News & Insights

Increase in civil jurisdictional limits of District Court and Small Claims Tribunal on 3 December 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

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Litigation and Dispute Resolution

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