David Burrows explores the different ways in which a judge’s decision can be reconsidered
There are four main ways in which a judge’s decision can be reconsidered, whether by the judge or on appeal:
- An appeal in time because the court below was “wrong”.
- Appeal out of time because of supervening events.
- A judge can change his mind, which change takes effect if the order is not sealed.
- An appellate court can, in very narrow circumstances, review its own order.
A variant on the same theme is where there is an agreement, but which has not yet been turned into an order, or a long delay before an order is sought: when can that agreement, or the delay in seeking an order, upset today’s status quo? [In what follows, the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, Pt 52 jurisdiction will be referred to. The parallel Family Procedure Rules 2010, Pt 30 is mostly derived from Pt 52.]
The underlying issue for an appeal is simple: the appellate court (AC), ie Court of Appeal; a High Court judge; a circuit judge etc) may only allow
