Small claims of less than £10,000 (or £1,000 if the claim is for personal injury) will, where they are not expected to require a lot of preparation, legal argument, or extensive witness evidence, be assigned  to the small claims track to be dealt with under the less formal small claims procedure. A claim for a higher amount which exceeds the small claims limit can also be dealt with under the small claims procedure if both the parties and the court agree.

The purpose of the small claims court procedure is for people without legal experience to be able to bring or defend claims themselves, without the expense of employing a lawyer. The idea behind a small claim case is that it will be decided with a minimum of formality and without the need for involvement of lawyers. The case will be dealt with by a district judge in his private rooms, with the parties presenting their cases in person. It is similar to an informal arbitration with a minimum of formality and procedural rules kept to a minimum. For that reason, legal costs are not generally awarded, and all the losing party will have to pay will be the court fee and any expense incurred by the winning party.

When making a claim or entering a defence, you only need to state the facts of your claim  or defence and not go into the law. Therefore to bring a claim, you just need to say that you have suffered a monetary loss and that this was caused by the defendant. You do not need to prove this or provide any evidence. This will come at a later stage. Before issuing your claim however, you must comply with a pre-action protocol, which involves notifying the defendant that you will make a claim against them if they do not pay or compensate you within a given time.

Before issuing a small claim to court

Before issuing a small or any court claim, all possibilities of settlement should be explored. A formal ‘letter before action’ advising of the intention to issue court proceedings must always be sent to an intended defendant, who should be allowed a reasonable time to comply with the request for payment. Only if this is ignored or settlement seems impossible should proceedings th

The usual rule in civil cases that the losing party pays the other side’s legal costs are modified in small claims. In particular you are most unlikely to be able to recover is the cost of employing a solicitor or barrister to represent you. If a party has chosen to instruct a lawyer to act for them, it is only in the most exceptional cases that a judge will order a losing party to pay these costs

A winning party can will be able to recover

Money Claim Online

Money Claim Online can be a fast efficient way to make a money claim.  It makes the issue and administration of small claims possible online and to encourage its use, a reduction is made to the court issue fee charged. A customer help desk is available based in Northampton, which can be contacted either by phone or e-mail.

MCOL enables a claimant to not only issue a claim online but also check the status of the claim, and request entry of judgement and enforcement by warrant of execution.   Payment of the court fee is made using a credit or debit card. Defendants may also use MCOL to respond and defend a claim. It is not available to those entitled to a reduction in or exemption from paying court fees and those in receipt of legal aid. They must issue their claim through the County Court Money Claims Centre in Salford.

Claims are issued through the bulk processing centre in Northampton, which sends out the documentation to the defendants in the name of Northampton County Court. If defended, the case will then be transferred usually to the defendant’s home court. Online issue of a claim is fairly straightforward. You must however have an address in England or Wales, as must the defendant. The service is only available however to claim a specified amount of money (under £10,000) against a maximum of two defendants. You cannot therefore claim for such as injuries sustained in an accident or damages for faulty goods.

Once served, a defendant has 14 days to respond. If the particulars of claim has not been filed and is ‘to follow’, this time will not start to run until they are received. The response pack sent by the court with the claim form to the defendant must be completed to show whether the claim is admitted in all or part, or whether it is to be defended, and whether the defendant wishes to make a counterclaim against the claimant. If so, a further court fee may well be payable. If the acknowledgement of service is returned to the court indicating an intention to defend, the defendant will have 28 days from the  date of service to file their defence.

If a defence is filed, the court will send you a copy together with an allocation questionnaire, which must be returned to the court and a copy to your opponent within 14 days.

The court will send you and the other party a notice of allocation, which sets out which track the claim has been allocated to and what the court expects you to do next. These steps you are both required to take by the court are known as ‘directions’ and may include

• instructions to send further supporting document to the court and to the other parties involved in the claim, and when you need to do this by;
• permission to use an expert at the hearing;
• information about mediation, if either you or the other party has asked for mediation or the judge thinks the case is suitable for mediation;
• information about the date and place of the hearing, and how long the judge thinks it will takeIf a defendant does not file a defence within the time limit – which for most claims is 14  days after the date of service of the statement of claim –, you will be entitled to ask the court to enter judgement in your favour. A judgement in default is as good as any other judgement. It can however be set aside on application by a defendant. There are mandatory and discretionary grounds on which the court has the power to set aside a default judgement.

The hearing for your claim

This court will manage the running of the case and serve all papers.  If it is intended to call expert evidence, the permission of the court must first be obtained. The hearing will be informal and conducted by a district judge in his private rooms. Evidence will not usually be required to be given on oath, and everybody remains seated around a table. The judge will usually make an award immediately after the hearing and explain the reasons. Payment to the winning party will usually be ordered to be made within 14 days.

We have an e-book available for download, Small Claims in the County Court, which explains all you are likely to need to know to deal with a small claim.