When a written compensation application is served on the defendant, may the applicant's name and address be hidden on the copy served, and whose decision is that?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
For this exercise, the papers to read are the written application for compensation as filed, the copy of it the court sent to the defendant, any request by the applicant asking that identifying particulars be covered over, and the service papers showing when the defendant was served.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading puts the two duties together: once a compensation application has been made in writing, the court must serve a copy on the defendant without delay, and in serving that copy the court may, on its own initiative or on the applicant's request, cover over all or part of the applicant's name, address and other particulars by which the applicant could be identified.
Another reading marks the outer edge of that power: redaction reaches only the applicant-identifying particulars on the copy, so the rest of the application is served as filed, and the provision leaves open what a request must set out and what service with the applicant's identity covered means for the defendant's reply.
Your judgment
If every identifying particular is covered over, what in the file could show the defendant knows who made the application and against whom?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to widen or narrow what may be covered over, or if a court decision sets what a redacted service permits the defendant to do in reply.