Terms & Conditions

[Mike Hughes]

Apologies. I ought to have added that the shortage of clerks in some areas means that there is potentially a high risk attached to submitting such evidence for a direction at the moment. I am aware of, and have seen, multiple examples where inexperienced or under pressure clerks have not read or understood the request and the next thing which happens is that the evidence on which you’re seeking a direction suddenly pops up as an unredacted addition to the appeal papers without a judge having had a sniff of it.

This is not a reason to not submit but it’s worth contemplating whether a request for directions in some instances might be better directed at the RJ rather than just what is in effect a duty judge. Clerks tend to direct stuff addressed to the RJ onto the RJ without intervention. It’s not the best of uses of anyone’s time but it does provide a real world solution to a potentially disastrous problem. In suggesting this bear in mind that, yes, it’s a tactic to which I have had to resort and, no, writing very clear instructions in bold or big letters to get a clerk to pay attention absolutely cannot be guaranteed to work.