Court of Appeal rectifies strike out application to fall within CPR Part 11 (Pitalia v NHS England)

Article summary

Dispute Resolution analysis: The Court of Appeal considered whether the District Judge had erred in law by not determining that the defendant had accepted jurisdiction and/or lost its right to challenge the validity of a claim form because the defendant had failed to use the procedure provided by CPR Part 11 and/or because the defendant’s solicitors had filed an ‘Acknowledgement of Service’ without ticking the box on the form indicating an intention to contest jurisdiction. The appeal was unsuccessful. The Court of Appeal held that the failure to tick the box on the Acknowledgement of Service form was not so serious that it could not be rectified by CPR 3.10; rather it was just the sort of technical error for which CPR 3.10 was designed. Further, the defendant’s application to strike out the claim form could and should be treated as an application under CPR Part 11. In contrast, failures to comply with the...