Court fees for a money claim
Issuing a money claim has a price list, and a second question most pages skip: whether you pay it at all. The fee climbs a ladder from £35 to a £10,000 cap, and Help with Fees can cut it to nothing — on tests that are arithmetic, not discretion.
Fee ladder and Help with Fees tests pulled from the living Fees Order, consolidation dated 16 July 2026, verified 22 July 2026 · legislation.gov.uk
This prices fee 1.1, the money claim, online or on paper. Other actions carry their own fees — recovery of land £404 in the County Court, any other remedy £377 or £646 in the High Court, fees 1.4 and 1.5 — and the ladder above does not reach them.
The issue fee is the first of two: a hearing fee follows if the case runs to trial — £27 to £346 on the small claims track, £619 on the fast track, £1,334 above it, fee 2.1.
Help with Fees is claimed before paying, not after. Certain benefits pass the income test outright, para 11A, and a winning claimant normally recovers the issue fee from the losing side.
For the German half of the picture, the comparison calculator sets this ladder against the GKG table. Whether to issue at all — merits, time limits, whether the defendant can pay — is a question for advice, and none of it is arithmetic.