Federal Court Rules 2011

If 2 or more parties (the contributor parties) may be held liable to contribute towards an amount of debt or damages that may be recovered from the contributor parties, any of those contributor parties may, without prejudice to that contributor party’s defence, make an offer to another contributor party, to contribute, to a specified extent, to the amount of the debt or damages.

If an offer is made by a contributor party (the first contributor party) and not accepted by another contributor party, and the first contributor party obtains a judgment against the other contributor party more favourable than the terms of the offer, the first contributor party is entitled to an order that the contributor party who did not accept the offer pay the costs incurred by the first contributor party:

before 11.00 am on the second business day after the offer was served—on a party and party basis; and

after the time mentioned in paragraph (a)—on an indemnity basis.