LEGAL PRINCIPLE: CIVIL PROCEDURE – Slip Rule – Scope and Limitation
PRINCIPLE STATEMENT
The Court shall not review any judgment once given except to correct clerical mistakes or errors arising from accidental slip or omission, or to vary the judgment/order to give effect to its meaning or intention; a judgment shall not be varied when it correctly represents what the Court decided nor shall the operative and substantive part be varied with a different form substituted.
RATIO DECIDENDI (SOURCE)
"The Court shall not review any judgment once given and delivered by it save to correct any clerical mistake or some error arising from any accidental slip or omission, or to vary the judgment or order so as to give effect to its meaning or intention. A judgment or order shall not be varied when it correctly represents what the Court decided nor shall the operative and substantive part of it be varied and a different form substituted."
EXPLANATION / SCOPE
The slip rule permits only narrow corrections, not substantive review. Permissible corrections include: (1) Clerical mistakes—typographical errors, wrong dates/names, mathematical errors; (2) Accidental slips/omissions—inadvertent failure to include intended terms; (3) Clarifications giving effect to the court’s actual intention. Impermissible uses: changing the decision’s substance, substituting different conclusions, correcting legal errors, or reconsidering matters actually decided. The slip rule addresses implementation errors, not judgment errors. If the judgment accurately reflects what the court decided (even if wrong), it cannot be varied. Only when the written judgment fails to express the court’s actual decision can variation occur. This preserves finality while allowing correction of recording/expression errors that would frustrate the court’s true intention