This paper seeks views on amendments to High Court Prescribed Form 23 and County Court Order 11 Rule 1. The amendments relate to the information defendants are required to give when making a payment into court and are proposed in the light of changes to the legislation governing the recovery of Social Security Benefits.
Comments should be sent by Friday 29 May to:
Heather Bradbury
Civil Justice Division
Lord Chancellor's Department
Selborne House
54-60 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6QW
DX 117000 Selborne House
Tel: 0171-210 8864
Fax:0171-210 0652
Your comments, clearly marked for the attention of Heather Bradbury, may also be e-mailed to:response-lcdhq@internet.com
Copies of this document are available from the above address.
This paper can be downloaded on both Word 7 and text formats
The Government is unable to guarantee that it will be able to take account of responses received after the deadline, although it will endeavour to do so. The Department may wish to publish responses to this consultation. If you do not wish your response to be published, please mark it as confidential. All confidential responses will be included in any statistical summary of comments received.
The Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997 and regulations made thereunder came into force on 6 October 1997. They provide a new regime for the recovery by the state of benefits paid to victims of accidents and disease who receive a compensation payment from the tortfeasor.
Under the former regime, governed by the Social Security Administration Act 1992, compensators could deduct from any payment of compensation an amount equivalent to recoverable benefits paid to the victim, and pay the deduction to the Compensation Recovery Unit.
Under the new regime, compensators have a separate and independent liability to the state for recoverable benefits paid to the victim, and may only deduct sums from compensation paid for the same purpose as the recoverable benefit. The relevant purposes are loss of earnings, cost of care, and loss of mobility. This means that compensation for pain and suffering is now ring fenced from deductions, and that, in cases where the benefit exceeds the compensation for a particular head of damage, the compensator may have a total liability greater than an award of the court.
When a compensator makes a payment into court under the new regime, he is required to lodge a certificate obtained from the Secretary of State which lists for each recoverable benefit the amount paid or likely to be paid on or before a specified date, and, if he has made any deductions, he must tell the plaintiff that deductions have been made and the date of the calculation.
It has been suggested by both plaintiffs' and defendants' lawyers that clarification as to the amount of the deductions is required when it comes to making a payment into court. This would help plaintiffs to decide whether or not to accept a payment into court and would assist the court in deciding the question of costs in those cases which proceed to trial. Therefore it is proposed that defendants should be required to give additional information when making a payment into court.
In the High Court it is proposed to achieve this by making a change to the prescribed Form No 23. A draft of an amended version of the form is attached.
In the county courts, there is no prescribed form of notice of payment into court. Instead, the defendant draws his own notice, which may be in the form of a letter, and then court staff complete practice form form N243 (Adobe Acrobat required to view), Notice to Plaintiff of Payment into Court. Therefore an amendment to CCR Order 11 rule 1 is proposed, requiring a defendant making a payment into court to specify the amount of any benefit deducted. A draft rule amendment and reworded version of Form N243 are attached.
Take Notice that
The defendant ............................................... has paid £............. into court.
This sum is in satisfaction of (the cause of action) (some)(all) (the causes of action) in respect of which the plaintiff claims (namely)
and (does)(does not) take into account (the cause of action) (some) (all) (the causes of action) in respect of which the defendant counterclaims (namely)
The defendant has withheld from this payment the sum of £................. in accordance with section 8 and Schedule 2 to the Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997, which was calculated as follows:
| Name of benefit | Amount |
| Dated the | day of | 19 . |
It is proposed that after paragraph (1) of CCR Order 11 rule 1 there be inserted the following new paragraph:
(1A) Where a payment under paragraph (1) is made, the defendant shall state any amount withheld from the payment in accordance with section 8 and Schedule 2 to the Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997.FORM N243 (Adobe Acrobat required to view)