# The Civil Procedure Rules 1998, Rule 21.2: Requirement for a litigation friend in proceedings by or against children and protected parties


(1) A protected party must have a litigation friend to conduct proceedings on their behalf.
(2) Unless the court makes an order under paragraph (3), a litigation friend must conduct proceedings on a child’s behalf.
(3) The court may make an order permitting a child to conduct proceedings without a litigation friend.
(4) An application for an order under paragraph (3)—
(a) may be made by the child;
(b) if the child already has a litigation friend, must be made on notice to the litigation friend; and
(c) if the child has no litigation friend, may be made without notice.
(5) Where—
(a) the court has made an order under paragraph (3); and
(b) it later appears to the court desirable for a litigation friend to conduct the proceedings on the child’s behalf,
the court may appoint a person to be the child’s litigation friend.
(6) Where one of the parties is a child or protected party, that party shall be referred to in the title to the proceedings as “[name] (a [child] [protected party]) by [name] as litigation friend”.
(7) Where one of the parties is a child conducting the proceedings on their own behalf, the child shall be referred to in the title as “[name] (a child)”.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/3132/rule/21.2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/civil-procedure-rules-1998/rule-21.2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.