PART 36: GOOD FOR REPUTATION
Where the claimant’s sole motive for their CPR Pt 36 offer was to be vindicated, that could still earn them their costs. In Ashley v Chief Constable of Sussex [2008] UKHL 25, [2008] All ER (D) 326 (Apr), it had been held that a public acknowledgment that the claimant had suffered a wrong might play as an important role as an award of damages. And now along comes MR v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis [2019] EWHC 1970 (QB), [2019] All ER (D) 42 (Sep) in which McGowan J declared that, as a matter of principle, the implications of costs should never overwhelm the issue at the centre of litigation. Worth writing out on the insides of your eyelids for advocacy of the future.
MR had alleged false imprisonment and assault, allied to a police arrest. The final Pt 36 of a series contributed to by both sides came from the claimant and was for no damages—although the defendant had already offered
