Substantial court fee increases proposed

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has issued a Consultation Paper on court fees in which it proposes substantial increases to issue fees for higher value claims and the introduction of time-related hearing fees in the High Court and Court of Appeal.

The proposal to introduce a time-related hearing fee is not new. The MoJ has been seeking to do this in some form since 2004 as part of its broader aim to make the civil court system self-funding. We, and many others, have strongly opposed this, expressing our concerns that trial fees are contrary to the principles underlying access to justice and could damage London as a centre for the resolution of international commercial disputes.

The key proposals are:

• Introducing hearing fees based on the projected length of a trial: Fees would range from £1,090 for a one-day trial, to a maximum of £10,900 for a trial in excess of 10 days. At present there is a fixed hearing fee of £1,090 for a multi-track trial regardless of length.
• Additional issue fee bands for higher value claims: Fees currently range up to £1,670 for a claim in excess of £300,000. Under the proposals, there would be additional bands over the current limit, with a maximum fee of £10,000 for a claim exceeding £1 billion.
• Increased hearing fees for appeals: The MoJ seeks views on either aligning the current appeal fee of £465 to the High Court hearing fee of £1,090 or introducing similar time related hearing fees to those proposed for the High Court.  

The Consultation closes on 7 February 2012. We will be considering the proposals in detail and submitting a response.