Part 36 split liability offers in personal injury litigation—will they bite? (Mundy v TUI UK Ltd)

Article summary

Dispute Resolution analysis: This appeal concerns the court’s approach to costs orders arising from Part 36 liability-only offers where other effective Part 36 offers are in play. This was a food poisoning claim where each party had made at least one Part 36 offer, none of which had been accepted, including the claimant’s 90:10 liability-only offer. At the trial’s conclusion, the claimant was awarded less in damages than the Part 36 settlement sum offered by the defendant but the award was made on a 100% liability basis. The court determined that only the defendant should get the benefit of the Part 36 costs consequences and that those costs could be set off against the claimant’s costs. The claimant appealed the costs order and the High Court found that in the circumstances of this case, the claimant’s offer had not fallen into the scheme of Part 36 (and that the judge had erred in law in...