Do Small Claims Court Limits Include Court Fees

welshman1948

Confused as to whether the £115 submission fee for starting a claim becomes part of the total claimed. It's important because my claim is very near the limit for the £115 fee (i.e. £3000) and I don't want it to be rejected if I fall into the next highest band of fees (an extra £100 or so).

Alderbank

Costs are not part of your claim.

If your claim is successful you can ask for certain costs (such as court fees and expert reports) to be added to the claim.

welshman1948

So just to be sure: if my claim is up to £3000 I pay fees of £115 and they are not counted in with the amount claimed?

DullGreyGuy

welshman1948 said:

So just to be sure: if my claim is up to £3000 I pay fees of £115 and they are not counted in with the amount claimed?

Small Track limit is £10,000 assuming you aren't claiming for an injury so you are miles off the upper limit, even injury has been increased to £5,000 unless it involves a child or someone else lacking capacity.

The limits are also not hard and courts are encouraged to fit things in the lowest possible track. So you can get a £10,100 claim heard in Small Track as long as all agree it's not too complex for it. 

Alderbank

I don't think you even know what your fees are yet.

If your claim is  £1,500-£3,000, the £115 fee is just to start your claim.
Has the court decided whether the case will need a hearing? The hearing fee for a claim of that size is an additional £181. That usually has to be paid by the claimant (you) but in some circumstances is paid by the defendant.
There will probably be further fees as well before the case is over.

Are you claiming interest? Remember to add your interest to the claim before calculating the fees.

eskbanker

DullGreyGuy said:

welshman1948 said:

So just to be sure: if my claim is up to £3000 I pay fees of £115 and they are not counted in with the amount claimed?

Small Track limit is £10,000 assuming you aren't claiming for an injury so you are miles off the upper limit, even injury has been increased to £5,000 unless it involves a child or someone else lacking capacity.

The limits are also not hard and courts are encouraged to fit things in the lowest possible track. So you can get a £10,100 claim heard in Small Track as long as all agree it's not too complex for it. 

Surely OP's point is about the tiering of the fees rather than the actual limits of the process itself:

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/court-fees

DullGreyGuy

eskbanker said:

DullGreyGuy said:

welshman1948 said:

So just to be sure: if my claim is up to £3000 I pay fees of £115 and they are not counted in with the amount claimed?

Small Track limit is £10,000 assuming you aren't claiming for an injury so you are miles off the upper limit, even injury has been increased to £5,000 unless it involves a child or someone else lacking capacity.

The limits are also not hard and courts are encouraged to fit things in the lowest possible track. So you can get a £10,100 claim heard in Small Track as long as all agree it's not too complex for it. 

Surely OP's point is about the tiering of the fees rather than the actual limits of the process itself:

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/court-fees

Yup, scan reading failed me! 

For that its not hard to see as you can go backwards and forwards in the process and the tool calculates how much you have to pay so if you claim £3k plus court fees and it asks for £205 then its factoring the fees in, if it asks for payment of £115 then it doesn't. Think the system is simple enough and been going long enough that it is correctly calculating the fees and you won't find the court subsequently asking for £90 because there is a flaw with the tool.

welshman1948

Thank you both. Indeed the subject was the initial fee tiers. I omitted to mention that I am doing this the old fashioned way, using paper, so it hadn't occurred to me that I might test the system by doing first steps online. All seems rather a lot of extra work now, so I'll just keep the claim below £3k and ask for fees and interest.