What Are The Changes To The Fixed Recoverable Costs Regime From 1st October 2023?

• Published date: 03 October 2023
• Subject Matter: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Personal Injury, Professional Negligence
• Law Firm: Myerson Solicitors LLP
• Author: Myerson Solicitors LLP

Most civil claims valued up to '100,000 issued on or after 1st October 2023 will be subject to a new fixed recoverable costs (FRC) system.

Under the new rules, cases valued up to '25,000 will be allocated to the fast track, and less complex cases under '100,000 will be allocated to a newly created, separate intermediate track.

However, the regime will only apply to personal injury claims, where the cause of action has accrued on or after 1st October 2023 and disease claims, where the letter of claim has not been sent to the defendant before this date.

The extension of the FRC system aims to make costs fairer and more transparent and the litigation process more efficient, although it is likely that there will be a possibility of satellite litigation over track allocation and the complexity bands.

Types of claims that fall into the new Fixed Recoverable Costs regime

The new system extends Fixed Recoverable Costs to cover most civil cases with a value of up to '100,000, including non-personal RTA, RTA personal injury, employers' liability, public liability, professional negligence, tracked possessions, and defended debt claims or property and business disputes, unless they fall within the multi-track or are excluded.

The types of claims excluded from the new FRC regime (allocated to the multi-track) are:

• Mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung disease claims;
• Clinical negligence claims unless breach of duty and causation have been admitted;
• Child or vulnerable-adult abuse claims;
• Claims that can be resolved by jury trial (false imprisonment, malicious prosecution or fraud);
• Claims against the police and
• Housing claims (implementation delayed until October 2025).

The extension of the FRC will not apply to part 8 claims, CPR 8.9 (c) stating that part 8 claims should be allocated to the multi-track, judicial review cases and Solicitors Act 1974 challenges.

What are the new Fixed Recoverable Costs?

Practice Direction 45 sets out how much the Fixed Recoverable Costs are in each scenario, depending on which complexity band applies to the case and at what stage the case was settled or resolved.

Table 12 of the new CPR PD 45 sets out the FRC for claims allocated to the fast track, and Table 14 sets out the fixed costs for claims in the intermediate track.

The bands are categorised in ascending order of complexity, meaning that the higher the band of complexity, the greater the FRC.

The complexity bands

The type of claims that fall into the complexity bands in...