The court fee to apply for a divorce is rising from £550 to £593. Family lawyers across the board are experiencing serious delays and long-awaited hearings being cancelled at the last minute. I'm not sure that the court fee rise is reflected in an improvement of the system or infrastructure in our legal system at all.
The government is set to impose a widespread increase in court fees. Following a consultation opening in March, 61% of the 89 responses disagreed with the proposal to apply inflation to selected court fees, with many arguing this was the wrong time to increase costs due to the impact of Covid-19. Opponents of the plans also felt increases were unjustifiable due to the quality of service provided by HM Courts & Tribunals Service. But the Ministry of Justice has said it will press on with 129 fee increases. The government response states: ‘The proposed increases reflect historic inflation and are therefore not an increase in real terms. The income generated from these proposals will go towards the running cost of HMCTS and will ensure that the courts and tribunals can continue to deliver access to justice for all.’
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