Jeffrey Ross Blue v Michael James Wallace Ashley [2017] EWHC 1553 (Comm)

Whether non-party allowed access to witness statements referred to at a pre-trial hearing

The applicant (a non-party to the proceedings) sought access to witness statements which had been referred to at a pretrial hearing. CPR r5.4C allows non-parties to obtain copies of statements of case from the court record, but that does not include documents filed with the statement of case (such as witness statements). However, permission can be sought from the Court for access to any documents filed by a party. Leggatt J rejected an argument that he had no power to allow access to the witness statements in this case because they were not on the court file. A document is "filed" at Court when it is delivered to the court office and it does not matter if a copy of the document is no longer on the court file (as the court could order the document to be filed again or for a copy to be provided directly to the non-party). The judge also rejected an argument that it is implicit in