Part 36 Payments and Offers

CPR rule 36.20 provides that where a claimant at trial fails to better a Part 36 payment or to obtain a judgment which is more advantageous than the defendant’s Part 36 offer the court, unless it considers it unjust to do so, will order the claimant to pay any costs incurred by the defendant after the latest date on which the offer or payment could have been accepted. Writing in ‘Update’, the newsletter of Kain Knight Group plc, Ian Alexander QC and Stephen Murch suggest that as in plain English ‘any costs’ means any costs, they are not specifically limited to the standard or indemnity basis.