The right to apply

Berry Trade Ltd and another v Moussavi and others (CA TLR 10 April)

Committal proceedings had been adjourned several times because the defendant was unrepresented. The solicitors had come off the record when the funds he had provided were exhausted and his application for public funding had been refused. After he was adjudicated bankrupt he applied again for public funding and was again refused but the matter remained under consideration. To avoid further adjournments the claimants’ solicitors offered to pay for the defendant to be represented by his own chosen solicitors and counsel but the defendant refused the offer. In these circumstances the judge refused a further adjournment of the committal application.