You can win a small claim completely and still be out of pocket. Knowing by how much, before you start, is the difference between a decision and a gamble.
There are two separate questions people run together. What does it cost to bring the claim? And what can I get back if I win? The answers are not symmetrical, and the gap between them is where disappointment lives.
What you pay to bring it
A money claim carries an issue fee that scales with the amount you are claiming, and if the case goes all the way to a final hearing there is a separate hearing fee on top. Both are published by HM Courts & Tribunals Service on the EX50 civil court fees schedule. Check the current figures there rather than anywhere else, including here — fees are revised, and a number remembered from a forum post two years ago is how people get caught short.
If paying the fee is the obstacle, Help with Fees can reduce or remove it depending on your income and savings. It is a genuine scheme, it is not means-tested to an impossible standard, and it is under-used.
What you get back if you win
Here is the rule that shapes everything. Under CPR 27.14, on the small claims track the court cannot order the losing side to pay the winner’s costs, apart from a short list of exceptions: the fixed costs of issuing the claim, a capped sum for legal advice where an injunction or specific performance is involved, an expert’s fee up to a limit, something towards a day of lost earnings for attending, the court fees themselves, and a discretion to make an unreasonable party pay more.
The capped amounts are set out in Practice Direction 27A. Read them there on the day you need them; there is a live consultation on Part 27 and these figures can move.
What that means in practice is blunt. Your court fee and hearing fee are ordinarily recoverable from the loser. Your solicitor’s bill is not. Your own hours are not, beyond that modest daily figure for attendance. The evening you spent assembling the bundle is not.
The arithmetic, done honestly
Say you are owed nine hundred pounds. You will pay an issue fee and possibly a hearing fee. If you win, you recover the nine hundred plus those fees plus interest. Your own time is unpaid. That is usually still comfortably worth doing.
Now say you instruct a solicitor for that nine hundred pound claim. Their time will exceed nine hundred pounds, and none of it comes back from the other side. You would win the case and lose money. That is not a flaw in anyone’s character. It is CPR 27.14, and it is exactly why you were told nobody could take it on.
Interest, which people forget to claim
You can usually claim interest on a debt or damages, and it is often overlooked entirely because the claim form asks for it in a box that looks optional. On commercial debts between businesses the entitlement can be considerably higher than the general rate. Work it out and claim it; it is your money and asking costs nothing.
And the cost that is not money
The real price of a small claim is usually attention. Deadlines that arrive when you are busy. Papers you have to read twice. The particular tiredness of arguing in writing with someone who was unfair to you. Budget for that as seriously as you budget for the fee, because it is what actually stops people — the Ministry of Justice found that most unrepresented litigants end up inactive rather than defeated.
The fee you can look up. The evening is the expensive part, and it is the part Chris takes off you — you explain what happened, it produces the document the court expects, and you check it, sign it and file it as your own.
Free to start · no sign-up · no card. Tell Chris what has happened and see whether we can help before you pay anything. One matter · one case folder · a full day of drafting · 7-day guarantee on the standard of the drafts. If money is tight, Help with Fees can remove the court fee entirely, and Citizens Advice is free — we will always tell you when you do not need us.
*Look up the fee. Never trust a remembered one.*
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