31 July, 2018
On 3 December 2018, the jurisdictional limits of the District Court and Small Claims Tribunal will increase. The rationale for the increase is to:
- allow better distribution of cases among the Court of First Instance, District Court and Small Claims Tribunal
- ease the increasing caseload of the Court of First Instance, to enable it to concentrate on handling more complex cases and those with higher claim amounts
- help lower legal costs, thereby enhancing access to justice for the public.
- District Court
The changes are as follows:
|
Jurisdictional Limit |
Current Limit (HK$) |
New Limit (from 03/12/18) |
|---|---|---|
|
General jurisdiction |
1,000,000 |
3,000,000 |
|
Land matters (in terms of annual rent, rateable value or annual value of the land) |
240,000 |
320,000 |
|
Equity jurisdiction for proceedings not involving/relating to land |
1,000,000 |
3,000,000 |
|
Equity jurisdiction for proceedings partly involving/relating to land and the part that does not so involve/relate to land exceeds $3,000,000 in amount or value |
1,000,000 |
3,000,000 |
|
Equity jurisdiction for proceedings wholly involving/relating to land |
3,000,000 |
7,000,000
|
|
Equity jurisdiction where the proceedings partly involve/relate to land and the part that does not so involve/relate to land does not exceed $3,000,000 in amount or value |
3,000,000 |
7,000,000 |
Small Claims Tribunal
The civil jurisdiction limit of the Small Claims Tribunal will be increased from HK$50,000 to HK$75,000. The range of claim amount for the existing four bands of fees payable for filing a claim in the Small Claims Tribunal have also been adjusted as follows:
|
Current range of claim amount |
Revised range of claim amount |
Fee ($) |
|---|---|---|
|
for a claim that does not exceed $3,000 |
for a claim that does not exceed $5,000 |
20 |
|
for a claim that exceeds $3,000 but does not exceed $17,000 |
for a claim that exceeds $5,000 but does not exceed $25,000 |
40 |
|
for a claim that exceeds $17,000 but does not exceed $33,000 |
for a claim that exceeds $25,000 but does not exceed $50,000 |
70 |
|
for a claim that exceeds $33,000 but does not exceed $50,000 |
for a claim that exceeds $50,000 but does not exceed $75,000 |
120 |
