Freezing order discharged due to failure to serve arbitration claim form (AAA v BBB)

Arbitration analysis: On the return date of a worldwide freezing order (‘WWFO’) granted without notice, the High Court considered the consequences of the fact that the time for service of the arbitration claim form had expired by the time the WWFO was made. The court held that the claimant had failed to take all reasonable steps to serve the claim form within the one-month time limit. This meant that it did not meet the criteria for a retrospective extension of time for service. In addition, the claimant had failed to disclose the fact that claim form had expired when applying without notice for the WWFO, and had failed to draw the court’s attention to the criteria for extending time when it applied (also without notice) to extend time for service. The court thus set aside the claim form and the order purporting to extend time for serving it, and discharged the WWFO. Written by Natasha Peter, barrister at…

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