ABSTRACT
Lord Woolf proposed that the test for summary judgment under the CPR should be easier for applicants to satisfy than the test under the old rules.7 The old test was for the claimant to satisfy the court that the defendant had ‘no defence to the claim’. Thus, summary judgment was only available where there was plainly no defence to a claim and, if the defendant could show a ‘triable issue’, he would succeed in avoiding summary judgment. The new test is for the applicant to satisfy the court that there is ‘no reasonable prospect of succeeding in bringing or defending a claim’. However, it remains to be seen whether the courts will interpret this test more leniently than that applicable under the former rules for obtaining summary judgment.
