The Claimant had been permitted to pursue two grounds of appeal against the rejection of her reasonable adjustment claims on the merits. However, when preparing for the appeal hearing, she came to appreciate that those claims had also been dismissed on limitation grounds. She therefore sought permission, when lodging her skeleton argument, to amend her notice of appeal to add a challenge to the limitation decision. Permission to amend was refused and the Claimant appealed.

The EAT dismissed the appeal. The proposed amendment introduced a new ground directed to a different aspect of the ET’s decision, was made very late in the proceedings, would cause significant prejudice to the Respondent, and was unsupported by an adequate explanation for the delay. Although the proposed ground was arguable, that factor did not outweigh the considerations pointing against amendment. Khudados v Leggate [2005] ICR 1013 and Deans v RBL Law Limited (in Liquidation) [2026] EAT 76 applied.