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03 May 2018 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 7791 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Costs
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Playing by the rules

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A Part 36 offer can bring a plethora of benefits, but there is no room for manoeuvre when it comes to compliance, says Dominic Regan

  • An offer is either compliant or not.There is no scope for circumventing the explicit requirements of the code.

‘Part 36 is highly prescriptive (so that even experienced lawyers may fail to make a compliant offer)’ said Burnton LJ in Webb v Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust [2016] EWCA Civ 365, [2016] All ER (D) 103 (Apr) at para [1]. Disconcertingly, it now appears that this most significant of measures is not always being understood by the judiciary.

In Ali v Channel 5 Broadcast Ltd [2018] EWHC 840 (Ch) at paras [42]–[43], the claimant contended a joint offer made under Part 36 was invalid. Arnold J decided that it was not open to the claimants to raise this objection. They had failed to take the point upon receipt of the offer.

A similar issue arose in Seeff v

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