Claiming Costs

You can only claim certain costs against your opponent if you win in the Small Claims Court. These are known as "Fixed Costs". They include any court fee you have paid, but not your solicitor's charges. You can claim your travel expenses and loss of earnings if these relate to your attendance at court.

You may also be able to claim travel expenses and Loss of Earnings of any of your Witnesses who have had to come to court to give evidence for you, the amount you can claim is restricted.

You may also be able to claim for any Experts Reports you have paid for to help your case, again the amount is restricted.

The court does have a discretion to award costs where a party has behaved unreasonably.

This includes:

Making unnecessary applications.

Causing a late adjournment of the hearing.

Failure to comply with directions or orders.

Refusing to negotiate.

Failure to comply with protocols.

Mis-stating value of the claim so it is allocated to small claims track to avoid costs liabilities.