Family court fees hike despite disapproval
News has broken that the government is set to increase court fees, including divorce petition fees and fees for applying for orders about children, despite protests. Many feel that it is wrong to increase the cost of using the court due to the impact on people’s finances caused by Covid and the fact that difficulties in the court service have recently caused significant delays in dealing with cases. However the government’s position is that the increases will only cover rising costs of providing the service. It argues that uplifts to the thresholds for eligibility for help with court fees will increase the amount of people who are fee exempt, but as this is only a relatively small percentage of people anyway it is hard to see how much assistance this will be. There is no date for the increases yet but provisionally the new fees will apply from autumn 2021. With summer behind us expect the hike before long.
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