Increased Certainty From October 2023 ' The Extension Of The Fixed Recoverable Costs Regime

• Published date: 10 May 2023
• Subject Matter: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Transport, Rail, Road & Cycling, Personal Injury, Professional Negligence
• Law Firm: Weightmans
• Author: Ken Slade

The extension should be welcomed as its intention is to provide greater certainty about legal spend for compensators.

On 20 April 2023, the Civil Procedure Rule Committee published the draft rules that will govern the extension of the fixed recoverable costs (FRC) regime from October this year. This extension is long-awaited, having been confirmed by the Government in September 2021 in its response to Lord Justice Jackson's 2017 report on Fixed Recoverable Costs and confirmation that implementation was postponed until October was provided in November 2022. However ' it's happening and it is anticipated that the final version of the rules should be published at the end of May, the CPRC having previously committed to providing practitioners with as much notice of the detail of the new regime as possible.

It was confirmed earlier this month that the new FRC regime ' for most money cases worth up to '100,000 ' would apply in cases where proceedings are issued on or after 1 October, although, crucially, for personal injury claims, the new rules will apply only where the cause of action accrues on or after 1 October 2023, and will only apply to disease claims where the letter of claim has not been sent to the defendant before that date. Disease practitioners should note that, in respect of noise-induced hearing loss claims, the new rules implement the recommendations of the Civil Justice Council working group on fixed costs for these claims ' full details can be found in Section VIII of Part 45 of the Civil Procedure Rules.

The Ministry of Justice had previously proposed that some claims, due to their complexity, should be excluded from FRC. These are set out in rule 26.9(10) of the new draft rules and include mesothelioma or asbestos lung disease claim, a claim for damages in relation to harm, abuse or neglect of or by children or vulnerable adults, a claim that the court could order to be tried by jury if satisfied there is in issue a matter set out in section 66(3) of the County Courts Act 1984 or section 69(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981 and claims against the police involving an intentional or reckless tort, or relief or remedy in relation to the Human Rights Act 1998. Note however that this exclusion does not apply to a road accident claim arising from negligent police driving, an employer's liability claim, or any claim for an accidental fall on police premises.

In addition, the Ministry of Justice has delayed the application of FRCs to housing cases...