Civil Procedure Rules Committee Meeting (3rd March 2023) sheds light on the implementation of the new Fixed Recoverable Costs (FRC) regime
The minutes from the Civil Procedure Rules Committee meeting on Friday 3 March 2023 were released on Tuesday 11 April 2023. Amongst other things, it sheds some further (but limited) light on the implementation of the imminent Fixes Recoverable Costs (FRC) regime soon to be implemented on 1 October 2023.
So, what do they tell us? Well, the main thing we can glean is more a question of “when“ as opposed to “what.“ Probably the most important element of the minutes is paragraph 22, which states:
“The…new FRC will apply to claims where proceedings are issued on or after 1st October 2023, save for personal injury (including disease). The new FRC will apply to personal injury (PI) claims where the cause of action accrues on or after 1st October 2023; and will only apply to disease claims where the letter of claim has not been sent to the defendant before 1st October 2023.”
Whilst, as a starting point, the minutes make clear that any claim for personal injury/disease where the cause of action occurs on her after 1 October 2023, the new FRC regime will apply as a starting point. No doubt all eyes will be on the various mechanisms to exclude FRC such as, for example, vulnerability, exceptional circumstances, and conduct. More about that will be known over the next couple of months.
What is also interesting is the trigger mechanism for the new FRC regime in respect of non-PI/disease claims which appears to be the date proceedings are issued. The way the minutes explain it, it seems that such claims will be retrospectively the subject of FRC, where, perhaps, they have been ongoing for sometime, but where court proceedings won’t be issued until on or after 1 October 2023. No doubt such claims will lead to an influx of proceedings being issued before that date and a bumper month in September 2023, for the Ministry of Justice in paid court fees.
However, there is still no indication as to when we might see the new rules which are to be implemented. The next CPRC meeting has already taken place on 31 March 2023 but the minutes from that meeting are unlikely to be available until the end of April/beginning of May. In the meantime, Kain Knight will continue to keep the industry appraised of developments as and when they happen.
