Insurance And Reinsurance Weekly Update - 7 May 2013

Berg v Blackburn Rovers

Application to withdraw admission and new attitude of the courts post-Jackson reforms

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2013/1070.html

The defendant applied for permission to withdraw an admission (pursuant to CPR r14.1). Pelling QC HHJ noted the radical change to the Overriding Objective since 1 April 2013 - it now places emphasis not merely on the need to deal with cases justly but to do so at proportionate cost, expeditiously, to enforce compliance with the Rules and orders and to allot to each case an appropriate share of the Court's resources. The judge said that "this amendment of the overriding objective is likely to have a significant impact on the approach to be adopted to applications of this kind, which will now be approached by courts much more rigorously than perhaps has been the practice in the past, particularly where formal admissions are made on behalf of parties represented by experienced and specialist