Crown Proceedings
Act, 1947.
Part II.
—cont.
(5) No proceedings instituted in accordance with this part of this Act by or against the Attorney General or an authorised Government department shall abate or be affected by any change in the person holding the office of Attorney General or in the person or body of persons constituting the department.
Service of documents. 18. All documents required to be served on the Crown for the purpose of or in connection with any civil proceedings by or against the Crown shall, if those proceedings are by or against an authorised Government department, be served on the solicitor, if any, for that department, or the person, if any, acting for the purposes of this Act as solicitor for that department, or if there is no such solicitor and no person so acting, or if the proceedings are brought by or against the Attorney General, on the Solicitor for the affairs of His Majesty’s Treasury.
Venue and related matters. 19.—(1) In any case in which civil proceedings against the Crown in the High Court are instituted by the issue of a writ out of a district registry the Crown may enter an appearance either in the district registry or in the central office of the High Court, and if an appearance is entered in the central office all steps in relation to the proceedings up to trial shall be taken at the Royal Courts of Justice.
(2) The trial of any civil proceedings by or against the Crown in the High Court shall be held at the Royal Courts of Justice unless the court, with the consent of the Crown, otherwise directs.
Where the Crown refuses its consent to a direction under this subsection the court may take account of the refusal in exercising its powers in regard to the award of costs.
(3) Nothing in this section shall prejudice the right of the Crown to demand a local venue for the trial of any proceedings in which the Attorney General has waived his right to a trial at bar.
Removal and transfer of proceedings. 20.—(1) If in a case where proceedings are instituted against the Crown in a county court an application in that behalf is made by the Crown to the High Court, and there is produced to the court a certificate of the Attorney General to the effect that the proceedings may involve an important question of law, or may be decisive of other cases arising out of the same matter, or are for other reasons more fit to be tried in the High Court, the proceedings shall be removed into the High Court.
Where any proceedings have been removed into the High Court on the production of such a certificate as aforesaid, and it appears to the court by whom the proceedings are tried that the removal has occasioned additional expense to the person by whom the proceedings are brought, the court may take account of the additional expense so occasioned in exercising its powers in regard to the award of costs.
