Researching Reform: Interveners in public family law cases - an overview

Third party interventions have been relatively rare in the Chitty 1834 'The Practice of Law' at 497-498). An early explanation of the practice can be found in Dalrymple v Dalrymple (1811):

‘The principle of the law of intervention is that if any third person consider that his interest will be affected by a cause which is depending he is not bound to leave the care of his interest to either of the litigants but has a right to intervene or be made a party to the cause and take on himself the defence of his own rights provided he does not disturb the order of the proceedings.’

Today little is known about interveners what they can do and the rules relating to them; provisions for intervention within the rules are also still noticeably uneven. Guidance is even more scant with reference to interveners involved in public...

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