RESPONSE: commercial litigators and the Law Society condemn changes to civil court fees


Government proposals for full-cost recovery and other changes to civil courts fees have been condemned by commercial litigators and the Law Society.



The London Solicitors Litigation Association (LSLA), the Commercial Litigation Association (CLAN) and the Law Society all slammed the government's plans, especially in light of recent news that the civil courts have made a £45 million profit.



The government consultation paper outlined, among other things, a pilot of daily hearing fees in commercial litigation, a potential cut of £3 million from the family courts by not automatically exempting those in receipt of Legal Help, and an intention to introduce full-cost recovery. Responses were due in last week.



Both litigation solicitors' associations are almost resigned to accepting increased costs because the government seems set on this course, regardless, they said, of the outcome of the consultation paper.



'There is no point in consulting if the DCA [now the Ministry of Justice] proposes to introduce reforms whatever the responses,' the LSLA said. 'Despite widespread opposition to the introduction of trial fees in previous consultations, the government appears determined to introduce them. By the time evidence of harm [to the Commercial Court] emerges, irretrievable damage would have been done to the reputation of the civil justice system.'



CLAN president Tony Guise said his association would only support higher fees if the £45 million surplus is put into modern IT and better resources for court users, if the government ends its policy of cross-subsidising other courts from the civil courts' coffers, and if a different approach is adopted towards the valuation of buildings such as the Royal Courts of Justice.



'If family courts are inherently non-profitable, the government should accept that it must subsidise them, not expect other court areas to,' Mr Guise told the Gazette. The CLAN is also against full-cost recovery because 'the way costs are calculated is bizarre'.



The Law Society told the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) that it 'remains fundamentally opposed to the government policy of full-cost recovery. The future of our civil justice system is uncertain if this policy is pursued.'



The MoJ released a survey last week that it said showed people were more worried about how stressful or long their case would be than what it would cost.



Rupert White