Not sure what the "British equivalent of a judge" is other than, well, a judge. Court claims are expensive. This ultimately would've been heard in the High Cou

Not sure what the "British equivalent of a judge" is other than, well, a judge. Court claims are expensive. This ultimately would've been heard in the High Court and the claimant would want decent counsel to represent him as well as a team of solicitors and other legal professionals to research and handle the correspondence — that's the bulk of the fees. Then there's the cost of the application itself. The fee for starting a case is 5% of the amount for claims worth between £10,000 and £200,000. In this case, that's almost £10,000 gone immediately on the court fee. For one case. There's also a court fee for the initial hearing and the return hearing for the freezing order. Not sure how £12k was spent on the first case—article doesn't mention which court and suggests the High Court was only involved in the second case, but I suspect that isn't true.