AGREEMENTS TO EXTEND TIME: THE NEW RULES IN FULL

May 15, 2014 · by · in Applications, Avoiding negligence claims, Civil Procedure, Relief from sanctions

It required a statutory instrument to reinstate the ability to extend time that the Jackson Report never intended to take away.

THE NEW RULES

The Civil Procedure (Amendment No 5) Rules 2014 come into force on the 5th June 2014.

WHAT THE RULES SAY

“Amendments to the Civil Procedure Rules 1998

3. In rule 3.8—
(a) in paragraph (3)(b), after “agreement between the parties” insert “except as provided in
paragraph (4)”;
(b) after paragraph (3) insert—
“(4) In the circumstances referred to in paragraph (3) and unless the court orders
otherwise, the time for doing the act in question may be extended by prior written
agreement of the parties for up to a maximum of 28 days, provided always that any such
extension does not put at risk any hearing date.”.

NOTE THAT THE AGREEMENT HAS TO BE IN WRITING

There are a few points to note.

  • The rules refer to “prior” written agreement.  It does not appear that a “subsequent” agreement can be made.
  • It has to be a “written” agreement.  There are dangers with this and I will blog a separate post dealing with that issue.

 

 

Tags: , ,