Well it looks like the court fees amendment got through.<\/p>\n
Now if you have a case for more than 10k you’ll have to find 5% to issue it.<\/p>\n
So in broad terms, even before you think about enforcing your rights over, say, a small business dispute that’s worth 50,000 you need to find 2,500 before even thinking about lawyers fees. Previously that would have been only 910!<\/p>\n
Now compared to lawyers fees this may not look so bad, but when you think that you can get a lot of legal work for that example of 2,500 – that’s 10 hours of an experienced lawyer anywhere but central London and enough to bring a lot of disputes to a head.<\/p>\n
This also avoids the cash flow assistance that conditional fees offer. Most good cases can get such terms since it is in a lawyer’s interests to take on and win these cases. In a commercial sphere this includes no win, low fee as well as no win, no fee options and can often be insurance and\/or loan supported. These fees however make such cover or lending me expensive and that ATE is still unrecoverable!<\/p>\n
This measure discourages small business who would otherwise be able to defend or enforce their rights from doing so unless it is a situation that would run the business – and maybe not even then.<\/p>\n