You were charged more than £3 for the application for your liability order.

The statutory fee for each liability order applied is £3 according to Schedule 1(5) of the Magistrates’ Courts Fees Order 2008.

It is the practice of councils to make a profit from the economies of scale by applying for Liability Orders in bulk.

If you were charged more than £3, the council is required to give evidence of their disbursements..

Paragraph 61 of the judgment of R (on the application of THE REVEREND PAUL NICOLSON) v LB Haringey [2015] EWHC 1252 (Admin)

This application for judicial review of the decision taken by the Magistrates must therefore succeed. I was told that since the hearing the order for costs against the Claimant has been withdrawn, but that does not render the proceedings academic; as I have said, it raises issues of wider public importance. Had the order not been withdrawn, I would have quashed it. Since it has been withdrawn, I will declare that the order was unlawful, because:

i) the Magistrates did not have sufficient relevant information before them to reach a proper judicial determination of whether the costs claimed represented costs reasonably incurred by the Council in obtaining the liability order;

ii) the Magistrates erred in law by failing to make further inquiries into how the £125 was computed and what elements it comprised; and

iii) the Claimant was denied a fair opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of the order before it was made, by reason of the failure to answer his requests for the provision of information as to how the sum of £125 was arrived at.

Then reclaim the difference in the small claim court starting with this template