Agreeing extension of time

Thomas v Home Office [2006] All ER (D) 243 (Oct)

CPR rule 2.11 provides: ‘Unless these Rules or a practice direction provide otherwise or the court orders otherwise, the time specified by a rule or by the court for a person to do any act may be varied by the written agreement of the parties.’ The Court of Appeal accepted that under this provision it was open to the parties to agree an unlimited extension of time for the service of a claim form. But what was a ‘written agreement’? Clearly a document signed by both parties or an oral agreement confirmed in writing by both parties would suffice. However, an oral agreement between solicitors subsequently recorded in a letter sent by one solicitor to the other, but not replied to, would not suffice. Neither would an oral agreement between two solicitors, evidenced by a file note of one or even both of the solicitors, unless the file notes were exchanged, or one solicitor sent the file note to the other and the other confirmed its accuracy in writing.