Family Law

Eagle eyed practitioners may have noticed that as from the 4 August 2014 there is a new HMCTS Civil and Family Court Fees Leaflet.

However, this does not represent a complete overhaul of the court fees, last updated with the introduction of the single family court on 22 April 2014, and there is not in fact a new Family fees order.

There are two new amendment orders in relation to civil fees which came into force on 4 August 2014: the Civil Proceedings Fees (Amendment No. 2) Order 2014; made on 10 July 2014 and laid before Parliament on 14 July 2014, and the Civil Proceedings Fees (Amendment No. 3) Order 2014; made on 1 August 2014 and laid before Parliament the same date.

The changes made to the fees and to the leaflet itself are minor and can be summarised as follows:

Forced marriage applications

A new section has been included to clarify the position, as previously the HMCTS leaflet contained contradictory information from the Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008 (as amended by the Family Proceedings Fees (Amendment) Order 2014).

It states that, in an application for a forced marriage protection order under the Family Law Act 1996, no fee is payable on applications to commence proceedings nor in applications in existing proceedings to vary or discharge an order for a non-molestation, occupation or forced marriage protection order by the applicant or a third-party applicant.

If the respondent is applying, he or she is still liable to pay the fee, except if a fee remission is granted. The new fees leaflet does not give the fee that the respondent would be liable to pay, but the fee cited in para 1.4 of the Family Proceedings Fees (Amendment) Order 2014) is £75.

Maintenance orders

The leaflet also includes a new section stating that readers should see the enforcement section for details of the fees applicable when applying to enforce an order for the payment of money, rather than giving a fee in the 'Maintenance Orders' section for an application for a maintenance order to be registered. The fee for a maintenance order to be sent abroad for enforcement is still cited as £50.

Enforcement

The fee for an application in the family court for an order for such method of enforcement as the court may consider appropriate is listed as £50. This is not a new or amended fee, it is the same fee cited in the Family Proceedings Fees (Amendment) Order 2014, although it was not listed in the April version of the Fees Leaflet.

The changes to the civil fees are:

Insolvency proceedings

The fee payable now on a company entering a winding-up petition is £280, rather than the previous fee of £160.

Warrants

The fee to issue a warrant of control to recover a sum of money via Money Claims Online or the County Court Business Centre is £70. The fee to issue a warrant of control for the recovery of a sum of money in any other case is still £100.

The leaflet can be accessed here.