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10 December 2020
Issue: 7914 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way
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Civil Way: 11 December 2020

Pt 36 is juicy: official; New debt moratoria; Waking up to a mistake; Beware whiplash reforms; Prepare for higher court fees

ALL OR NOTHING

A judgment which beats a Pt 36 offer bears four juicy fruits, unless that would be unjust. In Telefonica UK Ltd v The Office of Communications [2020] EWCA Civ 1374, [2020] All ER (D) 55 (Nov), the mobile network operating claimant seeking restitution of annual licence fees paid to Ofcom had made a pre-action Pt 36 offer for a cool £52.82m principal as against a judgment for over £54m, in which interest also figured. The judge awarded two of the fruits, to wit indemnity costs from 21 days after the offer and an additional amount at the capped £75,000. However, he decided against the other two enhancements of interest on the principal and the costs (above the agreed commercial rate of 2% over base) which cannot exceed 10% above base. In relation to enhanced interest on the principal award and the judge’s reasoning that such an award would have

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Dual-qualified partner joins as head of commercial property department

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Firm announces appointment of next chair

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Director joins corporate team from the US

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
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