Costs

Mitchell v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2013] All ER (D) 314 (Nov) and Durrant v Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Constabulary [2013] All ER (D) 186 (Dec) demonstrated that there was a shift away from exclusively focusing on doing justice in the individual case and that the court had to concentrate, in particular, on the need for litigation to be conducted efficiently and at proportionate cost and to enforce compliance with rules, practice directions and orders. There was no longer going to be any judicial tolerance of a laissez-faire attitude to the rules of procedure, especially where non-compliance attracted an express sanction. Nevertheless the court would not tolerate excessively technical objections to preclude parties from either trying to explain their behaviour or from raising cases which otherwise had considerable merit.