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People looking to launch a civil litigation claim have been
advised to submit papers to the court before a significant rule
change next month (October).
From October 1 2023, fixed recoverable costs (FRC) will apply to
most civil litigation claims with a value of up to
£100,000.
Fixed recoverable costs are the amount of legal costs a winning
party can recover from a losing party at different stages of the
litigation, from pre-issue to trial.
Julia Lowe, Dispute Resolution Partner at
award-winning law firm Higgs LLP, said recoverable costs for most
cases are currently higher than they will be under the new
rules.
She said: “This is something which has been coming for a
long time. A version of FRC has been in place for Personal Injury
and Clinical Negligence for some time and now that is being
extended to many more claims.
“We are used to dealing with small track, fast track and
multi-track cases but from October 1 we will see the creation of a
new intermediate track, which is a significant change.
“When the intermediate track is introduced, there will be
four bands of complexity which determine the level of FRC you can
recover.
“It’s very complicated and will take some getting used
to – but the important thing for now is that everyone is
aware that the rules are changing on October 1, and to avoid FRC
claims have to have been lodged with the courts for issue before
October 1. That way the case will be dealt with under current costs
recovery rules rather than the new ones, which is more than likely
going to be advantageous.”
Julia said she anticipates friction over how cases are
categorised and allocated moving forward.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.
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