Procedural abuse: a rare but deadly tort

• Identifies the torts of abuse of process and malicious prosecution of a civil claim.
• Reviews their features, utility and most recent consideration in the case law.

What are ‘procedural abuse’ torts?

Dispute resolution lawyers will no doubt be familiar with striking out under CPR 3.4(2) for abuse of process. This happens because a statement of case either discloses no reasonable grounds for bringing or defending the claim; is an abuse of the court’s process or is otherwise likely to obstruct the just disposal of proceedings; or because there has been a failure to comply with a rule, practice direction or court order.

These rules interplay with the so-called doctrine of Henderson abuse: to prevent successive claims being brought when a single claim could have disposed of the matter. These provisions are aimed at bringing proceedings to an early determination for abuse of the court’s processes from a procedural perspective. For a successful strike-out applicant, the benefit