Tag: Courts

How to Serve Legal Documents by Email

Joanne ChaseLeave a comment

The court has warned litigators that sending a document to multiple email addresses does not constitute good service, even where the party receiving the documents has agreed to it.

The Rules

Documents may be served by email where the receiving party has given prior agreement in writing to the party serving that they are willing to accept service by email, and provided the e-mail address (CPR PD 4.1(1)). The requirements of PD 4.1(1) will be deemed to be satisfied if the email address:-

  • Is provided on the solicitor’s writing paper and states that it may be used for service; or
  • Is set out on a statement of case or a response to a claim filed with the court.

Multiple Email Addresses

In Tax Returned Ltd & Ors, R (On the Application Of) v Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2022] EWHC 2515 (Admin) the Claimant purported to serve a Claim Form by email. The Defendant had provided two email addresses upon which documents should be served. The Court concluded that the meaning of the letter giving permission to serve by email did not give the Claimant a choice to serve on either address; it required documents to be served on both.

The judge identified that CPR 4.1 refers to “email address” in the singular and that interpreting it in the way the Claimant sought would require inserting significant words into the rule.

Plainly the situation would become absurd if parties could submit multiple email addresses to which documents were to be sent before good service had been effected.

Para 74

The Court went on to find that the consequence of a party failing to provide a single email address is that 4.1 has not been complied with and service cannot take place by email.

Litigators should ensure that they only provide one email address for service. If another party provides multiple email addresses for service a request for a single address for service should be sent, failing which service should be effected by other means.

Should you have any questions, you can contact the team at civilandcommercialcosts@clarionsolicitors.com.

COVID-19 update: face to face hearings

Joanne ChaseLeave a comment

HMCTS are consolidating the work of the courts and tribunals into fewer buildings. It has been announced that from Monday 30 March 2020 there will be a network of priority courts that will remain open during the coronavirus pandemic to make sure the justice system continues to operate effectively.

Fewer than half of all court and tribunal buildings will remain open for physical hearings, with 157 priority court and tribunal buildings remaining open for essential face-to-face hearings. This represents 42% of the 370 crown, magistrates, county and family courts and tribunals across England and Wales.

To help maintain a core justice system that is focused on the most essential cases there will be open courts, staffed courts and suspended courts.

The Judiciary recommend that you check which courts are open before you travel.  For information regarding the category of each court please follow this link.

Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland has said that it is vital that we keep our courts running. and that:

“An extraordinary amount of hard work has gone into keeping our justice system functioning. Technology is being used creatively to ensure that many cases can continue. Not everything can be dealt with remotely and so we need to maintain functioning courts.

These temporary adjustments to how we use the court estate will help ensure that we can continue to deal with work appropriately in all jurisdictions whilst safeguarding the well-being of all those who work in and visit the courts”.

Staffed courts will support video and telephone hearings and progress cases without hearings and ensure continued access to justice.

The remaining courts and tribunals will close temporarily and these measures will be kept in place for as long as necessary.

You can find out more about our services here or you can contact the Costs and Litigation Funding team at CivilCosts@clarionsolicitors.com.