Quick one for the legal bods
Discussion
Hi folks hopefully someone can help, a bit of background...I had an RTA back in January, heavy rear end shunt at a junction. My solicitor has put in a personal injury claim, the other persons insurers have paid for a course of physio (using my choice of physio etc), but have failed to make an offer to settle the claim so court proceedings have started. I had a letter from my solicitor outlining the above and finished saying
"It is open to you to put forward what is known as a "Part 36" offer in settlement of your claim. However, I do not feel that this is an appropriate course of action at this time. I will constantly review the option of making such an offer and advise you if such an offer becomes appropriate."
Unfortunately I've no idea what a "Part 36" offer is and he is out of his office until Thursday afternoon. Could someone be kind enough to explain what is meant by a Part 36 offer, Google leaves me non the wiser.
Regards
Iain
"It is open to you to put forward what is known as a "Part 36" offer in settlement of your claim. However, I do not feel that this is an appropriate course of action at this time. I will constantly review the option of making such an offer and advise you if such an offer becomes appropriate."
Unfortunately I've no idea what a "Part 36" offer is and he is out of his office until Thursday afternoon. Could someone be kind enough to explain what is meant by a Part 36 offer, Google leaves me non the wiser.
Regards
Iain
in a nutshell:
if one party makes a part 36 offer (i.e. i'll settle for £x) and the other party refuses it, then they have to beat that offer or else they will pay all costs from the time of the offer onwards.
aim is to encourage people to make sensible offers to settle and accept them or face the penalty of having to pay costs.
p.s. your solicitor is rubbish if they don't explain that to you. give them a kicking!
if one party makes a part 36 offer (i.e. i'll settle for £x) and the other party refuses it, then they have to beat that offer or else they will pay all costs from the time of the offer onwards.
aim is to encourage people to make sensible offers to settle and accept them or face the penalty of having to pay costs.
p.s. your solicitor is rubbish if they don't explain that to you. give them a kicking!
Flintstone said:
God damed it, beaten by a few seconds with the same link. 
Plotloss said:
A Part 36 offer is a line in the sand.
If you make an offer of £10K and they refuse and take it to trial and you subsequently get awarded more by a court, they automatically have to pay all costs.
not necessarily all costs - (nearly) all costs from the offer onwards (with a couple of exceptions), but there may be an adjustment to pre-offer costs depending upon conduct up to that point.If you make an offer of £10K and they refuse and take it to trial and you subsequently get awarded more by a court, they automatically have to pay all costs.
Plotloss said:
A Part 36 offer is a line in the sand.
If you make an offer of £10K and they refuse and take it to trial and you subsequently get awarded more by a court, they automatically have to pay all costs.
it's not quite as straight forward as that, although the line in the sand comment is true.If you make an offer of £10K and they refuse and take it to trial and you subsequently get awarded more by a court, they automatically have to pay all costs.
The loser usually pays the winners costs in litigation. The loser is usually the Defendant.
If a Defendant makes a Part 36 offer its open for acceptance for 21 days. If rejected, or not accepted within that period, the case will carry on and if settlement is not achieved, the case may ultimately go to Trial. At Trial, the Judge isnt told of the offers previously made and makes their own award.
If the Judge's award is equal to, or less than, the offer made by the Defendant, the Court will usually (its discretionary) make an Order that the Claimant pays the defendants costs from the last date the offer could have been accepted (ie 21 days from receipt) right through to the Trial. View it as the unnecessary costs forced by the Claimant for not accepting what turned out to be a reasonable offer. Costs prior to that offer are still usually payable by the Defendant.
ie the Claimant becomes the loser.
It makes a Claimant have a serious think about the value of their claim.
The Claimant can make a Part 36 offer of their own but seeing as the Defendant would ordinarily have to pay the Claimant's costs, its perhaps ot quite as dramatic as an offer made by a Defendant under P36.
Again, the Def has 21 days to consider the offer. If rejected, or no reply, again the matter may end up before the Court. If the Judge awards the Claimant either the same amount as they offered to settle for, or a higher sum, they will look to "punish" the Defendant. Given that the Defendant would be paying costs anyway, the way in which the Court will often do so (again..its discretionary...) will be by making an Order for the Defendant to pay the Claimant's costs on an indemnity basis (the burden shifts to the defendant having to prove each reduction in the claimants costs, rather than the claimant having to prove each item he is claiming - this is for costs only), and the other "punishment" against the Defendant is to award interest on the Claimants award (not his solicitors costs) at a higher rate - not exceeding 10% above base rate.
The effect on a Claimant failing to beat a Defendant's offer is more dramatic than vice versa. It means the Claimant having to pay an element of the Defendant's costs - and if it proceeds to Trial it will be a large chunk. If the Defendant fails to beat a Claimant's offer, it means an already large bill (compensation + Claimants costs including Trial) just gets inflated. Still an incentive to accept a reasonable offer, but I would say less incentive than a Claimant to accept a realistic P36 made by a Def.
In short, a line in the sand
Edited by Shnozz on Tuesday 14th October 15:49
Plotloss said:
A Part 36 offer is a line in the sand.
If you make an offer of £10K and they refuse and take it to trial and you subsequently get awarded more by a court, they automatically have to pay all costs.
Uh no, costs usually follow the event, but it's not a guarantee.If you make an offer of £10K and they refuse and take it to trial and you subsequently get awarded more by a court, they automatically have to pay all costs.
And if the Part 36 offer is unreasonable then it is not certain that you will get your costs back, indeed, in some cases a preposterous Part 36 rejected by the Respondent has been used to obtain THEIR costs even though they lost.
As people have said, it's basically an offer to settle the claim under the Civil Procedure Rules, Part 36. All CPR rules are on-line if you want to have a look, but also do bear in mind there is a vast amount of caselaw to clarify the Parts of the CPR BUT that is not included online.
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