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The biggest issue I have with this is that it runs contrary to the pre-action protocol and the spirit of achieving early settlement without court involvement.

Consider two ways of litigating:

Option 1 - give pre-action disclosure of all documents, all lay and expert evidence, stage settlement meeting and settle the case. Total costs of £10k.

Option 2 - disclose medical records on issue, provide disclosure of lay and expert evidence only when ordered. Accept part 36 offer on 21st day. Total costs of £53k.

So for the same steps, the party who is more obstructive to settlement gets greater costs.

It feels that yet again the learned Judge has failed to consider the importance to the system of all those cases which resolve without the court ever needing to be involved.