Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Defending threatened or issued judicial review: pre-action protocol, duty of candour, redactions, acknowledgement of service and summary grounds to permission (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Public Law expert

Practice notes

This how-to guide outlines, at a high level, what a body carrying out public functions should do when faced with a threatened or lodged judicial review. It focuses on the stages up to the court’s decision on permission. For measures to guard against a successful challenge, see Practice Note: Avoiding a judicial review.

Take legal advice

The extent to which a threatened judicial review has already attracted legal input will differ. It turns on the nature of the impugned decision—major policy is more likely to have been advised upon than a one-off administrative act—and on who the decision-maker is. On receipt of a pre-action letter, the immediate issue is to ask whether any clear flaws exist in the decision under challenge, and, if so, whether these can be communicated to the decision-maker. How far such advice can shape the decision-maker’s approach will vary...

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Gabriel Tan

Gabriel is a specialist public lawyer, with practice and academic expertise in the field. He read law at Durham University and the University of Oxford. Gabriel previously practised at Wilson Solicitors, specialising in judicial reviews and civil claims against public authorities. He has experience in public law matters across a wide-range of issues, including policy challenges, and the consultation duties of public authorities, amongst others. Gabriel has had conduct of litigation before the County Court, Upper Tribunal, the Administrative Court, and the Court of Appeal. He has been instructed by individuals, as well as NGOs, both in litigation and general research matters. Gabriel writes regularly and has been published across a wide range of publications on various aspects of public law, including academic journals (e.g. Public Law, Edinburgh Law Review), academic blogs (e.g. UK Constitutional Law Association Blog), and...

Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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