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News
Small claims reshuffle to speed up access to justice
updated on 15 February 2012
The government is expected to announce this week that the limit for small claims cases will be doubled to £10,000, while the restrictions for county court cases will rise from £15,000 to £100,000 except for personal injury cases. As reported in Legal Futures and the Solicitors Journal, plans to extend the remit of the Road Traffic Accident (RTA) Portal to cases worth up to £25,000 should also be confirmed this week.
It is hoped that the shake up will divert as many as 80,000 cases to mediation and help ease the back log of cases clogging up the courts, while in other instances the move is expected to lead to much simpler court cases.
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said: "Individuals and businesses tell me that the civil justice system at the moment can sometimes be intimidating. They don’t know if using the system will be worth the time, expense and hassle of going to court. I want to make the system as easy and transparent as possible. I want people to be able to resolve their disputes cheaply and simply through the courts' very successful mediation service and I want judges freed up to make quick and effective judgments based on the facts of a case, without unnecessary legal complication."
