UK Supreme Court confirms that “unless” really does mean “unless”

The English courts’ more robust approach to case management since the Jackson Report and the Mitchell decision has generated much discussion. Consistent with that approach, last month the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Thevarajah v. Riordan and others; a case in which a party had been debarred from defending a claim due to a failure to provide adequate disclosure.

The judgment provides useful guidance on applications for relief from sanctions and, in particular, the relationship between the courts’ power to grant such relief (under CPR 3.9) and its power to revoke or vary a previous case management order (under CPR 3.1(7)). In this article we consider the Supreme Court’s judgment and its implications for litigants.