Guidance

Civil high cost cases

When a civil case becomes more complex and expensive, you need to apply to the LAA for high cost case status.

Applies to England and Wales

Overview

When a civil case becomes complex and expensive it may need to be managed under a very high cost case contract.

A civil high cost case is any civil case where the final costs either to settlement or final hearing are likely to exceed £25,000. These are managed by the Exceptional and Complex Case Team.

All areas of civil funding are covered, including associated judicial reviews, but the following are the most common:

  • family (including private law, public law, child abduction and Court of Protection cases)
  • clinical negligence
  • prison law
  • actions against the police
  • education
  • housing

As well as individual high cost case contracts, the Exceptional and Complex Case Team also deals with:

  • multi-party actions
  • appeals to the Supreme Court, where a case may have wider public interest or may raise significant human rights issues
  • community actions
  • individual case contracts (where a firm doesn’t hold a contract in a particular area of law)
  • military
  • environmental
  • terrorism

Civil: family and non-family

The Exceptional and Complex Case Team is made up of 2 sub-teams:

Family

Find more detailed information on high cost family cases, including guidance and forms on the working of the high cost civil (family) team. They deal with family, child abduction and court of protection cases.

Non-family

Find more detailed information on high cost non-family (civil) cases, including guidance and forms on the working of the high cost civil (non-family) team. They deal with all other civil cases.

Civil high cost case contracts

The LAA manages these cases through individual high cost case contracts. Here, you’ll also find specification documents, a schedule, movement of clauses and standard terms 2010 and 2013.

Contact

Email the Exceptional and Complex Case Team: contactECC@justice.gov.uk

Updates to this page

Published 1 June 2014

Sign up for emails or print this page