LATE ACCEPTANCE OF PART 36 OFFER NOT EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES IN FIXED COSTS CASE

The matters dealt with in this piece are examined in great detail in my three volume, 1,300 page book Personal Injury Small Claims, Portals and Fixed Costs – price £50 and available from Underwoods Solicitors here.

Kerry Underwood offers consultancy services in relation to this and other matters and details are here.

In

Parsa v Smith and Another Case Nr C84YX807, unreported

the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court upheld a decision of a Circuit Judge that late acceptance of a claimant’s Part 36 offer, just one week before trial, in a fixed costs case did not amount to “exceptional circumstances” under CPR 45.29J justifying an escape from fixed costs.

The Court of Appeal’s decision in

Hislop v Perde [2018] EWCA Civ 1726

that a claimant was not entitled to indemnity costs on a defendant’s late acceptance of a Part 36 offer in fixed costs cases did not consider the exceptional circumstances provision, as it was not argued in that case.

Here, the High Court also held that the claimant’s application to escape fixed costs was not an “interim application” and therefore did escape fixed costs, meaning that the successful defendant got £1,712.10 for that application.

 

Comment

Why not just pass a law saying injured people should never sue?

Oh, sorry, this Scrag End Parliament – it does not deserve the term Rump – has done just that in the Civil Liability Act.

See my blog – ESCAPING FIXED COSTS: THREE NEW CASES