Hugh Grant has stolen my thunder. For the past 25 years, I have sought to explain the wonders of Pt 36. Last month he introduced the measure to the British public. He explained that he had been compelled to settle his phone-hacking action against The Sun. Those dreadful defendants had made what he described as an ‘enormous’ Pt 36 offer. He had been compelled to accept since he would otherwise have faced a multimillion-pound adverse costs liability. One can take it that the offer was perhaps double what a judge would award and so there was zero prospect of him beating the offer to settle. The last time I saw him with his wife was at the River Café, where I was celebrating my birthday. I had a glass of champagne. Intriguingly, the Grants—who were at the next table—each had a bottle of beer. Strange but true.
A number of High Court judges have been behaving strangely in recent weeks—kissing babies, giving
