Go to main content
 
Commencement notices for jurisdictional rise of District Court and Small Claims Tribunal and Small Claims Tribunal (Fees) (Amendment) Rules 2018 gazetted
******************************************************************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Judiciary:

     The commencement notices to give effect to the two resolutions relating to the civil jurisdictional limits of the District Court (DC) and the Small Claims Tribunal (SCT) passed by the Legislative Council on June 27, 2018 were published in the Gazette today (July 6).

     The two resolutions seek to increase the civil jurisdictional limits of the DC and the SCT stipulated respectively in the District Court Ordinance (Cap 336) and the Small Claims Tribunal Ordinance (Cap 338) as follows:

(a) increasing the general financial limit of the civil jurisdiction of the DC from $1 million to $3 million;

(b) increasing the financial limit for land matters of the DC from $240,000 to $320,000 in terms of the annual rent or the rateable value or the annual value of the land;

(c) increasing the limit for the equity jurisdiction of the DC where the proceedings do not involve or relate to land from $1 million to $3 million;

(d) increasing the limit for the equity jurisdiction of the DC where the proceedings wholly involve or relate to land from $3 million to $7 million; and

(e) increasing the limit for the SCT from $50,000 to $75,000.

     The Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal has appointed December 3, 2018 as the commencement date of the above jurisdictional rise.

     Also gazetted today were the Small Claims Tribunal (Fees) (Amendment) Rules 2018 (the Amendment Rules).

     The spokesman for the Judiciary said, "The Amendment Rules seek to prescribe the fees payable for filing of claims at the SCT up to its new jurisdictional limit of $75,000, and correspondingly adjust the range of claim amount for the existing four bands of fees in the Small Claims Tribunal (Fees) Rules (Cap 338B). The existing fee amount for each band of fee would remain unchanged.

     "The Amendment Rules will come into operation on the same day as the commencement date of the jurisdictional rise of the SCT, i.e. December 3," he added.

     The commencement notices and the Amendment Rules will be tabled in the Legislative Council for negative vetting on July 11, 2018.
 
Ends/Friday, July 6, 2018
Issued at HKT 11:00
NNNN
Today's Press Releases