ABSTRACT
Under CPR r 15.2, the court may give summary judgment on the claim or on a particular issue if it considers that: (a) the claimant has no real prospect of succeeding on the claim or the issue; or (b) the defendant has no real prospect of successfully defending the claim or the issue.
In addition, there are separate provisions in r 26.3 giving the court power to strike out the whole or part of a statement of case if it discloses no reasonable ground for bringing or defending the claim. The main distinction between striking out and summary judgment is that the former is aimed at weakness in the manner in which the issues are set out in the statements of case, whereas the latter is used in cases or defences that are weak on the facts and, since summary judgment is defined as ‘a procedure by which the court may decide a claim or a particular issue without a trial’,1
