) has some interesting observations about the way in which COVID affects both the way a hearing is held and…
CIVIL PROCEDURE BACK TO BASICS 83: PART 18 REQUESTS FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Part 18 requests are often misused. The Practice Direction states “A Request should be concise and strictly confined to matters which are reasonably necessary and proportionate to enable the first party to prepare his own case or to understand the…
PROTOCOL FOR INSOLVENCY AND COMPANY WORK AT CENTRAL LONDON COUNTY COURT: APPLICABLE FROM TODAY
A Protocol for insolvency and company work at Central London applies from today. It is set out in full below. It sets out details for remote hearings of bulk and other work made necessary by the pandemic. “PROTOCOL FOR INSOLVENCY…
LETTER STATING THAT THE DEFENDANT CONSENTED TO SOME AMENDMENTS DID NOT OUST COURT’S JURISDICTION: TRY TO AMEND AT YOUR PERIL
In Scott & Ors v Singh [2020] EWHC 1714 (Comm) HHJ Eyre QC rejected an argument that a letter stating that the defendants agreed to some proposed amendments by the claimant meant that the court had no jurisdiction to prevent…
CIVIL PROCEDURE (CORONAVIRUS): BLOG AND ARTICLES ROUND UP – AUGUST 2020
A round up of blog posts and articles relating to civil procedure and coronavirus for August 2020. Remote Hearings Stewarts – Divisional Court judgment offers lessons for virtual trials Litigation Litigation Futures – NHS, solicitors and patients group agree Covid-19 claims…
CIVIL PROCEDURE (NOT-CORONAVIRUS): BLOG AND ARTICLES ROUND UP – AUGUST 2020
A round up of blogs and articles about procedure, evidence and damages published in August 2020. Costs DAC Beachcroft – Beware of costs sanctions if your conduct falls out of line Costs Barrister – Crypto tokens and litigation funding ACL – Claimant debarred…
NIGHTINGALE COURT IN LEEDS: STARTING 28th AUGUST 2020: BUSINESS AND PROPERTY COURTS AND CIVIL CASES: GUIDANCE FOR USERS
A “Nightingale Court” has started in Leeds from the 28th August 2020. It is being run at Cloth Hall Court, Quebec Street, Leeds. Below I have the formal notice from HMCTS and the guidance that has been issued to users…
EXTENSION OF STAY OF POSSESSION PROCEEDING TO THE 20th SEPTEMBER 2020
The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 5) (Coronavirus) Rules 2020 extend the stay on possession proceedings from the 23rd August to the 20th September 2020. THE RULES The rules can be found here. WHAT THE RULES DO The mechanism is…
CORONAVIRUS LAW: PANDEMIC DID NOT PREVENT COURT MAKING MANDATORY INJUNCTION COMPELLING REMOVAL OF CARAVANS AND MOBILE HOMES
In Chichester District Council v Sullivan & Ors (Rev 1) [2020] EWHC 2154 (QB) HHJ Auberbach considered the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on a decision to grant a mandatory injunction requiring the removal of caravans and mobile homes in…
CIVIL PROCEDURE (CORONAVIRUS): BLOG AND ARTICLES ROUND UP – JULY 2020
Issues relating to coronavirus still play a large part in the conduct of civil litigation. It is still worthwhile looking at those posts and articles that deal specifically with covid and the courts. Costs ACL – Gordon-Saker: Video and phone…
DENTON PRINCIPLES APPLIED IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE COURT: EXTENSION OF TIME GRANTED FOLLOWING DEFAULT IN AN EXTRADITION CASE
In Zelenko v Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Latvia [2020] EWHC 1800 (Admin) the Administrative Court applied Denton principles to an issue concerning extradition. THE CASE An order had been made extraditing the applicant to Latvia. The…
WHEN SHOULD A SOLICITOR MAKE A WITNESS STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF THEIR CLIENTS? A REVIEW OF THE CASES
Last week I gave an in-house talk to a London firm of solicitors.* One of the matters we discussed was when (if ever) it was appropriate for a solicitor to make a witness statement in support of an interlocutory application. …
GOING BACK INTO COURT: MY FIRST EXPERIENCE OF A SOCIALLY DISTANCED TRIAL
Yesterday I had my first experience since “lockdown” of going back into a court building to do a trial. I did a series of tweets about it and they have had some attention. That is why i thought it best…
CORONAVIRUS LAW: SHOULD A HEARING BE IN PERSON OR BY VIDEO?
In Surrey Heath Borough Council v Robb & Ors [2020] EWHC 1650 (QB) Mr Justice Freedman considered submissions that a hearing should take place in person. He held that there was an onus on part requesting a hearing in court…
FAILURE TO FILE A CERTIFICATE FOR THE LITIGATION FRIEND UPON ISSUE: CAN THE COURT REMEDY THE SITUATION: CONSIDERING THE IMPARTIALITY OF THE LITIGATION FRIEND
It is rare for there to be a lengthy judgment in relation to procedural issues about the appointment and the role of the litigation Friend. In Hinduja v Hinduja & Ors [2020] EWHC 1533 (Ch) Mr Justice Falk considered whether…
WHEN THE SKY FALLS IN: WHAT TO DO WHEN THINGS GO WRONG IN LITIGATION: WEBINAR 6th AUGUST 2020
I have been writing on this blog for some time now that lawyers should be taught that mistakes happen. We should aim to avoid them but if errors are made they are often rectifiable if dealt with correctly and quickly. …
THE “BACK TO BASICS” SERIES 80: THE POSTS SO FAR
The “back to basics” series has been going since April 2018. It has covered a surprising amount of topics. From how to draft an application to “litigation wishful thinking”. Two years on this is a good time to recap on…
CORONAVIRUS LAW: APPLICATION TO ADJOURN HEARING REFUSED: JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED
The decision of Mr Justice MacDonald today in Lancashire County Council v M & Ors (COVID-19 Adjournment Application) [2020] EWFC 43 is another case where an application to adjourn because of Covid concerns was refused. The judge held that an…
CORONAVIRUS LAW IN THE COURT OF APPEAL: A HYBRID HEARING WILL NOT BE UNFAIR IF LEADING COUNSEL CANNOT ATTEND IN PERSON
In the judgment today in C (Children : Covid-19: Representation) [2020] EWCA Civ 734 the Court of Appeal dismissed an argument that a “hybrid” hearing, to be heard with one side’s leading counsel attending remotely, was unfair. THE CASE…
COVID REPEATS 47: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THINGS HAVE GONE WRONG? MEANINGFUL ADVICE FROM PEOPLE WHO KNOW (AND CARE): WHEN YOU THINK SOMETHING IS HITTING THE FAN
Here I am repeating a post that was originally “crowd sourced” from Twitter. It is a post on “what to do if things go wrong”. Here is the advice specifically on what the best course of action is when…
CIVIL JUSTICE COUNCIL REPORT ON THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON CIVIL COURT USERS
It is not possible to have anything but admiration for the way in which the Civil Justice Council have produced their report on the impact of COVID-19 on civil court users. The report is available here. It carried out what…
COVID REPEATS 45: WE DON’T CARE WHAT THE JUDGE ORDERED WE ARE GOING TO PUT WHAT WE WANT INTO THIS ORDER
There are many strange examples of conduct reported on this blog. One example is in Webb Resolutions Ltd v JV Ltd (t/a Shepherd Chartered Surveyors) [2013] EWHC 509 (TCC). Put simply a judge made an order at a hearing, one…
CORONAVIRUS LAW: DEFENDANT’S APPLICATION TO ADJOURN TRIAL REFUSED: TRIAL CAN GO AHEAD IN PERSON (AND WOULD GO AHEAD EVEN IF HELD REMOTELY)
In the judgment in SC v University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (Rev 2) [2020] EWHC 1445 (QB) given yesterday Mr Justice Johnson refused the defendant’s application for an adjournment on the grounds that a trial held remotely would be…
CORONAVIRUS LAW: FURLOUGHED EMPLOYEES GIVING EVIDENCE AT COURT IS NOT “WORK”
I am grateful to barrister Tom Herbert from bringing my attention to Nottinghamshire Law Society Civil Court User Bulletin No 5. It is a case, Fottles v Bourne Leisure, where HHJ Godsmark QC allowed an application to vacate. However during…
CIVIL PROCEDURE: BLOG AND ARTICLES ROUND UP – MAY 2020
As we adjust to the problems of the pandemic some of the more conventional issues of litigation have been dealt with extensively this month. Costs ACL Trio of High Court judges issue costs penalties to defendants that refused ADR ACL Claimant not…
NO VARIATION TO COURT ORDER BECAUSE OF CORONOVIRUS: RESPONDENT DOES NOT GET TWO BITES OF THE CHERRY
It is likely that the Coronavirus epidemic is going to give rise to many issues in litigation. Some of them unusual and unprecedented. An example can be seen in the judgment today in Dinglis v Dinglis & Ors [2020] EWHC…
AUTOMATIC STAY OF POSSESSION HEARINGS APPLIES TO APPEALS: COURT OF APPEAL DECISION THIS MORNING
In London Borough of Hackney -v- Okoro [2020] EWCA Civ 681 the Court of Appeal found that the automatic stay on possession proceedings also applies to appeals against possession orders. THE CASE The Court of Appeal were asked…
COVID REPEATS 31: REPLIES AND DEFENCE TO COUNTERCLAIM: A PRIMER
Surprisingly this post about the basics of replies and counterclaims was the second most read post on this blog in 2017 (surprising because it was written in July 2016). It simply sets out the basic rules relating to filing a…
CIVIL UPDATE FOR NORTH AND WEST YORKSHIRE: UPDATED GUIDANCE FROM THE DESIGNATED CIVIL JUDGE
HHJ Gosnell has issued new guidance for civil courts in North and West Yorkshire. It is reproduced in full below. “Introduction The purpose of this document is to update you on events since my last update on 6th April…
HMCTS GUIDANCE “Keeping court and tribunal buildings safe, secure and clean”
HMCTS have recently updated their guidance about security, cleaning and social-distancing arrangements in court and tribunal buildings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Some of the guidance puts obligations on lawyers and court users. Having successfully avoided the pun for two…
CORONAVIRUS CATCH UP 1: DENTON AND RELIEF FROM SANCTIONS
I have, recently, been writing primarily about the impact of coronavirus on lawyers and civil procedure. Some cases in “mainstream” civil litigation have been overlooked. To prevent a “backlog” of cases here is a link to, and brief summary of,…
CIVIL PROCEDURE (NOT-CORONAVIRUS): BLOG AND ARTICLES ROUND UP – APRIL 2020
There is still plenty of non-covid work going on as evidenced by these links to posts and articles in April. Costs Costs Barrister Non party costs orders considered Costs Barrister Principle and non party costs orders Costs Barrister Non party costs orders…
CIVIL PROCEDURE (CORONAVIRUS): BLOG AND ARTICLES ROUND UP – APRIL 2020
We may not have been getting out much this month but there has been plenty of material on civil procedure, the courts and coronavirus. Courts Herbert Smith Freehills Courts relax rules on agreeing extensions to procedural deadlines in light of COVID-19…
REMOTE HEARINGS: CHILDREN CASES: GUIDANCE FROM THE COURT OF APPEAL
Civil litigators may well be able to gain some assistance from the guidance being given in children cases. The Court of Appeal gave judgment today in Re A (Children) (Remote Hearing: Care and Placement Orders). a-children-judgment-300420 [2020] EWCA Civ 583…
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