The government's proposals for fee increases in the civil and family courts will price the UK courts 'out of the market' in commercial disputes, and impose 'cash-flow burdens' on legal aid firms doing family work, solicitors have warned.

The London Solicitors Litigation Association (LSLA) and the Law Society both slammed the government's proposals in their responses to the Department for Constitutional Affairs consultation, which closes this week.


The LSLA said the proposed increases were a 'slippery slope' towards 'making court users bear increasingly burdensome court fees'. It said: 'In principle, if the present proposals achieve 100% cost recovery, no more than inflationary increases will be required in the future. Yet we note the reference in the consultation paper to the possible "introduction of trial fees in larger civil cases".


'We cannot overemphasise the deleterious effect which any such proposal for trial fees will have on the attractiveness of the Supreme Court as a forum for litigating major disputes. One of the few positive benefits we could see in the present proposals would be if they served to put an end once and for all to the concept of introducing trial fees, but we fear this is not the intention.'


The Law Society said the 'continual' civil fee increases were having a 'negative effect on access to justice'. It added that in family cases, the proposed fees hike would put an 'unfair burden on people on low and middle incomes in society', and would 'place even greater strain on the legal aid fund'.