Does a court have any authority or authority to award double costs for failure to accept an offer that ought to have been accepted?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from P.S.D. Enterprises Ltd. v. New Westminster (City), 2011 BCSC 1646 (CanLII):
In Hartshorne v. Hartshorne, 2011 BCCA 29, the court commented that an award of double costs is a punitive measure against the litigant for failure to accept an offer that ought to have been accepted. The court noted that “costs rules are in place “to encourage the early settlement of disputes by rewarding the party who makes a reasonable settlement offer and penalizing the party who declines to accept such an offer”: at para. 25.
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