Where it was not the claimant’s fault that proceedings had not been issued within the appropriate time limit, the judge when considering exercise of his discretion to admit the claim, should not be tempted to refuse to admit it on the basis that the claimant would have a clear claim for negligence against the solicitor who should have issued the proceedings. The judge was wrong to seek to distinguish the case and deny that the delay at issue related to periods only after the expiration of the limitation period. The judge had been wrong to conclude that the Civil Procedure rules required the claimant to have issued proceedings much earlier, since those rules could only affect the conduct of proceedings once they had been issued.
Citations:
Times 16-May-2001, [2001] EWCA Civ 419
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Limitation, Personal Injury, Litigation Practice, Professional Negligence
Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147490