Court Fees Increase From 22nd April 2014

27 April 2015 Written by Ware & Kay Solicitors Category: Litigation

2014 No. 874 (L. 17)

1. This explanatory memorandum has been prepared by the Ministry of Justice and is laid before Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. This memorandum contains information for the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.

2. Purpose of the instrument

2.1 This instrument changes existing fees in the Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008. The fee changes are being brought as part of a wider review of fees across the civil court system to ensure that the income they generate more closely matches the costof the service being provided. The instrument changes the wording for some fees to reflect changes resulting from the creation of the single County Court on 22 April 2014.

3. Matters of special interest to the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments

3.1 References in the Order to "a county court" or "county courts" have been changed to "the County Court" or "County Court" as applicable to reflect the creation ofthe single County Court on 22 April 2014.

3.2 At fees 1.1 and 1.2 references to the "Claims Production Centre" or "CPC" have been amended to "CCBC" which now stands for "County Court Business Centre" in accordance with changes in the terminology of civil procedure.

3.3 The fees for judicial review (1.9) have been increased to cover the full cost of the process (see further detail in section 7 below on the full cost policy). If a case isgranted following an oral renewal hearing, only half of fee 1.9(c) is payable for the full hearing. This change implements the policy decision that, if an applicant isrefused permission on the papers but is subsequently granted a full hearing following an oral renewal, they should pay no more in total than an applicant to whom permission was granted on the papers.

3.4 The instrument removes the fees currently found at 2.1(a), 2.1(b) (allocation fees)and 2.2 (listing fee) following a policy decision that a fee will no longer becharged at these points to reduce administrative processes for the courts and thecourt users. The cost of the allocation process has now been included in the issuefees and the cost of the listing process in the hearing fees.

3.5 The fee 9.2 in the existing order has been removed as section 97 of the County Courts Act 1984 was repealed by paragraph 74 of Schedule 13 of the Tribunal Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, which was commenced on 6 April 2014.

3.6 Changes to some fee levels are intended to ensure that the fees for similarprocesses across all courts are aligned, to provide greater clarity for court usersand staff. Therefore the fee for copy documents (either paper or electronic) isstandardised at £10 (an increase from £5), the fee for affidavits standardised at £11 (an increase from £6) and the fee for applications without notice or by consent andfor applications on notice is standardised at £50 (increase from £45) and £155 (increase from £80) respectively.

3.7 Many fees have increased to ensure that the fee charged reflects the full cost of the type of proceedings to which it relates. The cost is calculated by adding the actual cost of the staff and judicial time to process this type of application, and a portion of the costs of the overheads (e.g. IT and estates) of the civil court system. For the purpose of setting fees we have grouped together similar activities across the courts (e.g. issuing a case, or hearings) to give an average cost. Some fees, which were at full cost, have been increased by a rate of 2.7% (the consumer price index rate of inflation) to reflect anticipated increases to the overall cost base from 12/13 to 13/14. Enforcement fees remain unchanged as these will be subject to a separate review. While the Government has announced its intention to increase fees in the Court of Appeal, those fee changes will not be made in this instrument as some Civil Procedure Rule changes are necessary before the fee changes can be made. (See paragraph 7 below for further policy background).

3.8 The table at annex A sets out in full the changes to fee levels resulting from this instrument.

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4 Legislative context

5 Territorial Extent and Application

6 European Convention on Human Rights

7 Policy background

8 Consultation

9 Guidance

10 Impact

11 Regulating small business

12 Monitoring & review

13 Contact