Litigant in person costs calculator (CPR 46.5)
calculate_litigant_in_person_costsWorks out the costs a self-represented party can claim in the civil courts of England and Wales under CPR 46.5: £24 an hour for time spent on or after 1 October 2025 and £19 an hour before (PD 46 para 3.4), or proven financial loss; payments for legal services and expert help with the costs claim; disbursements; the two-thirds cap on everything except disbursements, checked only against your own figure for what a lawyer would have been allowed; the small claims track limits (CPR 27.14(2)); fixed recoverable costs (CPR 45.4); and who counts as a litigant in person. It never estimates what a lawyer would have been allowed, and the court decides the time reasonably spent.
Tool call template
Replace each placeholder with a value matching the input schema. Only required parameters are included; add optional parameters as needed.
{
"id": 1,
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"arguments": {
"who": "<who>"
},
"name": "calculate_litigant_in_person_costs"
}
}Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| who | Yes | Who is claiming the costs: "individual" (an individual acting for themselves), "company" (a company acting through a director or employee who is not its lawyer), "lawyer-outside" (a lawyer acting in person outside their own practice, e.g. an employed solicitor or a barrister), "lawyer-own-practice" (a solicitor acting through their own practice: a sole practitioner, a partner, or an LLP), "company-in-house" (a company acting through its in-house solicitor). | |
| regime | No | What kind of claim: "general" (costs not fixed: multi-track, a fast track claim outside fixed recoverable costs, an application, or costs-only proceedings), "small-claims" (the small claims track), "frc" (fixed recoverable costs, CPR 45 Sections VI to VIII), "section-2" (fixed costs on issue, judgment or enforcement, CPR 45 Section II). | |
| travel | No | "small-claims": reasonable travel and overnight expenses, in pounds (e.g. "12500.50"). | |
| counsel | No | Direct-access counsel's fees actually paid, in pounds (e.g. "12500.50"). | |
| experts | No | "small-claims": experts' fees, one entry per expert (each capped at £750), each in pounds, e.g. ["120", "95.50"]. In a query string, leave out thousands separators. | |
| earnings | No | "small-claims": lost earnings, one entry per person per day (each capped at £95), each in pounds, e.g. ["120", "95.50"]. In a query string, leave out thousands separators. | |
| courtFees | No | "small-claims": court fees paid, in pounds (e.g. "12500.50"). | |
| comparator | No | Your own figure for what a legal representative would have been allowed (for "frc", the fixed recoverable costs), to check the two-thirds cap, in pounds (e.g. "12500.50"). | |
| hoursAfter | No | Hours of your own time spent on or after 1 October 2025 (£24 an hour), in hours (e.g. "12.5" or "3:30"). | |
| injunction | No | "small-claims": the claim includes an injunction or specific performance. | |
| provenLoss | No | Financial loss you can prove for the time spent, instead of the hourly rate, in pounds (e.g. "12500.50"). | |
| costsExpert | No | Paid for expert help with the costs claim, in pounds (e.g. "12500.50"). | |
| hoursBefore | No | Hours of your own time spent before 1 October 2025 (£19 an hour), in hours (e.g. "12.5" or "3:30"). | |
| unreasonable | No | "small-claims": the court found a party behaved unreasonably (CPR 27.14(2)(g)). | |
| disbursements | No | Other disbursements: court fees, travel, witness and expert witness fees, in pounds (e.g. "12500.50"). | |
| legalServices | No | Paid for legal advice or help from a lawyer qualified in England and Wales, in pounds (e.g. "12500.50"). | |
| sameDayWitness | No | A witness allowance is claimed for a day also claimed as attendance time. | |
| injunctionAdvice | No | "small-claims" with injunction: paid for legal advice on that claim (capped at £260), in pounds (e.g. "12500.50"). | |
| costsExpertQualified | No | That expert is in a PD 46 para 3.1 class: a barrister, solicitor, FCILEx, FACL, or a costs draftsman in the Academy of Experts or the Expert Witness Institute. |