Civil Claims| Civil Court Procedure| Breach of Contract

Legal Advice on Civil Claims and Proceedings

With few exceptions, all civil actions are commenced in the County Court. It is usually most convenient to bring the action in your local County Court, but certain types of cases have to be brought or will be transferred if defended to the Court for the area where the Defendant lives. Claims over £50,000 may also be brought in the High Court.

Sometimes it is said that a case will be brought in the ‘Small Claims Court’. This is not a special Court, but part of the County Court where claims up to £5000 are assigned to be dealt with under a special, more informal procedure.

Before commencing a Court action, it is necessary in many cases to comply with a Court protocol. This will require you to send a ‘Letter before action’. to the defendant and with certain types of claim a more detailed ‘Letter of claim’. What is always required is for you to take every possible step to resolve a dispute before issuing court proceedings and only do so if everything else has failed.

Once the proceedings have been ‘issued’, the Court will send to the Defendant a copy of the Claim, together with a form for a acknowledging service of the claim, and for admitting or defending the action.

The Defendant in a money claim now has 14 days from the date of service to respond. If they do not do so, the Claimant may apply for judgment in default. Where The Defendant replies saying that he intends to defend the claim, a further period of 28 days from the issue date is allowed for filing the defence. If one is not filed within that time, judgment in default may be obtained.

Sometimes the Defence filed will obviously have no chance of success. If so the Claimant may apply for summary judgment (but not in Small Claims). This will avoid much wasted time and expense, as a full trial will not be necessary. The application must be accompanied by a signed statement setting out why summary judgment should be given. Similarly where a Defendant contends that a claim has no realistic prospect of succeeding, he or she may apply for the claim be struck out. The Court may also strike out a claim or a defence of its own volition where it considers that such would have no prospect of succeeding.
When a claim becomes defended, the Court will send an 'allocation questionnaire’, to each party for completion. This will assist the Judge in managing the case and deciding how it should be heard and what directions are necessary. The case will then be allocated to the most appropriate ‘track’ for hearing. Each ‘Track’ has a different way of handling claims, and the judge’s decision will be based on factors such as complexity, the value of the claim, and the extent and type of evidence that will be required.

Most claims under £5,000 (but not Personal injury claims), or over this amount where both parties agree, will be allocated to the Small Claims Track. This track is intended for simple straightforward disputes suitable for informal adjudication where there is no need to incur legal and experts costs. The amount of costs which the winning side can recover is strictly limited.

A hearing date will often be fixed there and then and in some cases the Judge may decide that it can be dealt with on written evidence without the need for a hearing. Directions will be given and a timetable set for what must be done before the case can be decided. Hearings will be informal, and held in the Judges ‘chambers’ rather than in a Court room when both parties will have the opportunity to put their case, and the Judge will ask questions before making a decision.

Claims of between £5,000 and £15,000 will usually be allocated to the fast track. This track is appropriate where the documentation to prove the case is not extensive, where any expert evidence can be given in writing, where the time to prepare for trial does not exceed 30 weeks, and where the trial is not likely to last for more than one day.
The standard directions which will be given are for Disclosure of relevant documents [four weeks after allocation].

* Exchange of witness statements [10 weeks]
* Exchange of experts reports [14 weeks]
* Court to send listing questionnaires to confirm all directions complied with. [20 weeks]
* Trial [30 weeks]

All other cases will be allocated to the Multi-Track. There is no standard procedure. Each case will be managed by a judge, usually by calling a case conference, which all parties will attend, and where directions will be given.

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