In the first of a special refresher series setting out the costs landscape, Dominic Regan tackles free money & other Part 36 considerations
- The rationale and advantages of the Part 36 regime, and key cases which saw parties reaping the benefits.
Used effectively, Part 36 of the Civil Procedure Rules can secure tremendous benefits for a receiving party. The path to recovery is not always straightforward. Part 36 is ‘highly prescriptive (so that even experienced lawyers may fail to make a compliant offer),’ as Burnton LJ said in Webb v Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust [2016] EWCA Civ 365, [2016] All ER (D) 103 (Apr).
Coulson LJ said: ‘The law reports are over-full of cases in which parties made offers outside the scope of Part 36 and then unsuccessfully sought to obtain the Part 36 benefits later,’ in King v City of London Corp [2019] EWCA Civ 2266, [2019] All ER (D) 103 (Dec).
Money for nothing
The rationale of Part 36 is to promote settlement and so avoid the lottery of
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