Child Abduction, Wardship Cost Limit Revisions
We are making changes to the default cost limit for Child Abduction and Wardship for new applications submitted to the LAA from Monday 17th March 2025.
Cost Update for Child Abduction and Wardship
When reviewing current costs limitation for Child Abduction and Wardship it has been agreed following consultation and feedback that the cost limit for the substantive certificate will increase from £5000 to £25000. Our review of the data shows the costs incurred on these cases far exceed the current default cost limitation of £5000. Child Abduction and Wardship commonly involve a foreign element and costs on these cases can quicker escalate, meaning that costs incurred can frequently exceed the standard £5000 cost limit. These certificates are regularly granted to include representation at the final hearing, and this change will allow providers to focus on the case rather seeking to amend the costs limit of the certificate.
What changes will you see?
When granting an initial application, CCMS will grant a cost limit of £25,000 for the cases listed in the table below.
It will apply to the following proceedings only:
Proceedings
CH001 – Child Abd/Custody – free – High Court
CH003 – App for wardship – High Court
CH002- App – Child Abduction/Custody Act 1985 – High Court
Existing Scope and Proceeding limitations will continue to apply.
Implementation Date
This will be effective from Monday 17th March 2025. New applications started and submitted from Monday 17th March 2025 will have the new standard cost limit of £25,000.
What’s Next?
This is part of a continuous journey towards creating a more accessible Legal Aid system and reducing the administrative burden on provider and ourselves. Currently under consideration are ideas such as:
- Including reviewing how we could make greater use of our backdating facilities
- Reviewing the current cost limits in non-Family proceedings
We’d be happy to hear from you with any ideas you have as well, so please do let us know.
FAQs Why are we doing this?To ease access to the Justice system by applying modern, reflective limitations to certificates and to free up caseworker time by reducing time spent on lower risk, repetitive amendments. This will allow us to focus more on higher risk applications and claims. It is also about evolving our relationship with our providers where we seek to explore how we can give them more responsibility for decisions taken on the cases they work on.
What will it look like?Applications will be submitted as normal, but the default costs limit will be £25,000 on application started and submitted from Monday 17th March 2025.
How will Delegated Functions work?There will be no change on applications under Delegated Functions, the new limitations only apply from the issuing of the Substantive amendment.
How will it be brought in?Communication and guidance will go out to both caseworkers and providers in advance of the changes going live.
How will current cases for child abduction and wardship be affected?Existing certificates for child abduction and wardship will remain at their current cost limit. Once that limit has been met and there is further work to undertake, then a fresh amendment to increase costs should be submitted. The further work that needs to be undertaken should justify the cost limit that is being sought, as per standard practice.
Does this apply to enforcement and appeal proceedings for child abduction and wardship?No, the standard cost limit for enforcement and appeal for child abduction and wardship will remain the same. This change to £25,000.00 is only applicable to the three specific proceedings mentioned above.
Why doesn’t this apply to enforcement and appeal proceedings?The evidence based on average claim costs for the specific standalone proceedings for enforcement and appeal proceedings, didn’t justify the cost limit being increased to £25,000.00.
Does this affect solicitor bills?Yes. The change allows solicitors more freedom to undertake work that their case load requires, rather than having to spend their time seeking upfront permission for costs on applications submitted from the 17th March 2025. Please note that all costs will still be subject to an assessment of reasonableness at the point of assessment. Providers will still be responsible for checking the public funding certificate to ensure that they are covered for the work they are undertaking.
Is this for paper and CCMS?Yes, this process will be applied to paper applications.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/changes-to-cost-limits-for-child-abduction-and-wardship