Solicitors who disregard Civil Procedure Rules will not be tolerated, according to a judge who has dismissed a case due to “abuse of process” by lawyers.
The case, Collins v CPS Fuels, involved a girl who was injured in a road accident in 1994 when she was three years old.
Judge Kevin Barnett struck out the case in 1999 because of the failure of the girl's solicitors to turn up at two case management conferences and to comply with previous court directions within an agreed time limit.
Rather than appeal against the order to strike out the claim, the claimant's solicitors issued a second set of proceedings in 2000 which were identical to the first set.
Describing this as “an abuse of process”, Judge Barnett said that he could not allow the second case to continue.
