Grant reveals new RTA portal fees

The government intends to cut RTA portal fees from £1,200 to £500, justice minister Helen Grant has revealed in a letter to lawyers’ groups and industry bodies.

The proposed fee for the new category of RTA cases worth £10,000 to £25,000 is £800.

Fixed recoverable costs for employer’s and public liability cases worth up to £25,000, which will enter the portal for the first time in April, are set at £900 and £1,600.

“We are making changes so claims are handled quickly and efficiently and accident victims with genuine cases can be compensated as soon as possible,” Grant said.

“These changes, along with our wider reforms, will bring more balance to the system, make lawyers’ costs proportionate and in turn create an environment where insurers can pass on savings to their customers through lower premiums.”

However Karl Tonks, president of APIL said: "We’re appalled by these proposals, which are wholly damaging to the interests of injured people.

"A fee of £1,600 for an employers’ liability case valued up to £25,000 is not at all reflective of the work involved and serves to cut independent legal advice from the system.

"Alternatively, injured people will have to pay for legal advice out of the compensation that they need. Consultation on how the new employers’ liability and public liability systems will operate is still underway and cases have not been openly costed, so how these fees could have been fairly calculated is a mystery."

Grant said that for claims which left the portal, there would be a “matrix of fixed recoverable costs” based on the table recommended by Lord Justice Jackson in 2009, increased to take account of inflation but reduced to by an amount “intended to reflect the forthcoming ban on referral fees”.

Under the matrix, fees for non-portal claims worth £1,000 to £5,000, which settled before issue, would be the greater of £550 or £100 plus 20 per cent of damages.

For similar claims worth £5,000 to £10,000, it would be £1,100 plus 15 per cent of damages.

Fees for employer’s and public liability cases worth £1,000 to £5,000 which left the portal and settled before issue would be £950 plus 17.5 per cent of damages in both cases.

This would rise to £1,855 plus 12.5 per cent of damages for employer’s liability cases or 10 per cent of damages for public liability.