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22 July 2013 / Dominic Regan
Categories: Features , Costs , CPR , Jackson
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Beware the overriding objective!

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warning

Dominic Regan calls attention to the revised
CPR 1

It was in April 1999 that the overriding objective arrived, opening the Civil Procedure Rules with the worthy words that cases be dealt with justly. Given the enormity of the Jackson reforms it is understandable that perhaps not enough attention has been paid so far to the revised CPR 1 which now demands that claims be dealt with justly and at proportionate cost.

The obvious driver here was to confirm that there a balance be struck between the claim and the expense incurred in resolving it. There can be no question of justice at any price. However, the impact of the added words is potentially far greater.

Take fraud in a civil context. The leading authority is Summers v Fairclough Homes [2012] UKSC 26:

  • The claimant was guilty of grotesque exaggeration to such an extent that a claim truly worth perhaps £90,000 was inflated ten-fold. The defendant
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