Sanctions - Express Relief is best!

Apparently it is therapeutic to revisit earlier traumas.

It is hard to believe that it is only two and a half years since the Mitchell litigation changed the world. Who can forget those immortal words of the Lord Dyson, Master of the Rolls –

“There now has to be a shift away from exclusively focussing on doing justice in the individual case”. 

We then had the Civil Litigation equivalent of the Reign of Terror. There was the alarming case of Romano where a case was struck out due to a delay of one day advising the court of the outcome of a stay on proceedings. Then there was the action struck out following a delay of 45 minutes. Litigators could be seen wandering wide eyed as they worried about what minor oversight might bring an end to a promising career. As Rod Evans from FOIL famously put it – ‘We haven’t got a clue what we are doing.’

http://www.solicitorsjournal.com/news/litigation/costs/we-havent-got-clue-what-were-doing-after-mitchell-former-foil-president-says

Then we began to come to earth with Denton in 2015. Dyson made it clear that some judges had been a bit over enthusiastic. The Court of Appeal simplified the test for relief from sanctions –

1. Is the breach serious or significant?
2. what is the reason for the breach?

Most importantly there was a third factor –

“The important misunderstanding that has occurred is that, if (i) there is a non-trivial
(now serious or significant) breach and (ii) there is no good reason for the breach, the
application for relief from sanctions will automatically fail. That is not so and is not
what the court said in Mitchell: see para 37. Rule 3.9(1) requires that, in every case,the court will consider “all the circumstances of the case, so as to enable it to deal justly with the application”.

Collective sighs of relief could be heard across the nation.

So where are we now? We may be back on planet earth but there is no room for complacency. The way we litigate has still changed.

Some recent cases are helpful –

In O’Connor v Pennine Acute Hospitals [2015] EWCA Civ 1244 the Defendant was refused permission to bring in a new expert on the first day of a trial, which would have led to an adjournment. I think we would all agree with that one. 

More recent cases are clear reminders of the need to stay focussed, particularly in relation to the need to apply promptly for relief.

In Gentry v Miller an application to set judgment aside was refused due to delay in making the application. This was case where there was a delay of several months. Interestingly there was a potential allegation of fraud which did not get the insurers off the hook.

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2016/141.html

Oak v Cash and Carry looks worrying at first. Indeed it has been reported by some as a finding that the Defence was struck out due to a two day delay in filing a Listing Questionnaire. In fact there was a breach of an unless order. But even that might not have been fatal to the Defence if they had applied promptly. Jackson LJ observed –

‘If the defendant had made an immediate application for relief at the same time as filing its PTC, or very soon after, I would have been strongly inclined to grant relief from the sanction of striking out. To debar a party from defending a £200,000 claim because it was somewhat late in filing a PTC is not in my view required by rule 3.9’

And

‘In my view the defendant's lack of promptness in applying for relief is the critical factor.’

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2016/153.html

So if you miss a deadline you must act immediately. 

There is a strong temptation to put the troublesome file to one side in the forlorn hope that the problem will go away. In fact it will get much worse. I would always advise that the file be passed to a colleague right away. Those of us who supervise should repeat this message - 'It is not necessarily the end of the world if you make a mistake - but it might be if you don't tell us!'.

Since Denton the Courts do have a more realistic understanding of the real world of litigation. They may grant relief. 

So long as you ask for it without delay!!