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CIVIL PROCEDURE RULES – PART 6 SERVICE OF DOCUMENTS – RULE 6.3 – METHODS OF SERVICE

by | Aug 5, 2022 | Civil Procedure Rules, General

We are continuing our series on Civil Procedure Rules, highlighting some of the little known but common rules and hopefully explaining them in plain English.

The next rule we will be looking at is Rule 6.3 – Methods of Service.

 The rule says:

6.3

(1) A claim form may be served by any of the following methods –
(a) personal service in accordance with rule 6.5;
(b) first class post, document exchange or other service which provides for delivery on the next business day, in accordance with Practice Direction 6A;
(c) leaving it at a place specified in rule 6.7, 6.8, 6.9 or 6.10;
(d) fax or other means of electronic communication in accordance with Practice Direction 6A; or
(e) any method authorised by the court under rule 6.15.
(2) A company may be served –
(a) by any method permitted under this Part; or
(b) by any of the methods of service permitted under the Companies Act 2006.
(3) A limited liability partnership may be served –
(a) by any method permitted under this Part; or
(b) by any of the methods of service permitted under the Companies Act 2006 as applied with modification by regulations made under the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000.

 

What does this mean?

This rule is probably one of the rules where Claimants fall foul of the most. I say this because it seems like on a weekly basis, I am receiving articles on cases concerning service of the Claim Form.

Whilst I have set out the full rule here, you will see there is reference to other rules which I shall deal with later.

But the reason for highlighting the rule is mainly to do with companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs). As you will see the rule makes reference to the Companies Act 2006 and Limited Liability Partnership Act 2000. These Acts provide for rules of service outside of the Civil Procedure Rules.

In essence, those Acts confirm that you can serve documents either at the registered address of the company or LLP, or on the director or secretary of the company. For LLPs this is a member, as opposed to director or secretary.

The Acts also confirm that it applies no matter what the documents are about. This is important where you are perhaps suing a director/secretary/member of a company/LLP personally and do not have their home address (because normally if you are serving a document on an individual you have to serve at their residential address). As such, you can serve it at the address listed on Companies House for their correspondence address.

You can find the full Civil Procedure Rules online (currently) at https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules

Any questions or support with the above please email us at: philip@whitecollarlegalandadmin.com or phone 0151 230 8931.