Court fees have been reduced considerably with the price of filing certain cases in the first Hall of the Civil Court being slashed by 50 per cent owing to changes in procedures and the government’s initiative to refine the court tariff system, the Department of Information said.
It was said that the fees for jactitation and dispossession suits as well as the execution of promises of sale and transfers have been reduced by 50 per cent.
Cases regarding the cancellation or correction of birth, marriage or death certificates will only cost Lm10. Prior to the new fees, they were considered to be regular court cases. The fees for court cases regarding ownership of property have also been reduced to a basic expense of Lm100.
Notifications to legal consultant have gone down by Lm2, from Lm3 to Lm1, while an official letter will now cost Lm5 instead of Lm10. An appeal decision costs Lm30, compared to Lm75 it had cost before the new rates were introduced.
Affidavits have also gone down in price, from Lm5 to Lm3. Counter-mandates have gone down from Lm15 to Lm7.50. Applications for court auctions also went down to Lm25 from Lm75. Photocopies in court also cost less at 15c instead of 25c.
The reduction in fees is the result of the government’s promise to amend the tariffs that failed to produce the results hoped for, as well as due to the introduction of two amendments that came into effect on 1 August 2005. One of the amendments in question states that all cases regarding property must be filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court except those that exceed Lm5,000, which fall under the jurisdiction of the Magistrates’ Court.