Civil procedure

It was a basic principle of the system of civil procedure that the factual case the parties sought to asset at trial had ordinarily to be set out in their statements of case. That was not a principle based on mere formalism.

It was essential to the conduct of a fair trial that each side should know in advance what case the other was making and thus what case it had to meet and prepare for. It was the function of the pleadings to provide that information. The principle applied as much to litigants in person as to lawyers.

There was no duty on a judge trying a civil claim to check with a litigant in person to inquire as to whether such a litigant in person wished to amend his pleadings to raise any particular issues that he had not pleaded. It was for the litigant to decide what case he wished to make and how to