Help stop the rise in Court Fees #saveukjustice

esmerellda

Please help ask the government not to increase the fee for a general application in civil proceedings to £255



The government are proposing to increase the court fee for a general application in civil proceedings ( the N244 application used to ask to set aside a default judgment, apply for a stay, compliance with a 31.14 request, strike out a statement of case... and so on ) from £155 to £255.

A large number of people who receive a court claim need to use an application at some point during the defence of their case.

I believe this is a disproportionate rise and will have a detrimental affect on vulnerable consumers and only serve to further restrict access to justice.

I have started a petition to ask to government to reconsider. PLEASE SIGN

Last year the government held a consultation, 96% of respondents, including the law society and money advice service said NO to the raise. Yet the government have decided to go ahead with it regardless. You can see that consultation http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/justice-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/inquiry-name/
The rises also include divorce court fee rising by £140 and the maximum court fee doubling from £10k to £20k for bringing high value cases ( such as for medical negligence / personal injury ).

I'm concentrating on the Application fee as this affects everyone who has ever received a court claim or default judgment.

Applications are generally made ex-parte in the following situations.

• to suspend a possession order to pay back mortgage or rent arrears in instalments;
• to suspend a warrant of possession for rent or mortgage arrears;
• to pay a county court judgment in instalments;
• to vary the terms of an instalment order on a county court judgment;
• to suspend a warrant of control to stop enforcement agent action;
• to pay the warrant in instalments as part of the suspension of a warrant of control;
• to ask for a stay of execution in the High Court to suspend a writ of control
• to ask for a transfer to your local court for a hearing;
• to vary the terms of a charging order or to pay by instalments on a charging order;
• to apply for a time order in the course of proceedings for eligible agreements under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (secured loans, hire purchase and conditional sale agreements and unsecured loan agreements);
• to set aside a judgment made in error or where there is a defence to the claim;
• to vary the terms of an attachment of earnings order or to apply for a consolidated attachment of earnings order.

I have started a petition to ask to government to reconsider. PLEASE SIGN and PLEASE SHARE

esmerellda

Impact Assessment - https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/further-fees-proposal-consultation/supporting_documents/governmentresponseimpactassessment.pdf

Equalities Statement - https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/further-fees-proposal-consultation/supporting_documents/equalitiesstatementfeesresponse.pdf


And from the governments response to the consultation responses;

fermi

"on balance...." ???

Pull the other one....

esmerellda

I know! I don't know why they bothered consulting in the first place, having read a few of the main responses to that original enhance court fees consult, it wasn't a ''mmm maybe, no....'' it was a definate 'this will be very detrimental' NO.

Sadly it is one of those issues that doesn't get a great deal of support from the public ( who it affects mostly!) because it's a 'don't know how bad it is till I'm there' type issue, similar to criminal legal aid.