Service

There were many who thought that the over-riding principle of dealing with cases justly, enshrined in CPR Rule 1.1 the court’s general discretion to extend time in its general powers of case management in Rule 3.1 with the specific power to extend the time for service and the provisions of Part 6 empowering a judge to disapply sanctions imposed by the rules where justice so required, meant that in these enlightened days, disasters consequential on innocent errors and oversights were consigned to the past. Recent cases dealing with various aspects of service demonstrate that the dawn was false and the practice under the current rules is at least as stringent as previously.