When is the deadline for file and serve defence?

Defendant defending all or part must check ADGM Court Procedure Rules 2016, Part 6, rule 44(2). Within twenty-eight days after service. The identified act is to file a defence and serve every other party. Separate divisions and Fast Track have their own periods. A pending Rule 38 application displaces prehearing defence filing and service. This guide preserves the source boundary without a calculated final date or paid calculation.

Responsible actor. Defendant defending all or part.

Actual service of the claim

Separate divisions and Fast Track have their own periods. A pending Rule 38 application displaces prehearing defence filing and service.

Source guide. Within twenty-eight days after service. Establish actual service of the claim and the applicable branch. No computed date or paid calculation is available because actual-event and completion qualifications remain unverified.

1. Within twenty-eight days after service
2. ADGM Rule 6 counts days as clear days, excluding the start and an event-defined end. For periods of five days or less, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays do not count. Actual month periods and operative events need their own source review.
3. Current Rule 7(5), as amended on October 17, 2025, concerns a specified act whose period ends on a closed registry day, subject to the relevant practice direction. The amendment removed the old restriction to acts at the registry. Minimum notice, status and agreed caps remain distinct; no automatic final date is shown.

ADGM Rule 6 counts days as clear days, excluding the start and an event-defined end. For periods of five days or less, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays do not count. Actual month periods and operative events need their own source review.

Current Rule 7(5), as amended on October 17, 2025, concerns a specified act whose period ends on a closed registry day, subject to the relevant practice direction. The amendment removed the old restriction to acts at the registry. Minimum notice, status and agreed caps remain distinct; no automatic final date is shown.

Source guide. Within twenty-eight days after service. Establish actual service of the claim and the applicable branch. No computed date or paid calculation is available because actual-event and completion qualifications remain unverified.

Applicable statutory or procedural branch

Separate divisions and Fast Track have their own periods. A pending Rule 38 application displaces prehearing defence filing and service.

Applicable edition and transition

The maintained official ADGM index links the consolidated Rules and Amendment No. 1 of 2025, reissued October 17, 2025. Current division, Fast Track allocation, practice directions and orders remain material. This guide does not assume a historical matter uses that edition.

• Source guide. Within twenty-eight days after service. Establish actual service of the claim and the applicable branch. No computed date or paid calculation is available because actual-event and completion qualifications remain unverified.
• ADGM ordinary answer to a claim concerns file and serve the applicable answer from actual service of the claim, with within twenty-eight days after service. ADGM maximum agreed defence extension concerns agree the actual extension from actual existing defence period and agreement, with an extension of up to twenty-eight days. ADGM ordinary acknowledgment filing and service concerns file and serve the acknowledgment from actual service of the claim form, with fourteen days after service. Those events do not replace actual service of the claim for this step.

• File a defence and serve every other party
• Separate divisions and Fast Track have their own periods. A pending Rule 38 application displaces prehearing defence filing and service.
• Check the actual order and applicable edition.
• File a defence and serve every other party. Separate divisions and Fast Track have their own periods. A pending Rule 38 application displaces prehearing defence filing and service.