Following last year's Jackson reforms, which were to a large extent focussed on the issue of costs of the civil litigation process, the Ministry of Justice has given consideration to amending its Court Fees. This took the form of a consultation paper, "Court fees - Proposals for reform". These are the fees Court users need to pay to issue and run claims or to bring interim applications.
The Government has now responded to the first part of this consultation, and has set out a new list of Court Fees which will come into effect on 22 April 2014 (with the exception of the fee changes in the Court of Appeal and Court of Protection, which will be introduced at a later date). If you are litigating you should expect higher fees from this date.
Not all fees have changed, and overall fees remain fairly modest for larger disputes. By way of example, the fee for issuing a claim exceeding £300,000 has risen from £1,670 to £1,920, whilst the fee for serving an application (on notice) rises from £80 to £155.
The Government is expected to announce its response to the second part of the consultation (on proposals for charging enhanced fees) in the near future. This looks, for example, at raising fees for money claims and commercial proceedings to around £10,000 for claims over £200,000.
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