Fixed Costs Rules Amended

 

The Civil Procedure Rule Committee intimated at their June meeting that some amendments would be made to the upcoming October Fixed Recoverable Costs reforms. We now have the publication of the Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 3) Rules 2023 and the amendments are as expected minor.  

 

It is unclear at this stage whether further amendments will be made though we do know that the CPRC have said that further issues will need to be considered though any further changes may not come until post-implementation.  

 

 

The only notable change is to the defintions within the Fast Track complexity band. Initially complexity band 1 under 26.16 Table 2 was said to include "non-personal injury road traffic claims". This has been qualified and amended to "road traffic accident related, non-personal injury claims." This will likely encompass credit hire claims.  

 

Other changes are purely to correct spellings and grammar including a change to 45.12(2)(b)(i) from "costs only" to "costs-only". Not the amendments which many will have hoped for. 

 

If these are the changes based on stake-holder feedback then they are extremely underwhelming. The SI was laid down on 14 July and this accords with the CPRC's comments that the amendments would be published on or around this time. As above it remains to be seen whether further amendments will be introduced pre-implementation. We will be monitoring the situation and continue to share updates.