Putting a price on justice: how the courts value non-monetary claims within the FRC regime

Within the new Fixed Recoverable Costs regime (FRC), claims are first assigned to a track (fast or intermediate) by reference to the sum of money sought by the claimant(s). The fast track will generally catch claims between £10,000 and £25,000 and the new intermediate track will catch claims between £25,000 and £100,000. This is a straightforward task if the claim is solely for a sum of money, but how will claims be treated if the claim (or part of the claim) is for a non-monetary remedy, for example specific performance or a declaration?

CPR 26.13 deals with the matters relevant to track allocation. If a matter has been assigned to the fast track and a complexity band, then any non-monetary relief is given the following values, in accordance with CPR 45.45(1)(a)(ii):

• In a claim assigned to complexity band 2, non-monetary relief is worth £10,000;
• In a claim assigned to complexity band 3, non-monetary relief is worth £15,000;
• In a claim assigned to complexity band 4, non-monetary relief is worth £20,000;

In the intermediate track, the same process applies but with higher monetary values being assigned to non-monetary claims (CPR 45.50(2)(b)(ii)):

•  In a claim assigned to complexity band 1, non-monetary relief is worth £25,000;
•  In a claim assigned to complexity band 2, non-monetary relief is worth £50,000;
• In a claim assigned to complexity band 3, non-monetary relief is worth £75,000;
•  In a claim assigned to complexity band 4, non-monetary relief is worth £100,000;

CPR 45.45(a)(iii) states that in claims seeking a mix of monetary and non-monetary relief, the assigned value will be added to the monetary figure to give the total “damages” of the claim, which will be needed to calculate the percentage of additional costs that can be claimed upon reaching a settlement or judgment in the claimant’s favour.

Turning back to CPR 26.13, although non-monetary claims are given a value so that additional legal costs can be recovered as a percentage of damages, these valuations do not factor into which track a claim should be assigned to - see CPR 26.13(2)(e). This is presumably so claims that appear suitable for the fast track or intermediate track are not disqualified from either, or raised into a higher track by the inclusion of a non-monetary remedy. For example, in the fast track, a £10,000 claim in complexity band 4, plus a non-monetary remedy would mean a total claim value of £30,000, above the fast track general limit. In intermediate track complexity band 4, a non-monetary claim, plus a claim for £100 would have had the effect of raising the claim value above the £100,000 FRC limit.

The court will assess the actual financial value of the claim and the nature of the non-monetary remedy to determine which track and complexity band the matter should be assigned to. The monetary value of the non-monetary claim is then assigned, solely to enable a claimant’s solicitor to recover a higher amount of costs, reflective of the additional work that will be required to pursue the non-monetary remedy.