We recently highlighted the vast increase in court fees which the government has imposed on all litigants by the changes that took place on 9 March 2015 - some issue fees have increased by up to 600%. We remarked that one of the problems with this increase is that court fees can bear very little connection with the amount of court time on the case. That problem is particularly relevant to the construction industry.
The government had already privatised dispute resolution in construction following the original Construction Act in 1998, now it has imposed an effective double whammy by the current increases. The construction industry now pays private adjudicators rather than using the state’s courts, however should the paying party in that adjudication not pay, proceedings have to be issued to enforce the decision. Hence there has to be a summary judgement by a court, but not before the party who has just paid for his dispute to be adjudicated now has to pay again to issue a claim form for the sum in issue, and all for just one hearing!