The Family Proceedings Fees (Amendment) Order 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order amends the Family Proceeding Fees Order 1991—

(1) to provide that exemption and remission from payment of court fees are only available in undefended proceedings for divorce or judicial separation, and that when available they reduce the fee in question to £20 (articles 4 and 5);

(2) to increase the following fees (article 7):

Fee No.	Short description of fee (for full description see fees order)	Existing fee £	New fee £
(fees to be taken in the High Court and county courts)
1(a)	Originating application/summons	20	100
1(b)	Petition	80	150
2(1)(a) to (p)	Applications under the Children Act 1989	20, 30 or 50	50
3(a), (b)	Adoption proceedings	20 or 30	100
3(c)	Wardship proceedings	50	100
4	Ancillary relief application	30	50
5	General application	20	30
6	Appeal from a district judge	20	50
10(a)	Registration of maintenance order	10	25
(fees to be taken in county courts only)
12(c)	Entering garnishee proceedings	25	50
12(d)	Application for a charging order	25	50
12(e)	Issue of a judgment summons	25	50
(fees to be taken in the High Court only)
16(d)	Application for a garnishee order, charging order or receiver	30	60
16(e)	Certified copy of judgment	20	30

(3) to introduce the following new fees (articles 8, 10 and 13):—

Fee No.	Short description of fee (for full description see fees order)	Amount of fee £
(fees to be taken in the High Court and county courts)
1(d)	Amended, second or subsequent petition	50
1(e)	Answer or cross petition	100
4(a)	Application for ancillary relief by consent	30
7(c)	Search in local index of decrees absolute	5
(fees to be taken in the High Court only)
19(a)	Affidavit before court officer	5
19(b)	Exhibit to same	2

(4) to make specific provision for applications to make a decree nisi absolute, requests for directions for trial and applications for consent orders (other than for ancillary relief), to remove the fee for requests for directions in uncontested divorce proceedings and to keep the fee at £20 in the other cases listed (article 9);

(5) to reduce the fee for copies of documents to 25p per page after the first five pages of each document (article 11);

(6) to provide an advance fee for the lodging of a bill for taxation, equal to half of the estimated final taxation fee as calculated on the assumption that the bill is upheld in full, and to set the final fee at £7.50 per £100 of the bill as taxed (article 12);

(7) where the bill is lodged by the party who would have to pay the amount of the taxed bill, to limit the amount of the advance fee to £50 unless the district judge orders otherwise (article 6).