header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us
15 July 2019 / Paul Bracewell
Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Costs
printer mail-detail

Avoid at all costs

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.
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

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

Senior appointments in insurance services and commercial services announced

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Aviation disputes practice strengthened by London partner hire

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Residential property lawyer promoted to partnership

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: Renters’ Rights revolution begins—brace for tribunal chaos
he abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC
NLJ this week: Civil procedure gets a spring overhaul
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
NLJ this week: Why GP complaints are going nowhere
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
NLJ this week: Prenups meet a jurisdictional brick wall
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
NLJ this week: Has Rylands v Fletcher come back from the dead?
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll