Calderbank Offer: Used By The Person At Fault To Settle Your Accident Claim Whilst Attempting To Restrict Payment Of Your Legal Costs
A Calderbank offer is a contractual way used by a Defendant (the person at fault) to attempt to settle a personal injury claim, find out how it can be used to determine the amount of legal costs you might receive and how a Part 36 offer can be used to limit the risk of your solicitor receiving a reduced legal costs.
What is a Calderbank offer and how does it differ from a part 36 offer?
Claims for compensation following an accident in the UK are decided by a set of procedural rules known as the Civil Procedure Rules.
Under the Civil Procedure Rules a Part 36 offer can be made in settlement of a claim itself. However, a Part 36 offer traditionally deals with costs between the parties.
If the person at fault accepts your Part 36 offer – you are entitled to claim reasonable legal cost in addition to your compensation.
There are occasions however in which a person at fault may wish to limit the amount of legal costs paid to you in addition to your compensation.
In such a case, an offer known as a “Calderbank” offer is made. This is a contractual offer and is made outside of the Civil Procedure Rules.
As a contractual offer the contents of the offer itself are not prescribed and can be set out by the party making the offer.
In such instances – a person at fault will offer a sum of compensation and also a sum for legal costs irrespective of legal costs that you might have incurred when making your claim.
What can you do if you are happy with the Calderbank offer for personal injury compensation, but not the restriction of legal costs?
A good tactic which you can employ is to immediately offer the same amount of compensation set out in the Calderbank offer by way of a Part 36. You will then know that the person at fault is at risk of failing to pay a sum which in essence they have agreed is proper, but with the added benefit that your legal costs will not be limited.
Summary And Further Steps
In this article you have discovered the risks of accepting a Calderbank offer and how to use a Part 36 offer to protect payment of your solicitor’s legal costs.
We recommend you see how your personal injury claim can be settled using a without prejudice offer – effectively settling “without admission as to liability” or in other words “without accepting legal fault”.
