DJ Goodchild, Romford CC, 16th February 2015

 

This claim had started in the MOJ RTA Portal and Part 7 proceedings were issued. Later the Defendant sought to accept the Claimant's Portal offer, but the Claimant argued that their offer was no longer available for acceptance because Part 7 proceedings had been issued (trying to distinguish this from Purcell v McGarry.) However, the court found that a Portal offer remains open for acceptance unless withdrawn and that it could not be implicitly withdrawn nor withdrawn automatically because certain events such as proceedings had been issued.

 

This is an important case as it extends the decision in Purcell to make it clear that Portal offers remain open for acceptance unless and until withdrawn. Litigants need to be careful to ensure that they have not left any unsuitable Portal offers open if circumstances have changed.