DMBM668630 - CCP fees: Court fees: payment and accounting responsibility

Cases taken locally

The claimant officer is responsible for

• accounting for all court fees incurred
• paying over court fees to the court. Court fees are paid by cheque drawn on the Local Office Funding Account (LOFA) and made payable to `Her Majesty’s Courts Service’ (HMCS)
• recording these amounts in the Register of Court Cases and Record of Costs (Book 28)
• entering these amounts on ERP
• balancing the Book 28 Costs Register annually and agreeing costs transfers with the appropriate receiving office.

The Book 28 Costs Register reference is in the format of BK28/XXXX/YYYY where

CCBC cases

For CCBC cases the County Court Central Unit (CCCU) pays and accounts for the court fees relating to claims and execution warrants issued through the Bulk Centre as well as any other fees incurred whilst the actions remain with the Bulk Centre.

The CCCU is also responsible for

• updating IDMS costs work items whenever they update the CCCU Costs Register
• balancing the Book 28 Costs Register annually and agreeing costs transfers with the appropriate receiving office.

The Book 28 Costs Register reference is in the format of CCCU/XXXX/YYYY where XXXX is the consecutive number beginning at 1 within the accounting year and YYYY is the accounting year.

Transfer of costs accounting records

The CCCU will transfer the costs accounting record to the owning debt management office on form 28(Z) when the Court action is transferred to the local court. Due to the nature of the work handled by the Bulk Centre it is expected that most court actions commenced in the Bulk Centre will be transferred to the local county court immediately after judgment has been obtained. The receiving debt management office will allocate a new Costs Register reference to the item from its own range on receipt.

Where the debt management office considers transfer to EIS is appropriate whilst the action is still within the jurisdiction of the Bulk Centre they will advise the CCCU to create the cost charge on SAFE and close the BK28 entry.