When is a formal settlement offer “beaten” for the purposes of CPR, Pt 36? John Trotter and Giles Hutt report
In April last year CPR, Pt 36 was overhauled, primarily with the intention of simplifying the rules and allowing defendants to make formal settlement offers without paying money into court. No-one had then expected all defendants to be able to make a “Pt 36 offer” without producing the settlement money up front: the government's consultation paper and previous case law had suggested this was appropriate only for defendants such as public sector defendants who were self-evidently “good for the money”, although Lord Woolf's reports had considered such a change in 1997. However, a further surprise was in store, when the Court of Appeal delivered its judgment 12 months later in Carver v BAA plc [2008] EWCA Civ 412, [2008] All ER (D) 295 (Apr).
The case concerned an air hostess who hurt her ankle when stepping into a defective lift at Gatwick airport.
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