Court Fee

adeelh1987

Hi,

I am a bit stuck, I got a claim for 12 passengers for a delayed flight from Marrakech to Stansted, a 4+ hour delay, so considering if I should go with Bott and co or claim myself via courts. I have already done the letters to Ryanair who have ignored me so following the Dr Watson guides, the next step is to launch this via courts. But I am a bit puzzled about the court fees, as its 12 passengers, I will have to lodge this as 3x claims to use the ESCP but I cannot work out how much the Court fee per claim is, any idea?.

Thanks,
Adeel.

agrinnall

No idea what you're talking about in much of your post (Bott and Co? ESCP?) but this is the easy way to initiate a small claim in the UK - although it strikes me that as an Irish airline you make need to take action in the Irish courts, which is outside my limited knowledge.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

blindman

adeelh1987 wrote: »

Hi,

I am a bit stuck, I got a claim for 12 passengers for a delayed flight from Marrakech to Stansted, a 4+ hour delay, so considering if I should go with Bott and co or claim myself via courts. I have already done the letters to Ryanair who have ignored me so following the Dr Watson guides, the next step is to launch this via courts. But I am a bit puzzled about the court fees, as its 12 passengers, I will have to lodge this as 3x claims to use the ESCP but I cannot work out how much the Court fee per claim is, any idea?.

Thanks,
Adeel.

Ask in the Flight Delay threads

leylandsunaddict

adeelh1987 wrote: »

Hi,

I am a bit stuck, I got a claim for 12 passengers for a delayed flight from Marrakech to Stansted, a 4+ hour delay, so considering if I should go with Bott and co or claim myself via courts. I have already done the letters to Ryanair who have ignored me so following the Dr Watson guides, the next step is to launch this via courts. But I am a bit puzzled about the court fees, as its 12 passengers, I will have to lodge this as 3x claims to use the ESCP but I cannot work out how much the Court fee per claim is, any idea?.

Thanks,
Adeel.

If you want to persue a claim then claim yourself. Why give an ambulance chasing compensation firm 27% plus an admin fee?

Personally I couldn't be bothered claiming for a short delay, but we did have a problem with a tour op several years ago and ended up going through the small claims process. Just filled in the papers and sent them off. We didn't do it online.

The court hearing can be in your home country. It doesn't have to be done in the country that the airline is registered in.

callum9999

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

If you want to persue a claim then claim yourself. Why give an ambulance chasing compensation firm 27% plus an admin fee?

Personally I couldn't be bothered claiming for a short delay, but we did have a problem with a tour op several years ago and ended up going through the small claims process. Just filled in the papers and sent them off. We didn't do it online.

The court hearing can be in your home country. It doesn't have to be done in the country that the airline is registered in.

Because they do all the work and assume all the risk... Especially useful if your claim is borderline, like mine was.

So you personally can't be bothered to collect €300 for a delay but also wouldn't use a law firm because you'd only get €150 of it?

leylandsunaddict

callum9999 wrote: »

Because they do all the work and assume all the risk... Especially useful if your claim is borderline, like mine was.

So you personally can't be bothered to collect €300 for a delay but also wouldn't use a law firm because you'd only get €150 of it?

If you want to make a claim why pay a firm 27% plus admin fee when you can do it yourself is what I am saying? As for personally claiming, if it was a long delay eg over 12 hours and it was a flight I'd paid quite a lot for then yes I would, and I have, but I did it myself. For a few hours delay on a cheap ticket? Yes I could have done, but no, I haven't, because I think claiming more than the ticket cost in the first place is morally wrong, even if legally it's fine. My choice.

Voyager2002

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

I think claiming more than the ticket cost in the first place is morally wrong, even if legally it's fine. My choice.

Except that a delay or cancellation can end up costing you hundreds or even thousands. The original price of the ticket is completely irrelevant.

Obviously_the_best

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Except that a delay or cancellation can end up costing you hundreds or even thousands. The original price of the ticket is completely irrelevant.

But did it? And do you think it's morally right to claim 20 times the ticket price for a delay that likely the airline wanted even less than you? I certainly don't, and can see ticket prices rising in the future to cover these circumstances, hurting everyone.

absolutereturn

Obviously_the_best wrote: »

But did it? And do you think it's morally right to claim 20 times the ticket price for a delay that likely the airline wanted even less than you? I certainly don't, and can see ticket prices rising in the future to cover these circumstances, hurting everyone.

Before jumping the gun and taking the "prices will have to increase" view, you should be aware that, when it comes to court claims, "morally right" doesn't come into it. A claim has to be backed up by evidence of financial loss and would normally be limited to actual losses. They may or may not be much higher than the ticket price depending on the circumstances. If you bought a £100 ticket to go somewhere having paid £1,000 for a ticket to a special event (such as a World Cup Final), then your losses could be much higher than the ticket price, however, this would be the exception rather than the rule.

There is also an exception to the principle that you can only claim for actual losses, in Jarvis v Swan Tours, Lord Denning ruled that a holidaymaker could claim damages for mental distress and loss of enjoyment if the holiday didn't live up to expectations.

absolutereturn

callum9999 wrote: »

Because they do all the work and assume all the risk... Especially useful if your claim is borderline, like mine was.

Other than the court fees, there isn't much risk associated with claims below £10k because they are allocated to the small claims track where costs are not normally awarded against the party who loses.

Rather than paying someone to do the work, this may come in handy: http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/courts/mcol-quickstart-guide.pdf and https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/northampton-business-centre/money-claim-online/frequently-asked-questions

If you issue a claim and the defendant does not respond to it (acknowledge service or file a defence or an admission) within 14 days, you can request default judgment against them without going to court.

Voyager2002

Obviously_the_best wrote: »

But did it? And do you think it's morally right to claim 20 times the ticket price for a delay that likely the airline wanted even less than you? I certainly don't, and can see ticket prices rising in the future to cover these circumstances, hurting everyone.

An example: one of my colleagues was prevented from attending an international conference in the USA because the airline (Air France) made a stupid mistake. The DIRECT losses (hotel and conference fee) were probably around a thousand pounds, but the real cost is harder to quantify: the conference was an important part of a programme of work that unfolded over many years, and incidentally was financed by the tax-payer. The price of the ticket is completely irrelevant to this.

What is important is that airlines should not make such mistakes, or delay or cancel flights unless they face exceptional circumstances. The law ensures that airlines face costs when they behave like this, and so it is worth their while to invest the necessary resources to get things right first time. For the law to work, it is necessary that people do claim the compensation when they face a delay: by doing so, they are making it more likely that passengers next year will not face delays and cancellations.