The following is issued on behalf of the Judiciary:

     With effect from December 3, 2018, the civil jurisdictional limits of the District Court (DC) and the Small Claims Tribunal (SCT) will be increased 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. 

     On the same day, i.e. December 3, the fee schedule of filing of claims at the SCT will be amended 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

Ends/Thursday, October 25, 2018
Issued at HKT 10:00

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