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Lintern v Haven Insurance [2026]: Late Part 36 Acceptance and Fixed Recoverable Costs

23 October 202611 min readLast reviewed 23 October 2026

Key points

In Lintern v Haven Insurance Company Ltd [2026] EWHC 2478 (KB), Ritchie J held that where a claimant accepts a defendant's Part 36 offer late in a fixed costs claim and the stage has moved on, the court makes a single costs order in the defendant's favour.
The defendant gets the fixed costs for the stage at acceptance less the claimant's fixed costs for the stage at expiry of the relevant period (CPR 36.23(8)). The claimant gets no separate costs order.
The claimant accepted a £5,000 offer 11 months late, on the first day of trial, and was ordered to pay £5,007.60, which included £300 of disbursements both parties accepted had been added by mistake.
Where expiry and acceptance fall in the same stage, CPR 36.23(9) gives each side the fixed costs for that stage, so the orders offset.
The judge accepted that both readings fitted the purposes of Part 36. The deciding factor was the wording of CPR 36.23(8): less the fixed costs to which the claimant is entitled under paragraph (3)(a)(i).
Before accepting an expired offer in a fast track, intermediate track or NIHL fixed costs claim, compare the stage at expiry with the stage now: the further the claim has moved, the more late acceptance costs.

A claimant accepted a defendant’s Part 36 offer 11 months late, on the first day of trial. Because it was a fixed costs claim, the result was no costs order for the claimant at all, and a costs order against it.

In Lintern v Haven Insurance Company Ltd [2026] EWHC 2478 (KB), Ritchie J dismissed the claimant’s appeal against that outcome. The decision turns on how CPR 36.23 works when a defendant’s offer is accepted after the relevant period and the claim has moved into a later fixed costs stage. The claimant’s entitlement to the fixed costs at expiry does not produce a separate payment. It is deducted from the defendant’s costs, and the court makes a single order in the defendant’s favour.

That makes late acceptance in a fixed costs claim more expensive than many claimant firms assume. A Part 36 offer is not just a damages offer: its costs consequences change once the relevant period expires, and in a fixed costs claim they change again every time the claim moves to a new stage.

The short answer

In a claim under Part 45 Sections VI, VII or VIII, CPR 36.23 governs the costs of accepting a Part 36 offer. Accepted in time, the claimant has the fixed costs for the stage at acceptance. Accepted late, the claimant is entitled to the fixed costs for the stage when the relevant period expired, and the defendant to the fixed costs for the stage at acceptance less the claimant’s. After Lintern:

if the stage has moved on, there is one order, for the defendant, for the difference; the claimant gets nothing for its own costs;
if the stage has not changed, each side has the fixed costs for that stage under CPR 36.23(9), and the two orders offset.

What happened in Lintern v Haven Insurance?

The claim followed a road traffic accident on 9 July 2024. The claimant, a taxi driver, claimed not for personal injury but for vehicle damage, credit hire, storage and recovery. The claim was issued on 23 October 2024. On 6 November 2024 Haven Insurance made a Part 36 offer of £5,000, which expired 21 days later, around 27 November 2024. It was not accepted.

The claim was allocated to the fast track on 4 March 2025 and listed for trial on 7 October 2025. On the first day of trial, before opening, the claimant accepted the 11-month-old offer. The parties could not agree costs, so Recorder Jones decided them.

The Recorder made no costs order for the claimant. He made a single order for the defendant, calculated under CPR 45.44 and Table 12, Band 1:

Defendant’s fixed costs for the stage at acceptance (B3 or C; the figure is the same)	£3,923 plus VAT
Plus the advocacy fee	£2,168 plus VAT
Less the claimant’s fixed costs for the stage at expiry (B1), under CPR 36.23(8)	−£2,168 plus VAT
Order for the defendant, with disbursements under CPR 36.23(10)	£5,007.60

The £5,007.60 included £300 of disbursements that both parties accepted had been added by mistake; that error did not affect the appeal. The claimant appealed on the ground that the Recorder had misread CPR 36.23.

The rule: CPR 36.23

Section II of Part 36 (rules 36.22 to 36.24) applies to claims under Part 45 Sections VI, VII and VIII: fixed recoverable costs in the fast and intermediate tracks, and noise-induced hearing loss claims. For those claims it replaces the ordinary late-acceptance rule in CPR 36.13, and it works from the fixed costs in Table 12, Table 14 or Table 15 of Practice Direction 45 rather than from the time actually spent. The paragraphs that matter are:

CPR 36.23(1): accepted within the relevant period, the claimant is entitled to the fixed costs for the stage at the date notice of acceptance was served, plus applicable additional fixed costs;
CPR 36.23(3): a defendant’s offer accepted after the relevant period gives the claimant the fixed costs for the stage applicable when the relevant period expired, and makes the claimant liable for the defendant’s costs under paragraph (8);
CPR 36.23(6): fixed costs are calculated by reference to the amount of the offer accepted;
CPR 36.23(7): if the parties do not agree liability for costs, the court must make an order;
CPR 36.23(8): subject to paragraph (9), where the court makes an order for the defendant, it is entitled to the fixed costs for the stage at the date of acceptance, plus applicable additional fixed costs, “less the fixed costs to which the claimant is entitled under paragraph (3)(a)(i) or (4)”;
CPR 36.23(9): where an order is made under paragraph (3) and the stage at expiry and the stage at acceptance are the same, the defendant is entitled to the fixed costs for that stage;
CPR 36.23(10): each party is entitled to disbursements allowed under Part 45 Section IX incurred in any period for which costs are payable to it.

Paragraphs (4) and (5) add special rules for claims that leave the RTA or EL/PL Protocol and for soft tissue injury claims, and our CPR costs rules guide summarises rule 36.23 with the rest of Part 36.

Two readings of CPR 36.23(8)

Both sides agreed how the defendant’s figure is calculated. The dispute was whether the claimant also gets an order.

The claimant’s reading treated paragraph (8) as a quantification rule. The defendant gets the fixed costs for the later stage less the earlier stage, which pays it for the work done after its offer expired; and the claimant keeps a separate order under paragraph (3) for the fixed costs up to expiry. On the Lintern figures, that would have left the claimant with an order for its stage B1 costs of £2,168 plus VAT.

The defendant’s reading took paragraph (8) at its word. The court fixes the defendant’s costs at the stage of acceptance, takes away the costs the claimant would otherwise have been entitled to under paragraph (3), and makes a single costs order in the defendant’s favour. The claimant’s entitlement is used up in the deduction.

Why the court chose a single order

Ritchie J was candid that “this is a tricky issue”. He accepted that both readings were consistent with the purposes of Part 36, and that neither was outlandish. The defendant’s reading is tougher on claimant lawyers, but, as he put it, “that is a heavy inducement to claimants to carefully consider accepting Part 36 offers on time.” On the claimant’s complaint that it had to issue proceedings to get the offer and would now recover nothing for doing so, the answer was that it should have taken the offer in time.

What decided the appeal was the wording. Paragraph (8) deducts “the fixed costs to which the claimant is entitled under paragraph (3)(a)(i)”. The rule could have deducted the fixed costs the defendant would have had at the date of its offer, which would have left room for a separate claimant order, but it does not say that. The judge found support in the structure of the rule. Paragraph (1) provides only for a claimant’s order. Paragraph (9) expressly provides for two orders. Paragraph (8) provides for no claimant order at all. “The words say what they say”, and the Recorder had read them correctly.

Three outcomes, side by side

When the defendant’s offer is accepted	Claimant	Defendant
Within the relevant period	Fixed costs for the stage at acceptance (CPR 36.23(1))	No costs order
Late, stage unchanged	Fixed costs for that stage (CPR 36.23(3))	Fixed costs for the same stage (CPR 36.23(9)): the orders offset
Late, at a later stage	No separate order: its expiry-stage costs are deducted from the defendant’s	Fixed costs at acceptance less the claimant’s at expiry, as a single order (CPR 36.23(8); Lintern)

Disbursements and additional fixed costs sit on top of each row (CPR 36.23(1)(b), (8)(b) and (10)).

What late acceptance cost in Lintern

On the figures in the judgment, before VAT and disbursements, accepting within the relevant period in November 2024 would have given the claimant its stage B1 fixed costs of £2,168 and left it with no liability for the defendant’s costs. Accepting the same £5,000 offer on the first day of trial meant recovering nothing and paying the defendant £3,923. The swing was the claimant’s own costs plus the defendant’s, on a claim that settled for £5,000.

The further the claim travels between expiry and acceptance, the larger the gap between the two stages, and the larger the defendant’s order. Waiting does not just add work that will not be paid for; it can change which side receives the costs.

Late acceptance in the same stage

Where the offer is accepted late but the claim is still in the stage it was in when the relevant period expired, CPR 36.23(9) gives the defendant the fixed costs for that stage, and the claimant keeps its entitlement for the same stage under CPR 36.23(3). The fixed costs tables do not distinguish between claimant and defendant, so the two orders are for the same sum and in practice offset each other. Both parties in Lintern accepted that.

It is still not the same as accepting in time. Disbursements under CPR 36.23(10) and any additional fixed costs may differ between the parties, and the margin disappears the moment the claim moves into the next stage.

Lintern and Attersley

The two cases are often mentioned together, but they answer different questions. In Attersley v UK Insurance [2026] EWCA Civ 217, the Court of Appeal held that a claim’s later allocation to the multi-track did not change the costs regime governing a Part 36 offer accepted 16 months late; the regime was fixed by the expiry of the relevant period. That case concerned the pre-October 2023 rules.

Lintern concerns the current rules, and the arithmetic once the regime is settled: how the claimant’s and defendant’s fixed costs net off under CPR 36.23(8). Read together, they say that the date the relevant period expired governs both which rules apply and what the claimant is entitled to, and that the stage at acceptance governs what the defendant recovers.

Late acceptance is not judgment

Late acceptance should not be confused with the consequences of judgment. Under CPR 36.17, a claimant who beats its own offer at trial can have indemnity costs, enhanced interest and an additional amount. In fixed costs claims, CPR 36.24 modifies that: instead of indemnity costs, the claimant has additional costs equal to 35% of the difference between the fixed costs for the stage when the relevant period expired and the stage at judgment. None of that applies on acceptance, late or not. Our guide to late acceptance and the CPR 36.17 uplift explains the difference, and our free Part 36 calculator works out the end of the relevant period and the judgment consequences, including the CPR 36.24 fixed costs uplift.

Which claims does Lintern affect?

Only claims to which Part 45 Sections VI, VII or VIII apply: fixed recoverable costs in the fast and intermediate tracks, and noise-induced hearing loss claims under Section VIII, which use Table 15. The same CPR 36.23(8) wording governs all three; for hearing loss claims, see our guide to NIHL fixed costs under CPR 45 and Table 15.

Claims outside those regimes follow CPR 36.13, where the court decides the costs of a late acceptance and, unless it is unjust, the claimant has its costs to the end of the relevant period. That includes most housing disrepair claims: CPR 45.1(4) takes claims relating to a residential property that include a claim for possession, disrepair or unlawful eviction outside Sections VI and VII. For those, see our guide to Part 36 in housing disrepair costs. Transitional rules can also mean an older version of Part 36 applies, which is why the first question is always which costs regime governs the claim.

Five questions before accepting an expired offer

When did the relevant period expire? Check the offer itself; do not assume 21 days from the date on the letter. Our Part 36 calculator works it out from the date of service.
Which fixed costs stage applied at expiry? That fixes the claimant’s entitlement under CPR 36.23(3).
Which stage applies now? That fixes the defendant’s figure under CPR 36.23(8), or under paragraph (9) if it is the same stage.
Has the claim moved on? If so, work out the defendant’s net order before advising. “Out of time” is not advice; a figure is.
What sits outside the calculation? Disbursements, additional fixed costs, the Protocol and soft tissue rules in CPR 36.23(4) and (5), and the exact terms of the offer.

If the costs position matters commercially, deal with it expressly before acceptance; where the parties do not agree costs, CPR 36.23(7) leaves the order to the court. And on the other side of the same rule, a defendant making an offer in a fixed costs claim can use our N242A Part 36 offer builder, which flags that CPR 36.23, not the 36.13 printed on the form, governs the costs of acceptance.

What Lintern does not decide

It is a High Court decision on appeal from a Recorder, given extempore, on a fast track claim under Table 12. The judge accepted that the other reading was a reasonable one.
It concerns acceptance under CPR 36.23. CPR 36.24(9), which applies after judgment, uses parallel wording, but it was not before the court.
It does not change the in-time position: an offer accepted within the relevant period still gives the claimant the fixed costs for the stage at acceptance and the defendant nothing.
It does not affect claims outside Part 45 Sections VI to VIII.

How DMD Costs can help

Fixed recoverable costs have not removed the need for costs analysis; they have changed the questions. Which table and stage apply, when the relevant period expired, whether the claim has moved between stages, and how competing entitlements net off can matter more than any hourly rate. DMD Costs prepares bills of costs and Precedent S electronic bills, Points of Dispute and Replies, and handles costs negotiation to settlement, with entitlement reviews and costs-only proceedings where they are needed. See our full costs drafting services.

Instructions can be sent through the DMD Costs secure client portal, where firms can upload papers, monitor progress and request updates; it is also available as a mobile app. The fee is fixed and agreed before any work begins. Our free calculators, form builders and guides are collected in our legal costs help hub, and Lintern is listed in our costs case law index.

Case details

Case	Kevin Lintern v Haven Insurance Company Ltd
Neutral citation	[2026] EWHC 2478 (KB)
Court	High Court, King’s Bench Division, Leeds District Registry
Judge	Ritchie J, on appeal from Recorder Jones (7 October 2025)
Judgment	28 July 2026 (given extempore; approved 2 September 2026)
Rule	CPR 36.23(3), (8) and (9)
Outcome	Appeal dismissed: a single costs order for the defendant and none for the claimant

Sources

Lintern v Haven Insurance Company Ltd [2026] EWHC 2478 (KB) (Find Case Law)
Attersley v UK Insurance Ltd [2026] EWCA Civ 217 (Find Case Law)
CPR Part 36: offers to settle (rules 36.13, 36.17 and 36.22 to 36.24)
CPR Part 45: fixed costs (rules 45.1(4) and 45.44, Sections VI to IX)

Frequently asked questions

In Lintern v Haven Insurance Company Ltd [2026] EWHC 2478 (KB), Ritchie J dismissed an appeal about late acceptance of a defendant's Part 36 offer in a fixed costs claim. Where the claim has moved to a later stage by the time of acceptance, the court makes a single costs order in the defendant's favour: the fixed costs for the stage at acceptance, less the claimant's fixed costs for the stage at expiry of the relevant period. The claimant gets no separate costs order.

Only as a deduction, if the stage has moved on. CPR 36.23(3) gives the claimant an entitlement to the fixed costs for the stage at expiry of the relevant period, but under CPR 36.23(8), as Lintern reads it, that entitlement is deducted from the defendant's costs rather than paid as a separate order. If the stage has not changed, CPR 36.23(9) gives each side the fixed costs for that stage.

CPR 36.23(9) applies: the claimant has the fixed costs for that stage under CPR 36.23(3) and the defendant has the fixed costs for the same stage. The two orders are for the same sum, so in practice they offset. Disbursements and any additional fixed costs are dealt with separately.

The claimant accepted a £5,000 offer 11 months late, on the first day of a fast track trial. Instead of recovering its own costs, it was ordered to pay the defendant's stage costs of £3,923 plus a £2,168 advocacy fee, less its own stage B1 costs of £2,168, all plus VAT. The order was for £5,007.60, which included £300 of disbursements both parties accepted had been added by mistake.

The rule on the costs consequences of accepting a Part 36 offer in claims under Part 45 Sections VI, VII and VIII: fixed recoverable costs in the fast and intermediate tracks, and noise-induced hearing loss claims. It replaces CPR 36.13 for those claims and works from the fixed costs in Tables 12, 14 and 15 of Practice Direction 45.

No. In a fixed costs claim, late acceptance produces the fixed costs calculation in CPR 36.23. Indemnity costs are a consequence of judgment, not acceptance, and in fixed costs claims CPR 36.24 replaces them with additional costs of 35% of the difference between the fixed costs at expiry and at judgment.

No. Attersley, a Court of Appeal decision on the pre-October 2023 rules, decided which costs regime governs a late-accepted offer when the claim is later allocated to the multi-track. Lintern, a High Court decision on the current rules, decides how the claimant's and defendant's fixed costs net off under CPR 36.23(8).

They are dealt with separately. CPR 36.23(10) entitles each party to disbursements allowed under Part 45 Section IX incurred in any period for which costs are payable to them.

Generally not. CPR 45.1(4) takes claims relating to a residential property that include a claim for possession, disrepair or unlawful eviction outside the fast track and intermediate track fixed costs regimes, so late acceptance in those claims follows CPR 36.13, not CPR 36.23.

Is an expired Part 36 offer still on the table?

DMD Costs reviews costs entitlement and negotiates recovery for solicitor firms. Send us the file and we will work out the costs position, including the effect of any late acceptance, before you commit. The fee is fixed and agreed before any work begins.

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