Cases

Jones v Associated Newspapers Limited

Held

(1) That the Claimant had not beaten his Part 36 offer. Whilst he had achieved a greater financial amount, in the round he had not secured more from the jury verdict than he would have achieved if his Part 36 offer had been accepted. Whereas the apology sought had been complete ("no truth at all in the allegation"), at trial the Claimant had admitted that he had been rude to the security guard (although considerably less so than as alleged in the article). (2) The judge indicated that even if the Part 36 offer had been beaten by the Claimant, whilst he would have awarded costs to be assessed on the indemnity basis, he would not have awarded enhanced interest on those costs. This was because: the Claimant had been funded by a CFA and therefore had not personally been out of pocket from funding his litigation costs; if awarded the interest would have been paid to his lawyers who were to receive a 100% success fee in any event; and because of the particular circumstances of this case.

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