Court fees & rent deposits grab the headlines
IN HARMONY
The good news: it could have been worse. The bad news: litigants are clobbered with a myriad of court fee increases operative on 1 July 2013 under the terrible trio—the Civil Proceedings (Amendment No 2) Order 2013 (SI 2013/1410), the Family Proceedings Fees (Amendment) Order 2013 (SI 2013/1407) and the Magistrates’ Courts Fees (Amendment) Order 2013 (SI 2013/1409). So if you want to escape the increases, you’ve still got a few hours left unless you are reading this on the tram home.
Civil fees stay as they are except that there is a merger of two detailed assessment fees. The fee on requesting a legal aid only detailed assessment is united with the fee for approval of the costs certificate resulting in a total of sum payable of £195 on requesting the assessment as against the current £145 and £50 respectively. Merger raises an uglier head in family business as the majority of High Court, county court and magistrates’ courts’ family fees are hiked by 6.96% representing the cumulative rate of consumer price index
