Gomes & Anor v AMG Financial Management Ltd & Ors [2026] EWHC 2284 (Comm)

In Gomes, the claimants were required to serve Particulars of Claim by 4.00 pm on 1 December 2025. On the day of the deadline, they applied for an extension until 2 March 2026.

The application was still pending when the original deadline expired. The claimants then missed the new date they had proposed in the application, eventually serving the Particulars of Claim on 8 May 2026.

One of the questions was whether missing a deadline proposed in an outstanding extension application amounted to a breach of the CPR, and whether the claimants had thereby fallen into relief from sanctions territory.

The Court held that an application made before the original deadline expires remains an “in-time” application, even if the deadline subsequently passes before the Court determines the application.

That distinction matters.

The Court’s approach was that:

1. CPR 3.9 does not apply;
2. the application is determined under the Court’s general case management powers and the overriding objective; and
3. a proposed revised deadline has no legal status until the Court orders it.

In other words, a party cannot create a new court deadline simply by putting one in its application.

Stuart Ritchie KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, put the point neatly:

“The revised directions deadline sought by an applicant in an ‘in-time’ application has no status until the Court determines that application.”

The claimants’ failure to serve by 2 March 2026 therefore did not, of itself, amount to a breach of the CPR or an order.

But there was an important sting in the tail.

The Court warned that by applying “nigh on the 12th hour”, the claimants risked breach and sanction if (as happened) the deadline was missed and the Court did not, ultimately, grant the application and extend time retrospectively.

Gomes is a useful reminder that timing matters.

An application made before the deadline has an important procedural advantage: it remains an in-time application, even if the original deadline expires while the application is pending.

But it is not a licence to sit back and wait.