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Avoid at all costs

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15 July 2019 / Paul Bracewell
Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Costs
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Practitioners should steer clear of making Pt 36 offers with costs conditions attached, warns Paul Bracewell
  • Pt 36 offers which include terms as to costs are inconsistent with the Pt 36 rule, HHJ Matthews has held in Knight and another v Knight and others.

 A Pt 36 offer (pre-issue) which imposes a condition as to costs is not a valid offer, HHJ Matthews (sitting as a High Court judge) held in Knight and another v Knight and others [2019] EWHC 1545 (Ch).

The case is also notable for rejecting the claimants’ argument that the defendants’ failure to accept a reasonable offer, made outside of Pt 36, should lead to the claimants being awarded indemnity costs.

The facts of the case

The case had been to trial in March 2019 on the issue of the beneficial ownership of the proceeds of sale of property. The claimants are the administrators of an estate and the defendants are the brother and sister-in-law of the deceased. The defendants lost and accepted that

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