Reid v Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust Ltd

[2015] EWHC B21 Costs

Rejecting a reasonable offer to mediate can have consequences if you end up losing your case too. Here Master Hare noted that:

“If the party unwilling to mediate is the losing party, the normal sanction is an order to pay the winner’s costs on the indemnity basis, and that means that they will have to pay their opponent’s costs even if those costs are not proportionate to what was at stake. This penalty is imposed because a court wants to show its disapproval of their conduct. I do disapprove of this defendant’s conduct but only as from the date they are likely to have received the July offer to mediate.”

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