If a litigant has not made at least two “totally devoid of merit” applications so that they are not susceptible to a civil restraint order, is the court nevertheless still empowered to debar a second application without its prior permission. I have an application to suspend a warrant of possession especially in mind?
The court is generally regarded as having the case management power to debar a second or successive application (see CPR 3.1(2) (m) and/or 3.1(3) (b)). This would impose a light touch procedural hurdle for the party where a restraint order is either unavailable or inappropriate. However, the reality of the situation is that litigants tend to disregard the hurdle and the court staff are unlikely to be unaware that it has been imposed when the next application is issued and listed. The restraint order which can be made where two applications have been dismissed as being totally devoid of merit is the more effective course.
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