INSOLVENCY TO GET MORE EXPENSIVE

If your creditor is threatening to bankrupt you personally or wind up your company, try and ward off proceedings until 01 November 2022 at least. That's because these insolvency cases started on or after that date will cost them substantially more and  the prospect of laying out this extra money without any guarantee that proceedings will yield a penny, may not appeal to them.

How much more? The deposit the creditor must pay on account of Insolvency Service fees - and this is in addition to the court fee - jumps from £990 to £1,500 for bankruptcy and from £1,600 to £2,600 for winding up. The Insolvency Proceedings (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2022 (SI 2022/929) is to blame.

And if you are the creditor and intent on bringing proceedings, PULL YOUR FINGER OUT and escape the increase.

Applications by debtors for their own bankruptcy are unaffected.

BEAT COURT FEE RISES:UPDATE

I recently warned of imminent court fee increases. See https://www.breakinglaw.co.uk I can now report that those increases will be coming into force on 30 September 2021. They are introduced by the Court Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2021 (SI 2021/985) which were laid before Parliament yesterday 06 September 2021.

I have kept this update short so that you can get on with preparing paperwork to beat the rises instead of wasting time reading my attempts at humour. But, for the avoidance of any doubt, these rises are positively not a joke. 

BEAT COURT FEE RISES

As predicted in 'The Return of Breaking Law'  a wigful (to fit an enormous head) of court fees will soon be introduced. To be precise, 129 of them in civil and family proceedings as well as in certain cases in the Court of Protection. To avoid paying the extra, you need to take the step which will attract the fee as soon as you can. The Ministry of Justice has said that the increased fees will be brought into force in early Autumn 2021 which means we could be looking at the start of October 2021 or shortly after.  You can find full details of each and every increased fee at https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/increasing-selected-court-fees-income-thresholds/results/court-fees-increasing-consultation-response.pdf

Here are some of the increases -

To start a divorce, nullity or civil partnership dissolution case  - up £43 to £593

To issue a county court or High Court application notice (form N244) - up £20 to £275

To issue a county court or High Court application notice BY CONSENT (form N244) - up £8 to £108

Hearing fee (otherwise called trial fee) for county court small claims case for £300 or less - up £2 to £27

Ditto for case for more than £300 but no more than £500 - up £4 to £59

Ditto for case for more than £500 but no more than £1,000 - up £5 to £85

Ditto for case for more than £1,000 but no more than £1,500 - up £8 to £123

Ditto for case for more than £1,500 but no more than £3,000 - up £11 to £181

Ditto for case for more than £3,000 - up £11 to £346

Hearing fee (otherwise called trial fee) for multi-track case in county court or High Court - up £85 to £1,175

The Help with Fees system which can mean no fee or a reduced fee survives. It will benefit you if you are on benefits. If not on benefits but a low income, have a go. The income thresholds for applicants not on benefits will be slightly raised at the same time as the fees go up.

PROBATE FEES: increases in the air

If you are someone who should be applying for probate to wind up a deceased's estate (that's where there is a will) or letters of administration for the same purpose (that's where there is no will) then PULL YOUR FINGER OUT!!!

I predict that around October or November 2021 the fee for applying in England and Wales will increase. Currently, the fee is more if you apply in person rather than through a professional such as a solicitor. In person, it will cost £215 as against £155 through a professional. The plan is to align and increase the fee. Everyone would pay the same and the new fee would be £273. Estates worth less than £5,000 do not currently attract a fee and that will not change. Remission from a fee (sometimes called the 'Help with Fees' scheme) will still be available to applicants of low means. There may well be inheritance tax to pay and that's another headache. You can soothe your brow on this by taking a look at 'The Return of Breaking Law'. [There he goes again].  

COURT FEES: HOURS LEFT TO SAVE MONEY: ENGLAND & WALES

 The general savings in suing on line instead of off line end today. I warned that this would be happening

(see https://www.breakinglaw.co.uk/search/label/court%20fees). So get that mouse working...FAST!!!!

Court Fees: Sue Early

Making a civil money or possession claim online rather than in the traditional paper way through a court office saves bucks even though it may corrupt your eyesight by over-exposure to a computer screen. These online discounts were introduced to lure in the punters like you and have been stunningly successful. 

It's all changing. The government has announced today following consultation that, apart from a single exception, the online fees are to be aligned with the paper jobs. You will pay the same on line as you will offline when you commence the case. That single exception relates to a request for the bailiff to go in through a warrant of control where the same but new fee will be payable on and offline at £83. 

The new fees will come into force during May 2021, subject to legislation. If they don't come in, I will be eating another of my hats, washed down with some computer screen fluid.  To take advantage of the lower fees, get a move on. 

Court Fee Cuts (E&W): WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A range of court fee cuts in England and Wales will be effective on 03 August 2020 and so if you want to save some dosh, WAIT!!!!!! until then, provided it is not going to prejudice your position, to issue the reduced fee application. Alas, the fees for starting civil or family proceedings remain untouched.

Here's my pick of the reduced fees and remember that 'Help with fees' still applies so that you may be eligible for a free ride.

civil proceedings

• application for a witness summons - down from £50 to £21
• application to vary a judgment (for example, to be able to pay by instalments) or to suspend enforcement including to suspend a warrant for possession- down from £50 to £14
• request for a certificate of satisfaction in relation to an entry at the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines - down from £15 to £14 

family proceedings

• application for a third party debt order - down form £100 to £77
• application for a charging order - down from £100 to £38
• application for a judgment summons - down from £100 to £73
• application for an attachment of earnings order - down from £100 to £34
• request for bailiff service (sometimes no fee) - down from £110 to £45

BUT NOTE THAT IN CIVIL AS OPPOSED TO FAMILY PROCEEDINGS, THE EXISTING FEES FOR STARTING ENFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS WILL STAND.

probate fees

Not quite what you would call 'court' fees but some cuts coming in under the same legislation-

• entering a caveat at the Probate Registry (to prevent issue of probate or letters of administration and good for six months) - down from £20 to £3
• applying for a standing search (so that you are notified that probate or letters of administration have been granted and you get a copy of the document and good for periods of six months at a time)- down from £10 to £3

If you want to check out the recent legislation to thank it, then have a butchers at the Court Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2020 SI 2020/720

And if you want millions of legal tips (slight exaggeration) buy my book Breaking Law and give me a break.

Help With Court Fees

There's no such thing as a free lunch and there's no such thing as a civil or family court case without a prescribed fee to pay. That's the general position. But if you are on benefits or haven't got too much income or capital sprouting out of your purse or  back pocket then you are could well qualify for 'Help with fees' or, to use the scheme's fancy name, fee remission (see Breaking Law at chapter 13). This could mean no fee for you or a reduced fee. If you want to apply for this help or for a refund of a fee you have paid within the last three months 'cos you didn't know anything about the help scheme, then you have to do what? Fill out a form, of course. And the form has just changed.

The necessary form is called the EX160. Good name, eh? Well, it could have been called HARDUP126BBBZAQ which would have been an awful name. To find the form and the official guidance about the help scheme, go to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-help-with-court-and-tribunal-fees?utm_source=68d8a5b0-cfd5-4db7-950c-a1c61e5f04b5&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

Got there? Among the changes in the form are questions about whether not only you but your partner have any children living with you and whether you and your partner have any other children that you support financially. Children means persons under 16 and up to 19 if in full-time education. If that information was not before the court when you made an unsuccessful application for help then you might care to ask for a refund if it would have made a difference. 

Make sure you use the new form.

Court Fee Refund Scheme Announced

Around eighteen months ago, the Ministry of Justice coughed that some litigants had been overcharged the court fees they were being made to pay for taking certain steps in civil and insolvency cases. I told you about it in this blog and and what to expect at -

http://www.breakinglaw.co.uk/search/label/court%20and%20tribunal%20fees

On the basis that it is better late than never, the promised refund scheme was  announced a few days ago and is now up and running. If eligible, you can make your refund claim on a special form which you can access along with guidance at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-court-fee-refund  Interest on the amount refunded will be paid at the grand rate of 0.5%.

The relevant fees must have been paid between 22 April 2014 and 31 March 2018 and the most common overcharges are likely to have been on issuing  certain insolvency applications and asking for Court of Protection bills of costs to be assessed.

But in so far as the overcharge in issuing a county court claim for the stage 3 procedure under either of the two pre-action protocols for low-value personal injury cases is concerned, the refund scheme notably overlooks these. They are still being considered. Don't hold your breath.

Court Fees: New Regime

There are some important changes to the procedure in civil cases which mainly burst into action on 6 April 2017. The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2017 (SI 2017/95) are to be cursed or thanked, as the case may be.

I previewed the most impacting procedural change in my 8 December 2016 post Civil Hearing Fee Refunds Scrapped. The new rules cater for the change with this one coming in to force on 8 March 2017. The hearing fee is now called the trial fee. It will become payable by whoever is bringing the claim (or by the defendant if the claim has been knocked out and the case is going ahead on a counterclaim only). And it will be payable later in the case which will generally be by four weeks before the trial date. That's good. What isn't so good is that if the case settles in the run up to the trial, no part of the trial fee will be refundable as is presently the position. So you might be saying to your opponent something like -

"Be sensible. I am just about to pay the trial fee to the court. If you are going to settle with me, do it now. That's because once the fee has been paid, I won't get any of it back from the court should there be a later settlement and the trial be avoided. This being so, I will have to charge you up for the trial fee as well."

If the trial fee is not paid on time - and the court will notify you of the date for payment - the claim will be automatically struck out and you will have to pay the costs of the other side, unless the court orders otherwise. No period of grace and no reminder. It will be open to you to apply to the court for forgiveness and for the claim to be reinstated on condition you pay up or obtain remission (help with the fee). You certainly would not be able to bank on the success of such an application.

The new scheme for trial fees will NOT apply where before 6 March 2017 the court has notified to you the date of the trial or a trial window (the period during which the trial will take place).

Other changes which are somewhat technical and may send you to sleep unless you are a lawyer (or married to one in which event they will certainly send you to sleep)-

• the pilot scheme for legal advisers (barristers or solicitors) to deal with some of the more straightforward court box work is made permanent and tweaked.
• where costs budgeting applies in multi-track cases, the court is empowered on a detailed assessment to cut down the costs which were incurred before a costs management order was made notwithstanding that no point was taken on them at the costs management conference and the court can say nasty things about how high they are even at any case management conference, whether or not it makes a costs management order, and what is said can be taken into account on  a detailed assessment.
• if a case which started its life on the portal is later allocated to the multi-track, the costs will not be limited to fixed costs.

You can wake up now.

CIVIL HEARING FEE REFUNDS SCRAPPED

Before you blow a fuse, new rules laid before Parliament today and explained below will not  generally affect cases listed for trial before 6 March 2017.

When a civil claim is listed for trial, you the claimant will have to pay a hearing fee (which you will probably get back from your opponent if you win). But we are talking about potentially big money. For a small claim, it will range from £25 to £335, depending on how much you are after. On a fast track claim it will be £545 and for a multi-track claim ,,,,,,,,(wait for it)......£1,090. The fee will probably be payable quite a while before the actual trial takes place. However, to encourage settlements, there is a refund system. The earlier any settlement takes place, the stronger the chance that you will qualify for a refund. On a small claim, for example, you will get back the entire hearing fee if you have notified the court in writing at least one clear week before the final hearing that there has been a settlement or that you are abandoning the claim.

Forget this scheme for the future. Under the new scheme coming in next year, you will be able to hold on before paying the hearing fee until four weeks before the trial but the refund system will be abolished. This means that if you have brought a small claim and settled rather late, you will be worse off under the new scheme.  There is an exception in all cases where the trial date is not notified earlier than five weeks or less beforehand. Then, the hearing fee will only have to be paid within one week of notification of the date.

Happy litigating.

ESCAPING COURT & TRIBUNAL FEES

If you cannot afford what can be swingeing court or tribunal fees and your income and capital are modest, you may be able to get the fees waived (or remitted, as the law likes to call it). See my previous posts under court fees and also Breaking Law at chapter 13 which deals with a number of other ways of saving fees for court cases.

A revised 19 page guide on remission (of course) has been published today together with the forms you should use to apply which are in English and Welch respectively but positively not in Double Dutch. You'll find all this at GOVERNMENT.UK You can apply on line.

VERY INTERESTING

Fewer businesses are being sued in the county court for the money they are said to owe. Figures just out reveal that the number of registered judgments in England and Wales fell by 19% in the first half of this year. The hike in court fees for starting a case is almost certainly a major factor in the drop but perhaps there's a canny factor at work on the part of creditors. 

Creditors usually have six years to start a county court claim from when they should have been paid. The debt will almost certainly clock up interest in the meantime at the rate of a thumping 8%: slightly more if one business is in debt to another business and even more if the contract says so. So long as your debtor does not look like becoming insolvent, the idea of sitting back and watching that interest mount up may be an attractive one. The ultimate judgment will itself attract interest for so long as it goes unpaid if for at least £5,000.

The cheap alternative to suing is serving the debtor with a statutory demand which is not issued through any court and so does not attract a fee. It is a precursor to bankruptcy or winding up proceedings which do cost loadsamoney but, with a bit of luck, the debtor will react by settling for fear of being wiped out by a bankruptcy or winding up order.

For those with very modest capital and income, it may be possible to get a waiver of court fees for starting a case (and taking other steps in the case). An application can be made for what is called fee remission. It's all in Breaking Law.

COURT FEES

• After being let off court or tribunal fees?  Remission they call it. You can now apply on line. Go to GOVERNMENT.UK. Alternatively apply on form EX160 to the court or tribunal office concerned.
•  Applying for bankruptcy or the winding up of a company has become more expensive for applications made on or after 21 July 2016. That's because of a rise in the deposit which has to be paid for the work of the official receiver. On a bankruptcy application by a debtor, the deposit is up from £525 to £550. Where a creditor is after making their debtor bankrupt, the deposit rises from £825 to £990. But on a creditor's winding up petition against a company the deposit will increase from £1,350 to £1,600.