DELAY IN JUDICIAL REVIEW

June 11th, 2025 by James Goudie KC

SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL v BC  ( 2025 ) EWCA Civ 719, a case on Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 and the provision of accommodation, addresses delay in the bringing of judicial review proceedings. The Court says at para 18 that “ in recent times there has been a greater emphasis on the tight time limits in judicial review”; and at para 43 that “ judicial review is not a regime where a claimant is entitled to wait, dotting every available ”i” and crossing every possible “ t “ before making a claim for judicial review.” “ If documents are potentially important and outstanding, then one possibility is for a claimant to issue proceedings, and then seek to delay the hearing of the permission application until after disclosure. What a claimant cannot do is to delay issuing proceedings in the hope that something might turn up on disclosure.”

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