Pride and Without Prejudice: Is it time we reintroduced Calderbanks?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that family lawyers like a good debate and that if you want to find out what particular issues are exercising the minds of practitioners at any given time Twitter is as good a place to start as any. 

That was certainly the case in July when I became involved in a lively exchange of views with fellow financial remedy practitioners on the social media platform about Calderbank offers. The catalyst for this debate was the publication of a Ministry of Justice consultation which asks a single question – ‘Do you consider that offers made without prejudice save as to costs should be admissible in considering the ‘conduct’ of a party for the purposes of FPR r28.3?’ The consultation is intended to inform the wider work of the Family Procedure Rules Committee’s judicially-led Costs Working Group which was established to review the costs regime in financial remedy proceedings and make recommendations for reform of the Family Procedure Rules (FPR). The deadline for the response is 31 October 2019 and respondents are asked to answer yes or no to the question but to...