Rule 49 timing: when does the costs consequence actually bite?
I can recite what happens to costs. What I keep fumbling is whether a given offer even qualifies, because every pattern seems to bury a date somewhere and I am not sure what I am measuring from.
7 replies
Qualifying comes first and it is mostly arithmetic. Check the offer was made far enough ahead of the hearing, and check it was still open when the hearing began. Fail either and the costs rule simply does not engage, whatever the result turns out to be.
Best answer
Seven clear days before the hearing starts, and not withdrawn or expired before then. Those are the two gates. Everything you memorised about indemnity scales sits behind them.
ah. so an offer served the morning before does nothing at all, even if the number turns out to be spot on
Nothing under this rule. A judge can still take it into account generally, which is a different and much softer thing, and a question wanting that answer will usually say so.
The other half people drop is that the scale changes at the date of the offer rather than at trial. Before it, one scale. After it, the better one. I kept applying a single scale across the whole action and could not work out why my number was wrong.
yeah that was my other mistake
Check the figures against your own chapter rather than this thread. Mine differ slightly from a summary a friend sent and I have decided to trust the book.
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