Additional Court fee increases proposed

On Wednesday 22 July 2015, the Ministry of Justice announced a new consultation on court fee increases in Civil proceedings.

March 2015 already saw the introduction of a court fee of 5% of the value of the claim, up to a maximum cap of £10,000 for a claim of £200,000.

The new consultation proposes raising this cap to at least £20,000.  There are approximately 5,000 claims per annum over £200,000, out of a total 1.2 million claims.

The MoJ is also proposing a 10% increase to a wide range of fees for civil proceedings.  This includes a proposed 10% increase in the fee for a writ of control, writ of delivery and writ of possession from £60 to £66.

If you would like to participate in the consultation, you can do so here.  The closing date is 15 September 2015.

The MoJ also announced that it will be implementing increases proposed in a consultation in January this year.  The fees for issuing a possession claim in the County Court will increase by £75, from £280 to £355.  The fees for general applications in civil proceedings will increase by £50, from £50 to £100, for an application by consent and by £100, from £155 to £255, for a contested application.

These increases are going ahead, despite the fact that the majority of respondents to the previous consultation disagreed with the proposed fee increases.