Legal Cost Specialists

RTA portal to be extended together with fixed costs

As widely predicted, the Government has announced its intention to extend the RTA portal scheme for cases worth up to £25,000 and also to extend this into employer and public liability personal injury cases. The Government also intends implementing a system of fixed recoverable costs, similar to that proposed by Lord Justice Jackson in his review of civil litigation costs. Interestingly, a cautious approach seems to have been adopted with consideration of timing “following a full evaluation of the existing RTA PI scheme” and further consultation with key stakeholder over details.

The small claims track limit will be increased from £5,000 to £10,000 but the limit for personal injury and housing disrepair claims remaining the same.

An interesting footnote to the various proposals announced is the plan for a single county court: “The single county court will replace the current county court structure by removing the geographical and jurisdictional boundaries that enable county court houses to represent the district in which they are located and to operate with their own identity”.  An end to forum shopping? (Yes, you know who you are.)

Is there anything left on Jackson’s wish list that has yet to be ticked off?

6 thoughts on “RTA portal to be extended together with fixed costs”

  1. question.
    the present Portal scheme, works for RTA’s, because of the mandatory requirement to have Insurance, and the ability for all parties to access a central database of such insurance and Insurers, so as to place the matter on the Portal.
    That is not however the case, in EL and PL cases.Sometimes ther is no Insurer, often those insurers are difficult to locate; many companies simply self-insure in view of the high cost of Insurance or deal direct because of the excess.
    In the vast majority of these cases, Defendants/Insurers cant even reply within the current 3 month period, let alone what the Portal requires
    How exactly does Jackson/Clarke squeeze these facts into his fixed costs/ Portal plan?
    Answer. They havent a clue, and dont care.

    Result, Chaos, masses of claims falling off the portal, and huge arguments on costs as to who did what and why, and what costs are payable in consequence

  2. who cares anymore! I bet my last penny it will be a complete shambles whatever they do.

    It seems that all Claimant solicitors are to blame for the costs escalation! Nothing to do with Defendants defending the undefendable or failing to make interim payments in RTA cases and causing huge amounts of hire charges!I could go on. What happened to the court using their Case management powers to control costs once litigated. I have never yet seen an order in RTA cases asking for the parties to lodge upto date costs estimates and the court then making some order to keep control of both parties and ensuring case reaches a swift conclusion with some sort of proportionality! But no its all the Claimant’s fault. Well its Tuesday and am off to do the Euro! LOL

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top