How many claims?

In re Ludlan (a bankrupt) ChD TLR 26 October

For an extended civil restraint order to be made it is a precondition that the relevant person has ‘persistently issued claims or made applications which are totally without merit’ (para 3.1 of Practice Direction C in Part 3 of the Civil Procedure Rules). When considering the making of such an order generally the court is to engage in a graduated and proportionate response to the identified abuse that made it logical for the statutory scheme to have a higher pre-condition threshold for the making of an extended order as opposed to a limited or general order. Accordingly, if the pre-condition threshold for a limited order were two or more applications which were totally without merit, the ‘persistence’ in para 3.1 had to require more than two unmeritorious claims or applications; therefore, for an extended order, three such claims or applications had to be the bare minimum.