Law digests: 14 July 2023

Costs

Tabbitt v Clark [2023] EWCA Civ 744, [2023] All ER (D) 107 (Jun)

The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the appellant’s appeal from a decision which had declined to include in the order giving effect to the acceptance of the Part 36 offer on the basis of the rules as they stood at the time. The appellant was involved in a road traffic accident and sought damages against the respondent. He then accepted a Part 36 offer by the respondent. Since the costs had not been assessed or agreed, there was at the date of the judge’s judgment no immediate prospect of enforcement of any costs order against the appellant. At the time of the judge’s judgment, changes to the qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS) rules were under active consideration by the Civil Procedure Rules Committee (CPRC). The appellant wished to guard the possibility of a future rule change with potential retrospective effect. He argued that: (i) the QOCS rules were so tightly drawn that they had compelled