Fixed costs are coming
The next big thing we can do – and my department cares a great deal about costs across the board and disproportionate costs really impede to access to justice – is to try and extend fixed recoverable costs to as many areas of civil litigation as possible.”
Richard Heaton, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Justice
16 October 2017
The MoJ is still focussed on a series of reforms and initiatives that will change the court process, the way in which users interact with the courts and in which lawyers’ fees are paid. In our view the introduction of fixed recoverable costs (including for mediation fees) will encourage use of mediation as there will be more of an incentive to settle early and stay within the budget of recoverable costs. The more complex and expensive the case is to run, the more difficult it will be to run the case to trial on an economic basis.