'Court fees are an allowable outlay' is not the sort of sentence that usually sets pulses racing. But tucked inside a new Scottish statutory instrument is a change that will matter to anyone pricing up a civil case, from solicitors' firms to small businesses and residents caught in a dispute. From 10 October 2026, the Court of Session is updating the rules used to work out judicial expenses in Scotland. In plain terms, that means the framework the court uses to decide what legal costs can be recovered at the end of a case.

The headline move is the rise in the value of the 'unit' from £18.00 to £22.10. That unit sits inside the 2019 Taxation of Judicial Expenses Rules and feeds into the calculation of charges when expenses are taxed or assessed. It is a dry bit of court accounting, but not a minor one. When costs are being counted line by line, a higher unit value can push up the sum the paying party faces and raise the amount the successful side may recover.

There is also an important line on timing. The increase only applies to work carried out on or after 10 October 2026. Work done before that date stays on the old £18 rate, which should head off arguments about backdating. For firms in Cumbria, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear that do business in Scotland, that date matters. So does it for families and sole traders caught in cross-border contract, debt or property disputes, where a case can run across more than one set of legal assumptions.

The instrument also tidies up rule 3.7 on simple procedure, Scotland's route for lower-value civil claims. Its heading is changed to 'reduction of charges', and the wording now makes clear that the rule applies where expenses are taxed or assessed by reference to the table of charges in schedule 5. That may look like legal housekeeping, and in many ways it is. Even so, clearer drafting matters most in the smaller cases, where the sums are tighter and where arguments over what should, or should not, appear on an account of expenses can quickly sour a settlement.

Another practical change is the express statement that allowable outlays include court fees. Most people outside the legal world would probably assume that already. Anyone who has spent time around civil procedure knows that if a point is not written plainly enough, it can still end up contested. By spelling court fees out in rule 4.2, the court has narrowed the room for doubt. For litigants, that means a cleaner picture of what might be claimed back. For anyone facing an expenses award, it means fewer shocks when the paperwork arrives.

According to the official legislation text, the Act of Sederunt (Taxation of Judicial Expenses Rules) (Amendment) 2026 was made on 18 August 2026, laid before the Scottish Parliament on 20 August and will come into force on 10 October. The Court of Session approved draft rules submitted by the Scottish Civil Justice Council before making the change. The amended provisions sit inside the 2019 rules, which were last updated in 2023. So this is not a wholesale rewrite of Scotland's civil costs regime. It is a further adjustment to a system solicitors, auditors and court users are already working with.

For readers across the North, the message is simple enough. If there is a live Scottish case on the books, now is the time to check what work lands before 10 October and what falls after it, and to make sure court fees are being treated properly in any costs estimate. It may sound like small print, but small print shapes real decisions. A case that looked marginal in August can look dearer by October, and for businesses weighing whether to sue, settle or defend, that is the kind of rule change worth noticing before the bill turns up.