Civil way: 14 July 2023

LOOK NO SEAL

For £10,000, you would have thought the fees office at the Royal Courts of Justice would stick the court seal on the claims form, wouldn’t you? An unsealed claims form is about as good as a teabag without a cup. The Court of Appeal did not put it exactly like that in the second-tier appeal in Walton v Pickerings Solicitors and another [2023] EWCA Civ 602. What they did say was that on issue of proceedings, the court must seal the claim form (CPR 2.6(1)(a)) to indicate that it has been issued, so that until sealing there has been no issue and the proceedings have not been started. The claimant’s copies of his claim form, which were handed back to him in return for his cheque, were unsealed but, nevertheless, he served them. When in due course he got copies from the court—there were some changes from the first