Part 36 Offers - James v James

Judge rules that an offer was not a valid Part 36 offer

The defendants in this case made a Part 36 offer intended to cover both the claim and counterclaim and which provided that "your client is to be liable to pay our client's costs of the claim and the counterclaim on the standard basis....up to the end of the Relevant Period or, if later, the date of service of notice of acceptance of this offer". The claimant argued that this was not a valid Part 36 offer for two reasons:

1. Although the offer was expressed to be a claimant's Part 36 offer, it was really a defendant's Part 36 offer and as it was not for a sum of money (as required by CPRr35.5) and so it was not a valid Part 36 offer. That argument was rejected by the judge. It was clear from CPR r20 that a counterclaim is to be treated as a claim for the purposes of the CPR (with certain exceptions, of which Part 36 is not one). The offer was therefore a valid Part 36 claimant's offer, which expressly stated