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"If your client is exempt from court fees why are you not already not applying for the remission...? They are still your client's costs."

Indeed so, however remissions are not as easy to come by as you might imagine.

The last time fees were hiked significantly, there was a widespread move on the part of many PI practitioners to seek remissions on behalf of clients who qualified. I made several such applications myself, however not a single one of them succeeded.

The most common reason for this was the court denying ever having received the form. This was a stock excuse, used even where the form had accompanied doucments the court acknowledged having received. Copies would be sent, and these would somehow disappear into the ether too.

I also had courts telling me in writing - quite wrongly - that solicitors can't apply for remission on behalf of their clients, and that if a remission is to be given, it has to originate from an application made by the claimant him or herself. This happened more than once.

The pattern of events was entirely consistent with HMCTS contriving to deny remissions and protect their profits, irrespective of any other factor.

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