The Power to Reconsider Orders Under CPR Rule 3.1(7)

This article reviews the major developments of the general power of English courts to reconsider their orders under r.3.1(7) of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR). It shows that the Court of Appeal has been inconsistent in its approach to that rule, and that any attempt to provide general criteria for exercising that power fails to take into account the diversity of circumstances or the types of orders that may invoke the rule. The author proposes departing from the absolute prohibition on invoking CPR r.3.1(7) to review orders on the merits and, instead, affording trial judges the discretion to reconsider on the merits procedural orders that were made to facilitate the trial.