ONE DAY OUT
An order which requires an act to be done should set out the specific deadline date for compliance. That’s CPR PD 40B, para 8.2. In Leadingway Consultants Ltd v Saab and another [2025] EWCA Civ 582, however, the unless order in question used the less precise formula of the number of days from the date of the order for the second defendant to make a required application. His solicitors made an innocent day-counting mistake (which in the circumstances I would probably have done too) and filed the application one day late. Result? Debarred from making the application and defending the claim. Relief from those sanctions was granted below. What seems to have weighed heavily with the Court of Appeal in upholding that decision was the PD non-compliance, as it took time out to remind that well-intentioned incompetence should not usually attract relief from sanction.
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