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K7. Offers of settlement and payment into court
| 317. | Under Order 22 of the HCR, a defendant is given a means of placing some pressure on the plaintiff to accept a reasonable offer of settlement and to bring the proceedings to an early end. |
| 317.1 | Where the action is for a debt or damages, he is allowed to pay money into court in satisfaction of all or any of the plaintiff's causes of action. He is also able to make written offers known as "Calderbank offers" to settle the case or any issue in it 'without prejudice save as to costs' where protection cannot be achieved by payment into court. |
| 317.2 | By Order 62 r 6, the court must take into account such payments into court and such Calderbank offers when deciding on the proper order as to costs at the end of a trial. In practice, the discretion is exercised by reference to whether the plaintiff has recovered more than the amount paid into court or achieved a judgment more favourable than the settlement offered in the Calderbank offer. If not, then he is likely only to get his costs up to the date of the payment in and thereafter to be ordered to pay all the defendant's costs. |
| 318. | Such a procedural device is much in line with an important policy of the Woolf reforms, namely, to encourage reasonable and early settlement of proceedings. (Note 260) However, the existing rules were seen to be too narrow and too inflexible. After wide consultation leading to modification of some of the initial proposals in Lord Woolf's Interim (Note 261) and Final (Note 262) Reports, Part 36 of the CPR was promulgated. |
Notes
| 260 | WIR, p 194, ยง1. <back> |
| 261 | WIR, pp 194-198. <back> |
| 262 | WFR, pp 112-115. <back> |
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