Guidance

Payment of court fees in road traffic accident related personal injury claims under the new small claims track limit

Updated 1 May 2024

Applies to England and Wales

This note sets out the type of court fees that are payable if court proceedings are started under Practice Direction 27B (‘PD27B’).

This will apply if a dispute for a Road Traffic Accident (‘RTA’) related Personal Injury claim (including a claim for a whiplash injury) cannot be resolved through the new Road Traffic Accident (RTA) Small Claims Protocol (‘The RTA Small Claims Protocol’), or if court proceedings are started for limitation purposes. PD 27B sets out the procedure by which a dispute (or part of a dispute) not resolved through the RTA Small Claims Protocol is resolved by the court.

This information is intended to help you identify the court fees payable. Whilst every effort has been made to make this guidance as accurate as possible, it should not be considered legal advice.

Court fees

When starting court proceedings, you will have to pay a court fee although you may be able to get some money off or even the whole fee covered by Help with Fees if you meet the eligibility requirements. Claimants will be able to apply for Help with Fees online or may use the paper based route to apply at the court handling their claim. Guidance on applying for Help with Fees is available on GOV.UK.

Depending on the nature of the dispute, you may have to pay one or more of the following fees: an issue fee, a hearing and/or application fee(s).

Issue and hearing fees are value-based, meaning that how much you will pay will vary according to the value of your claim.

Depending on the value of the claim the issue fee will range from £35-£455. Issue fees are due when you start court proceedings.

Likewise, the hearing fee will range from £27-£346*. The hearing fee will be payable at a later date when your claim has been listed for a hearing by the court. The court will tell you when payment of the hearing fee is due.

The application fee is £303*.

You can find the specific issue, hearing and application fees that are relevant to your claim at GOV.UK

If your claim is successful, the court is likely to order the defendant to reimburse you for the costs of these court fees, but this is subject to the court’s discretion.

If the value of your claim changes after starting court proceedings, you will need the permission of the court to change the value of your claim and you will need to pay an application fee. If the value of your claim has now increased, you will also need to pay a “top-up” to the value-based issue fee paid when you started your claim. This is to ensure the issue fee reflects the updated claim value.

*The Ministry of Justice consulted on inflationary increases to a range of fees which is likely to include the hearing and application fees that apply to these claims. The consultation closed on 17 May 2021 and you can find out more information on GOV.UK.

Table 1 sets outs the fees that will be payable when you “start the claim” - this means the first time you go to court and are following one of the procedures in sections 2 to 11 of PD27B. The table shows whether you will need to pay issue, hearing or application fee for the first dispute you are asking the court to determine.

Table 1: Court fees payable for the first time you go to court

Section of PD27B and type of dispute	Value based issue fee	Application fee	Additional hearing fee (payable later)
2 - LIABILITY DISPUTE ONLY – LIABILITY DENIED IN FULL	Yes	No	Yes
3 - ASSESSING THE VALUE OF THE CLAIM: NO LIABILITY DISPUTE, NO CLAIM FOR NON-PROTOCOL VEHICLE COSTS OR UPLIFT REQUEST	Yes	No	No
4 - ASSESSING THE VALUE OF THE CLAIM: LIABILITY ADMITTED IN PART BUT REMAINS IN DISPUTE (INCLUDING WHERE NON-PROTOCOL VEHICLE COSTS AND/OR AN UPLIFT ARE CLAIMED IN SUCH CASES)	Yes	No	Yes
5 - ASSESSING THE VALUE OF THE CLAIM: LIABILITY NOT IN DISPUTE AND THE CLAIM INCLUDES NON-PROTOCOL VEHICLE COSTS (AND AN UPLIFT WHERE CLAIMED IN SUCH CASES)	Yes	No	No
6 - ASSESSING THE VALUE OF THE CLAIM: LIABILITY NOT IN DISPUTE AND THE CLAIMANT APPLIES FOR AN UPLIFT (NO CLAIM FOR NON-PROTOCOL VEHICLE COSTS)	Yes	No	No
7 - CLAIM FOR INTERIM PAYMENT	No	Yes	No
8 - NON-PAYMENT OF AGREED INTERIM PAYMENT	No	Yes	No
9 - STARTING DUE TO LIMITATION	Yes	No	No
10 - DISPUTE OVER FEES FOR MEDICAL REPORTS OR OTHER DISBURSEMENTS	No	Yes	No
11 - NON-PAYMENT OF AGREED SETTLEMENT SUM	No	Yes	No

The ‘Guide to Practice Direction 27B – a guide for claimants’ provides some further information about the process of moving from the Official Injury Claims portal to the court.

Table 2 sets out the court fees that will be payable if you have already started your claim and you are asking the court to consider another matter.

Table 2: Court fees payable for further applications

	If you are making a second application to court under one or more of the procedures in PD27B
First application	2 or 4	3,5 or 6	7 or 8	10 or 11
If your first application was made under section 2 of PD27B (Liability)	Not available	Application fee. Possibly also a top-up value-based issue fee*	Application fee only	Application fee only
If your first application was made under sections 7 or 8 of PD27B (Interim Payment)	Value-based issue fee and hearing fee (for section 4 cases only)	Application fee only	Application fee only	Application fee only
If your first application was made under section 9 of PD27B (Limitation)	Hearing fee. Possibly also a top-up value-based issue fee*	Application fee. Possibly also a top-up value-based issue fee*	Application fee only	Application fee only

*If you have already paid a value-based issue fee under sections 2, 4 or 9 when you started your claim and the value of your claim has now increased, you will also need to pay a “top-up” to the correct value-based fee.

Returning to the Official Injury Claim portal

If your first dispute was under sections 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 or 11 of PD27B, the court will deal with all the issues and you will not need to return to the Official Injury Claim portal and follow the steps in the Protocol. This means Table 2 does not apply.