In its drive to reduce the burden of the Civil Justice budget on the Exchequer, the Government has made it clear it will search for further cost efficiencies in the management of the Courts on the one hand and on the other, will look to those who use the Courts to make an increased contribution through the fees that have to be paid for Court proceedings.
The latest chapter in this story begins on 9 March 2015 with the new fees payable for issuing a Court claim under the ‘The Civil Proceedings and Family Proceedings Fees (Amendment) Order 2015’. The most significant change is for claims which have a financial value of over £10,000. If you are making a claim for a sum over that amount, you will now have to pay a fee of 5% of the claim’s value (with a discount of 0.5% if you use the money claims online service). This means that for claims between £10,000 and £200,000 in value, you will have to pay a fee of between £500 and £10,000 to get the case off the ground. This is in addition to the fees you are paying for legal advice and representation. The fee will be £10,000 for claims over £200,000 and will be the maximum you have to pay.
If you have a claim which is unlimited in value or if you do not put a value on the claim, then the fee will again be £10,000. The change has been met by strong voices of criticism in the legal profession, with the professional bodies arguing that it represents a further erosion of the principle of access to Justice. Whilst the decision is under challenge, for the time being Claimants need to be prepared to pay more to bring their case before the Courts and the incentives to settle cases before issuing proceedings increase.
For more information please contact Dominic Hopkins, you can email Dominic by clicking here.
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