Recent High Court Guidance On Fundamental Dishonesty

Jenkinson v Robertson [2022] EWHC 756 (Admin)

Issue

What constitutes procedurally fair “adequate notice” of an allegation of fundamental dishonesty (“FD”)

Brief facts

The first instance judge found the Claimant, a litigant in person allegedly injured in a road traffic accident in 2013, to have been FD with the effect of triggering section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (“Section 57”).

The Defendant raised FD for the first time at trial, not having previously given express notice of its intention to do so. Its pleaded case merely put the Claimant to proof on the injuries and symptoms, however in correspondence the Defendant had asserted that the claim was “exaggerated” and “unreasonable”.