By Gavin Mackintosh-
The Ministry Of Justice has opened a refund scheme to refund money to litigants who have been overcharged for court services over a four-year period.
Claimants who had issued proceedings in the High Court and County Court since 2016 had been charged £308 rather than the correct fee of £205 . The inflated fees were for cases with a value estimated between £3,000 and £5,000. The Eye Of Media.Com heard that the errors occurred because their claim was wrongly categorised as one for ‘any other remedy’, but errors of this nature should not have been taking place in a court.
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ERRONEOUS
The MoJ agreed that the higher fee was erroneous and never should have occurred. A spokesperson told The Eye Of Media.Com that the official opening of the scheme for refunds follows a detailed review taken a year and a half ago into the cost of these proceedings.
”The refund scheme to establish a reimbursement was agreed over a year and a half ago, but yesterday saw the official opening of that scheme, the MoJ said.
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The changes in question affect the fees charged for certain proceedings in the Court of Protection; a number of civil proceedings in the magistrates’ courts; fees for general applications in insolvency proceedings; and the fees charged for High Court judges sitting as arbitrators.
Unfortunately, not every litigant who was overcharged would be aware of the provisions for refund, and those who are will need to be able to find the details of their case to claim the refund. Claims could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, depending on how many people actually put a claim forward.
COMMITMENT
The Ministry Of Justice says it is committed to making sustained improvements to the justice system, including the Government’s £1bn investment in Court Reform. Review of court fees, including the method for setting them is embodied in its framework and efforts to prevent a repeat of such overcharges in future.
The policy change was sparked by the threat of judicial review led by Jon Heath -a partner at Liverpool firm Levins Solicitors..Courts across the country had adopted conflicting practices in relation to stage three claims, but at some stage were issued with a new government policy to charge £308 across the
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