Issuing Claims: Multiple Claimants

Further clarification has been provided to situations where multiple claimants are all party to one claim which is issued with the court by completing a single claim form.

The rules on the number of claimants are set out in the Civil Procedure Rules. CPR 19.1 states that any number of claimants or defendants may be joined as parties to a claim. This is subject to the rule that any number of claimants may use a single claim form to start their claim provided all claims can conveniently be disposed of in the same proceeding. This is known as the “convenience test” and is contained in CPR 7.3.

The recent case of Morris and others V Williams & Co Solicitors and others [2024] EWCA Civ 376 has confirmed that the word ‘claimant’ in CPR 7.3 can be read as plural and ‘claim’ in CPR 19.1 meant ‘a set of proceedings commenced by a claim form’. This clarifies that the ‘convenience test’ remains accurate and is used to determine the circumstances where multiple claimants can issue a single claim form.

There is no further test to be applies and no particular requirement to show that a determination of common issues would bind all or most of the claimants, provided it is convenient to dispose of all claims in the same proceedings, only one claim form is required.