Tweet
"You cannot successfully claim that an apple is an orange, on the grounds that you do not know the difference because you are a litigant in person"
Following from last months Barton v Wright Hassall Judgment - which basically says no special treatment for LIPS ( on a service by email issue in that case), we have another confirming the courts position.... http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2018/443.html
Excerpt of Judgment
Litigant in person
Following from last months Barton v Wright Hassall Judgment - which basically says no special treatment for LIPS ( on a service by email issue in that case), we have another confirming the courts position.... http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2018/443.html
Excerpt of Judgment
Litigant in person
- The claimant also argued that it would be unjust if his claim were to be struck out because he did not bring it under s 304, because he is a litigant in person and "didn't have a detailed knowledge of insolvency regulations." At the hearing there was no discussion of how far the status of a party to litigation as litigant in person could affect the proceeding. But, in fact, a month after the conclusion of the hearing in January 2018, the Supreme Court gave judgment in Barton v Wright Hassall LLP [2018] UKSC 12, where this very issue was raised. In summary, although the court was split on the particular procedural point arising in the case (whether service by email was to be validated retrospectively), on the general position of litigants in person the judges were unanimous. They held that the fact that a litigant was acting in person was not in itself a reason to disapply procedural rules or orders or directions, or excuse non-compliance with them. The exception was that a special indulgence to a litigant in person might be justified where a rule was hard to find, difficult to understand, or it was ambiguous.
- In my judgment s 304 does not fall into any of those categories. In any event, from the way in which the claimant has written in his letters and pleadings about this case, and the way in which he addressed me at the hearings, it is clear that he is an intelligent and articulate litigant, who has learned a great deal about insolvency law in particular and civil law and procedure in general since he has had the misfortune to be adjudicated bankrupt. I see no injustice arising here merely from the fact that the claimant is a litigant in person.
- But even if being a litigant in person were some sort of excuse in general, it would not avail the claimant anyway in relation to the strike out application. The fact is that, if the court strikes out a claim under CPR r 3.4(2), it does not do so to punish the claimant. It does so because the claim as formulated is either not sustainable or it is not fair in the circumstances to proceed with it. Here we are concerned with the former. It is nothing to do with the claimant's being a litigant in person. It is simply that the kind of claim he or she has chosen does not apply on the facts of the case. You cannot successfully claim that an apple is an orange, on the grounds that you do not know the difference because you are a litigant in person. Defendants also have rights, including the right not to be made liable for causes of action which do not lie against them.
