UK Offence Report

Service of claim form in certain actions under certain Acts

paragraph Rule 7(4) of SCHEDULE 1 of The Civil Procedure Rules 1998

The provision has been revoked, but a saving provision keeps it prosecutable for conduct before a stated date. A person can still be charged with something it is no longer an offence to do.

What the provision says

4 There must be prominently displayed on the front of the copy of an order served under this rule

a warning to the person on whom the copy is served that disobedience to the order would be

a contempt of court punishable by imprisonment, or (in the case of an order requiring

a body corporate to do or abstain from doing an act) punishable by sequestration of the assets of the body corporate and by imprisonment of any individual responsible.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach paragraph Rule 7(4) of SCHEDULE 1?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Civil Procedure Rules 1998.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Revoked, but still prosecutable
Revoked by
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Consequential, Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2013
Revoked on
1 April 2013
Still prosecutable for conduct before
25 March 2002
Made
10 December 1998
In force from
26 April 1999
Extent
Not stated

stated in the saving provision: 25th March 2002

How this was established: revoked, but a saving provision keeps the offence prosecutable for conduct before the stated date.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Rules) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Rules provide a new code of civil procedure for the civil courts. They replace the Rules of the Supreme Court 1965 and the County Court Rules 1981. As well as the main body of the new rules (Parts 1—48), they also provide for certain specialist proceedings (Part 49) and transitional provisions (Part 51); the details of these are contained in practice directions. Part 50 introduces schedules to the Rules containing those provisions of the former rules of court which for the time being are re-enacted as part of the Civil Procedure Rules but without substantial changes.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.60.

Basis
the provision says the conduct is “punishable”
Confidence
0.60 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source