NT -v- London Borough of Lambeth (anonymity order)
Administrative CourtHigh CourtKing's Bench DivisionAnonymity Order
Claim number: AC-2024-LON-000842
In the High Court of Justice
King’s Bench Division
Administrative Court
19 April 2024
Before:
The Honourable Mrs Justice Lang DBE
Between:
The King on the application of
NT
-v-
London Borough of Lambeth
Order
On the Claimant’s application for an anonymity order and for permission to apply for judicial review;
Following consideration of the documents lodged by the parties;
Order by the Honourable Mrs Justice Lang DBE
1. Pursuant to CPR r.39.2, in any report of these proceedings, there shall be no publication of the name and address of the Claimant, nor any other particulars likely to lead to her identification. In the proceedings, the Claimant shall be anonymised and referred to as “NT”.
2. No later than 14 days from the date of service of this order, the Claimant’s solicitors shall file with the Court copies of case documents which have been anonymised and/or redacted to protect the identity of the Claimant, in accordance with paragraph 1 above.
3. Non-parties may not obtain any documents from the court file which have not been anonymised and/or redacted to protect the identity of the Claimant, in accordance with paragraph 1 above.
4. No later than 21 days from the date of service of this order, the Defendant must file and serve an Acknowledgment of Service and Summary Grounds of Defence, accompanied by copies of relevant documents from the Claimant’s housing file.
5. Liberty to apply to vary or discharge this order on 3 days notice to the other party.
6. Costs in the case.
Reasons
1. I have granted an anonymity order. The Claimant claims she is at risk of domestic violence at the hands of her ex-partner. In the circumstances, a departure from the general principle of open justice is justified.
2. The Defendant has failed to make any response to the pre-action protocol correspondence or to the claim which was issued for service on 12 March 2024. As a public body, the Defendant is expected to act responsibly in legal proceedings which challenge the lawfulness of its actions in discharging its statutory obligations. This is a complicated case, with a long history, and the Court cannot fairly assess it without the Defendant’s co-operation.
3. If the Defendant does not comply with paragraph 4 of this order, the Court will have to consider listing an oral hearing of the permission application at the Royal Courts of Justice at which the Defendant’s Director of Legal Services will be ordered to attend to give evidence, and to produce the relevant documents from the Claimant’s housing file. Usually permission applications are dealt with by a Judge on the papers, with the benefit of written submissions and evidence from the parties, which is a more convenient and cost-effective way of determining the application than an oral hearing. Therefore the Defendant will be at risk of an adverse costs order if a permission hearing has to take place because of its non-compliance with an order of the Court.