Acceptance by solicitors

Firstdale Ltd v Quinton QBD TLR 27 October

CPR rule 6.4 provides: ‘(2) Where a solicitor – (a) is authorised to accept service on behalf of a party; and (b) has notified the party serving the document in writing that he is so authorised, a document must be served on the solicitor.’ In those circumstances service on the solicitor’s client personally would be invalid. However, in the present case the matter lay dormant for over two years after the solicitors gave notice of their instructions to accept service, during which time the debt had been assigned to the present claimant. Accordingly, the proceedings were no longer between the same parties and the solicitors’ notice could not be taken as signifying authority to accept service of proceedings instituted by the present claimant. Accordingly, it followed that, at the time when the claim form was served, neither the defendant nor his solicitors had given an address for service within CPR rule 6.4 or 6.5, and therefore service of the claim form at the defendant’s home address did not render service defective.