header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us

Part 36: Does justice have a price?

© Copyright LexisNexis 2025. All Rights Reserved.
02 August 2024 / Jack Ridgway
Issue: 8082 / Categories: Features , Profession , Dispute resolution
printer mail-detail
184265
Jack Ridgway shares his reflections on the significance of Hugh Grant’s (reluctant) acceptance of a Pt 36 offer
  • The importance of Pt 36.
  • The consequences of failing to beat Pt 36.
  • The role of Pt 36 where money is not the driving factor in the litigation.

The world of legal costs and celebrity rarely interact, yet in the past few years we have had legal costs enter the public consciousness on two occasions: the infamous ‘Wagatha Christie’ saga (‘Welcome to the jungle (Pt 2)’, 169 NLJ 7868, p15), and more recently (in April) Hugh Grant (‘The insider’, NLJ, 17 May 2024, p7). While Coleen Rooney had her day in court, Hugh Grant (pictured) has cast the spotlight on legal costs for a very different reason—Pt 36.

While some sympathy can be felt for an individual who feels wronged and has not ‘had their day’ in court, it should be remembered that Hugh Grant has received damages without going to trial in several libel claims, going

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
Arc Pensions Law—Ian D’Costa

Arc Pensions Law—Ian D’Costa

Pensions firm welcomes legal director in London

Shakespeare Martineau—Jonathan Warren

Shakespeare Martineau—Jonathan Warren

Real estate disputes team strengthened by London partner hire

Morgan Lewis—Christian Tuddenham

Morgan Lewis—Christian Tuddenham

Litigation partner joins disputes team in London

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: AI, liberty & the digital cage
Government plans for offender ‘restriction zones’ risk creating ‘digital cages’ that blur punishment with surveillance, warns Henrietta Ronson, partner at Corker Binning, in this week's issue of NLJ
NLJ this week: Leasehold reform in limbo
Louise Uphill, senior associate at Moore Barlow LLP, dissects the faltering rollout of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 in this week's NLJ
NLJ this week: Enforcement reform gets real
Judgments are ‘worthless without enforcement’, says HHJ Karen Walden-Smith, senior circuit judge and chair of the Civil Justice Council’s enforcement working group. In this week's NLJ, she breaks down the CJC’s April 2025 report, which identified systemic flaws and proposed 39 reforms, from modernising procedures to protecting vulnerable debtors
NLJ this week: Standish reshapes family & inheritance claims
Writing in NLJ this week, Katherine Harding and Charlotte Finley of Penningtons Manches Cooper examine Standish v Standish [2025] UKSC 26, the Supreme Court ruling that narrowed what counts as matrimonial property, and its potential impact upon claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
NLJ this week: Clearing Christine Keeler’s name
In this week's NLJ, Dr Jon Robins, editor of The Justice Gap and lecturer at Brighton University, reports on a campaign to posthumously exonerate Christine Keeler. 60 years after her perjury conviction, Keeler’s son Seymour Platt has petitioned the king to exercise the royal prerogative of mercy, arguing she was a victim of violence and moral hypocrisy, not deceit. Supported by Felicity Gerry KC, the dossier brands the conviction 'the ultimate in slut-shaming'
Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll