Evidence, Practice and Procedure: Relief from Sanctions after Mitchell and Durrant

The issue of relief from sanctions goes wider than that of costs budgeting (Mitchell MP v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 1537). In Durrant v Avon & Somerset Constabulary [2013] EWCA Civ 1624 the Court of Appeal (Richards LJ giving the judgment of the court with Levison LJ and Coleridge J) applied the principle of Mitchell to relief from sanctions generally under CPR 1998 r 3.9. This was amended following the Jackson costs reforms to provide as follows:

 3.9 Relief from sanctions

(1) On an application for relief from any sanction imposed for a failure to comply with any rule practice direction or court order the court will consider all the circumstances of the case so as to enable it to deal justly with the application including the need -

 (a) for litigation to be conducted efficiently and at proportionate cost; and

(b)...

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