CA-2025-000452 - [2025] EWCA Civ 1413

Court documents to be sealed.

The court must seal (GL) the following documents on issue –

the claim form;

…

The court may place the seal (GL) on the document by hand, by printing or electronically.”

The (GL) which follows a word in the rules indicates that the word is included in the Glossary. The Glossary is a guide to the meaning of certain legal expressions used in the rules, but it is not to be taken as giving them a different meaning from that which they have in the law generally (CPR r.2.2(1)). The word “seal” is defined in the Glossary as: “a mark which the court puts on a document to indicate that the document has been issued by the court.” The act of sealing “on issue” (CPR r. 2.6(1)) will be carried out by a court officer who will be a member of court staff (see CPR r.2.5(1)).

CPR r.7.5 prescribes the time limit for service of a claim form as well as the means by which it may be validly served (a matter with which this appeal is not concerned). It provides, so far as is relevant:

Where the claim form is to be served within the jurisdiction, the claimant must complete the step required by the following table in relation to the particular method of service chosen before 12.00 midnight on the calendar day four months after the date of issue of the claim form.”

CPR 7.6 provides as follows: