Drury v BBC [2007] EWCA Civ 497, [2007] All ER (D) 384 (May)
CPR 7.6(3)(b) (extension of time for serving a claim form) requires the judge to consider whether all reasonable steps have been taken to serve the defendant during the four-month period allowed. Attempts made after that time are irrelevant.
The right approach is to consider what steps were taken in the four-month period and then to ask whether, in the circumstances, those steps were all that it was reasonable for the claimant to have taken. The test is whether what the claimant had done was objectively reasonable, given the circumstances that prevailed.
A litigant who leaves his efforts at service to the last moment and then fails due to an unexpected problem is very unlikely to persuade the court that he has taken all reasonable steps to serve the claim in time. Without such a finding, the court is unable to extend time, and both sub-paras (b) and (c) of P 7.6(3) have to be satisfied for the court to have discretion to grant relief.
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