The Ministry of Justice have recently published their response paper to the July 2023 consultation, in respect of issues relating to the new Fixed Recoverable Costs (FRC) regime. The amendments, which have now also been published, will come into force on 6th April 2024.
- Fixing costs on assessment - "Fixed Costs Determination" to fall in line with the proposals of Sir Rupert Jackson from his 2017 report - these are hoped to implemented in October 2024.
- Fixing the costs of Part 8 - the Government will fix the costs of Part 8 (costs only) claims - these are hoped to implemented in October 2024.
- The recoverability of, separately, (a) inquest costs and (b) restoration proceedings - (a) The Government’s position is that the costs of inquest proceedings should be recoverable, but only to the extent that they would be anyway, outside of FRC & (b) The Government will amend the extended FRC regime to make the costs of restoring a company to the Register recoverable in either the fast track or the intermediate track.
- The recoverability of advocates’ preparation in cases that are (a) settled late and (b) vacated. Tables 12 and 14 of PD 45 will be amended to reflect the number of days when a trial is settled or vacated before or on the day of the hearing.
- Inflationary uprating for the fixed trial advocacy fees now in PD 45 - an additional SPPI uprating to the trial advocacy fees - The inflated FRC figures will be included in Table 12 (fast track), Table 14 (intermediate track), and Table 15 (NIHIL claims) of PD 45.
- Clinical Negligence Claims - For a clinical negligence case to be suitably allocated to the intermediate track and thus, be subject to fixed costs, a full admission of liability must be given within the pre-action protocol Letter of Response.
Our Victoria Long takes a look at the Fixed recoverable costs (FRC): consultation on issues relating to the new regime (July 2023) – the way forward which was published in February 2024.
