19.06.09: Small claims costs or predictable costs in infant cases

If you are acting on behalf of a child in litigation and the claim for general damages is unlikely to exceed 1000.00, you should be careful not to assume that you will recover anything over and above small claims track costs.

In the event you agree a figure for general damages subject to Court approval, you should be able to recover more than small claims track costs because your infant approval application is made under the CPR Part 8 process which automatically gives the matter multi-track status.

 

The situation is very different when you have not agreed general damages. In such circumstances, you would have to issue CPR Part 7 proceedings but the crucial difference for these purposes is that Part 7 does not automatically give any track status – you must select your track according to the likely damages recovery and if that does not exceed £1000.00 you will only receive small claims track costs.

CPR Part 8 is used when the Court is being asked to make a decision on an issue when the main issue has been agreed. CPR Part 7 is used when issues have not been agreed i.e your damages figure has not been agreed.

 

In summary, in child cases you should be aware that if you cannot agree general damages you will not necessarily recover anything over and above small claims track costs if you issue Part 7 proceedings. Therefore, you should try to agree general damages as soon as possible and if you are unable to do so you should not proceed to issue – instead you should give your client the option to commence the proceedings as your firm is likely to make a loss by continuing to act.