CPR UPDATE: Judicial Review Changes (63rd Update)

For those involved in judicial review proceedings, the procedural rules underwent amendment this month with the 63rd update to the Civil Procedure Rules coming into force on 1 July 2013. The update introduces a number of changes and consequential amendments have been made to the pre-action protocol.

Reduction in time limits

CPR 54.5 has been amended such that the time limits for bringing certain planning and certain procurement judicial reviews are reduced to six weeks and 30 days respectively. (Practitioners should note that these amendments do not apply to applications for judicial review where the grounds arose before 1 July 2013).

Restricted circumstances for oral reconsideration

CPR 54.12(7) now provides:

“where the court refuses permission to proceed and records the fact that the application is totally without merit in accordance with [CPR 23.12], the claimant may not request that decision to be reconsidered at an oral hearing”

A similar revision has been made to CPR 52.15.

(Practitioners should note that these amendments do not apply to applications for judicial review where the claim form was filed before 1 July 2013.)

Pre-action protocol for judicial reviews

In light of these reforms, consequential amendments to the pre-action protocol for judicial review also came into force on 1 July 2013. In particular, under the amendments, the protocol may not apply where one of the new, shorter, time limits applies. As such, where the court is satisfied the parties have not been able to comply with the provisions of the protocol because of the (new) shorter time limits, the court is unlikely to apply costs sanctions which it might otherwise do.

63rd Update - Pre-action protocol amendments