Striking out a claim & summary judgment

• Key contacts
• Case studies
• FWJ takeaway

Summary judgement

Summary judgment is a process where, as with case management, there is a procedure to mitigate wasted legal costs.  Any party may apply for summary judgment and should be successful where the Court (on hearing such an application) considers that there is not real prospect of a claimant or defendant succeeding, and that there is no other compelling reason why the case or issue should be disposed of at trial.

This application would increase legal costs overall (if unsuccessful) and so should only be issued following adequate legal advice.  As with the main proceedings, if such an application is unsuccessful then the person making that application will have to pay their opponent’s wasted legal costs.

The application for summary judgment is effectively a set of proceedings within a set of proceedings.  Each party will file evidence in respect of this application and that will then follow with a standalone hearing.

Strike Out Application

A strike out Application is often made together with a summary judgment application, seeking either a striking out of a specific part of the claimant or defendant’s case or seeking summary judgment on their claim or defence.

• a strike out application is often used to bring a quick end to “vexatious” and wasteful claims or those where there is clearly no evidence and the proceedings have been brought (or are being defended) on weak or non-existent grounds.
• a strike out application can be used to shorten the length of proceedings, striking out your opponent’s case, resulted in an expedited set of proceedings (which is then dealt with at shorter notice). 

For either party, most particularly claimants in Part 7 proceedings and Defendants generally, this can have the additional benefit of withholding any requirement to disclose their evidence on other aspects of the claim (which may be too sensitive to broadcast) and ultimately obtaining the result sought without having to endure the long costly proceedings which may have ended with the same result.

Striking out: an overview

In certain circumstances there may be an opportunity to seek an Order that judgment be granted in your favour at a very early stage (or even midway through the proceedings).  This is known as summary judgment.

This is separate from Default Judgment, which is where judgment is obtained because of a complete absence of any defence being received from the defendant.

At Francis Wilks & Jones we can assist you with all aspects of managing your case or your defence throughout litigation proceedings, using the correct legitimate tactics to achieve your objective and we often are unafraid to propose taking steps to seek a summary judgment and/or a strike out of a claim, where it is likely to save costs and shorten the proceedings.  Should you require assistance then please do not hesitate to contact us.

One of the most astute appointments I have ever made.

A company director

I have found FWJ to be perceptive, to the point and realistic. They have been able to assimilate and forcefully defend a very aggressive claim with very limited historic information.

A client we advised on a complicated property and partnership dispute