Dr Rachel Segal of St John’s Chambers has published the 2024 edition of the Denton Resource – an invaluable time-saving research aid for civil practitioners dealing with applications for relief from sanctions.
This latest edition includes cases related to relief from sanctions and/or application of the Denton criteria in higher authorities reported up to and including 31 December 2023. As ever, there are numerous examples of procedural errors by which parties have stumbled and placed themselves at the mercy of the court in exercising its discretion to grant relief. Some, especially those relating to errors of service of proceedings, are not so lucky.
Rachel’s foreword to this most recent collection of cases provides a background to what has emerged in the past year, from the usual handful of authorities where relief from sanction simply isn’t required at all to the Court of Appeal’s reminder that the Denton criteria should be applied in applications to set aside default judgment under CPR 13.3.
About the resource
This publication provides brief, easily searchable summaries of each relevant authority in thematic sections and will help the reader decide whether to delve deeper into the full judgment. The Denton Resource now has a big following including judges, solicitors, barristers, legal academics, Bar students, and legal bloggers. Each recent edition has been downloaded thousands of times.
Each summary in turn touches upon the defaulting party’s breach(es), the court’s application of the Denton criteria, and the outcome of the application for relief from sanction(s). All but one of the latest summaries have been produced from the full judgment in addition to consideration of relevant legal commentary (from legal bloggers) and also notes sent to Rachel from counsel involved in the featured cases.
About Rachel:
Rachel is ranked as a leading junior in The Legal 500 for both personal injury and clinical negligence. She advises and represents parties on both sides of relief from sanctions applications across the spectrum of civil litigation, publishes The Denton Resource annually and delivers training on the topic. Read more here.