Rectification - What Is It And What Do You Need To Know?

Rectification is a remedy exercised in the court's discretion to re-write mistaken wording in a legal document so that it accords with what the parties to the document had intended. In a pensions context, rectification is often, but not always, sought by the employer and the document is usually a deed or the rules of the scheme.

In this article, our Pensions Disputes team explains the important things for employers, trustees and representative beneficiaries to note about rectification and when the court will grant it.

A common context for a rectification claim is the discovery that, owing to a mistake in the wording of a scheme document, members' benefits, and hence the scheme's liabilities, are greater than had been intended. Rectifying the document will correct the mistake retrospectively to the date the document was executed, thereby enabling the employer and trustees to proceed on the intended basis, as if the document had always contained the correct wording.