Government told to change rules on costs in environmental court cases

Government told to change rules on costs in environmental court cases

170830 RCJ court of appeal day 2

The High Court has told the UK government to change some new rules for environmental court cases to protect those taking legal action.

Three organisations, which challenged the Ministry of Justice, said the rules had made it more difficult for individuals and campaign groups to challenge public bodies in court.

The rules, introduced in February 2017, scrapped automatic caps which limited the costs of losing a legal challenge in England and Wales. Instead claimants had to provide detailed information in open court about their personal finances and a judge could increase the limit on costs at any stage of a case.

Campaign organisations said this made it impossible for individuals and charities to know at the start of a case what they were liable for if they lost.

In a judgement today, Mr Justice Dove said the rules on cost caps would benefit from further clarification.

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