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13 February 2019 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 7828 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Costs
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Dangerous liaisons

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Dominic Regan provides an updated cut out & keep guide to surviving sanctions

Somewhere, somehow, someone is in default. Where a sanction applies, they are in deep trouble. The 2013 Jackson reforms were intended to promote compliance, and that is why the measures about default and relief were rewritten.

Nasty traps

The most common default is the failure to serve witness statements in time. They are ubiquitous. Not every case requires a budget or expert evidence, but written factual evidence is a necessity. The nasty trap with witness statements is found in the underlying rule, CPR 32.10. Failure to serve in time means that one cannot call the witnesses unless forgiveness is obtained. The court order may be expressed in anodyne terms; the sting is lurking every time in the rule.

Appreciate that it could get even worse. The sanctions decision to beware of is Gladwin v Bogescu [2017] EWHC 1287 (QB), [2017] All ER (D) 104 (Jun), where Turner J—someone plainly destined for elevation to the Court of Appeal—struck out a liability

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