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The County Court System |
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The Debt Collection procedure was originally established to make it easy for both businesses and the public to recover debts without recourse to expensive legal advisors.
The parameters for a Small Claims County Court Claims are:
1) Small Claims Track
2) Fast-Track
3) Multi-Track
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The Small Claims Track |
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- Up to £5,000 for claims for debt.
- The claim to be adjudicated by a judge in chambers.
- Court fees can be recovered.
- Fixed costs only can be recovered if appropriate.
Small Claims hearings are administrated by the Court Service at local County Courts.
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The Fast Track |
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- Up to £15,000 for claims for debt.
- The claim may be adjudicated by a judge in chambers or by direction in open court.
- Court fees can be recovered.
- Full costs can be recovered as directed by the judge.
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The Multi Track |
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- Above £15,000 for claims for debt.
- The claim will be heard in open court.
- Court fees can be recovered.
- Full costs can be recovered.
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Action Prior To Issuing Proceedings |
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The court do require that all avenues of settlement are explored prior to the issuing of proceedings. This means that the other side should be given a reasonable period of time to respond to a payment demand before a claim is filed at court.
In many cases the other side may request extra time in order to investigate the potential claim. A reasonable period of time is between 7 and 14 days (we favour 10 days) which should be allowed. After that, if there is no positive response, proceedings can and should be issued.
In all cases full documentary evidence of the claim should be disclosed to the other side at the earliest opportunity. Any omissions could result in the documents being ruled "inadmissible" by the judge and give the other side opportunity for further delay. |
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The Court procedure |
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Small Claims are not heard in open court but by a judge in chambers. Effectively, the evidence is heard in informal surroundings around a table and the judge will make an immediate decision. It should be noted that there is no formal appeal procedure - you get a full and final result on the day. However, if a decision is made in your absence because you could not attend through no fault of your own you can apply for the Judgment to be set aside.
Judges tend to be very patient with lay claimants as they know that they will be both nervous and unaccustomed to court procedures. However, there are strict rules of conduct and verbal abuse, interruptions and unreasonable behaviour are not tolerated.
Fast Track Claims may be heard in open court depending on the directions of the judge. If so the services of a solicitor are advisable.
Multi Track claims are always heard in open court and legal advice and representation is definitely desirable. |
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Making a County Court Claim |
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The County Court Claims procedure starts with the completion of a standard form. This details the substance of the claim and who the Claimant and Defendant are. On completion the form is returned to the Court office with the Court Fee.
A summons will then be sent out by post to the Defendant who has the option to:
- Ignore it
- Admit the claim and pay you in full
- Admit part of the claim and pay you in part
- Admit the claim (or part of) and request to pay you in installments
- Dispute the claim in its entirety
If the claim or part of the claim is disputed the matter will be set down for a Court hearing. |
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The ClaimsLink (UK) Ltd support service |
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ClaimsLink (UK) Ltd can advise you in respect of your County Court Claims problem, complete your Court documents and liaise with the Court. For this service there is no charge from DC uk but please note the Court and filing fees which must be paid in advance in all but exceptional circumstances entered before.
Please do not forget that if proceedings are issued you will need to pay the Court fees in advance together with our administration fee for the filing of the N1 form at the Court - these are recoverable on a successful conclusion. Please see Court Fees & Costs for the scale of fees. If you require it, we can refer you to one of our panel of solicitors for full legal advice - this will involve you in additional costs which may not be recoverable. You can recover costs as a "litigant in person" on the Fast and Muti-Track schemes but you will need to keep a careful record of every hour spent & every expense incurred and will only recover 1/2 to 2/3rds of the sum a solicitor would recover on your behalf. |
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What you should do next |
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Please contact us using our online submission form from the Fast Track if you have any procedural or other questions in respect of the above. If you instruct us we may suggest a suitable solicitor to deal with your legal requirements. |
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Further Information |
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Further information about the Small Claims Court is available on our website at www.small-claims.co.uk |
