header-logo header-logo

Navigating Pt 36: challenges & pitfalls

05 May 2021 / Helen Armstrong , William Rowell
Issue: 7931 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Costs
printer mail-detail
48176
Part 36 settlement offers: Helen Armstrong & William Rowell outline how to avoid the pitfalls
  • Part 36 regime: an influential settlement weapon.
  • Recent judgments: outlining the highly complex area for parties and their advisers.

The Pt 36 regime is arguably one of the most influential weapons in the Civil Procedure Rules’ (CPR) arsenal for encouraging settlement. It provides a statutory code of prescribed costs, damages and interest enhancements that essentially penalise parties who fail to accept a reasonable settlement offer.

The rules relating to Pt 36 offers are, however, very complex. There are various formal requirements for making an offer. Parties may inadvertently (and unknowingly) fail to make a compliant Pt 36 offer and cannot benefit from the enhanced costs consequences they had envisaged. Even where an offer is compliant, if it would be ‘unjust’ to award the prescribed benefits, the court can disapply them. The whole regime becomes a procedural minefield.

A series of recent judgments illustrates how difficult this area can be for

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

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll