Box, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Anor

A judicial review claim may be dismissed where the claimant, despite reasonable notice of the hearing and the opportunity to participate, has shown no continuing interest in prosecuting the proceedings. The court may infer that the claimant no longer wishes to participate where neither the claimant nor any representative has engaged with the proceedings for a substantial period. In those circumstances, dismissal is appropriate even though the claim had previously received permission.

The claimant sought judicial review of the defendants’ refusal to pay compensation for time spent in custody following convictions that were later quashed by the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division. Permission to apply for judicial review was granted on 9 August 2006. The claimant’s solicitors came off the record in October 2006, and no replacement solicitor acted for him. Despite being notified of the hearing and supplied with the defendants’ materials, the claimant neither attended nor communicated with the court. The issue was whether the claim should proceed in those circumstances.

1. The claim was dismissed.
2. The claimant had not attended the hearing and had shown no meaningful interest in the proceedings since about October 2006. The defendants’ solicitors had taken the necessary and usual steps to notify him of the hearing date and had sent him the relevant hearing bundle and skeleton argument.
3. In those circumstances, the court drew the inevitable inference that the claimant no longer wished to participate in or prosecute the judicial review claim in any meaningful way. Dismissal was therefore appropriate, notwithstanding that permission had previously been granted.
4. No order for costs was pursued.