Court Structure

There are five basic types of response to a claim:

1) Admission

2) Part Admission

3) Default Judgment

4) Defended

5) Summary Judgment

There are two types of costs:

• Court fee
• Solicitor costs

High Court (Debt Recovery)

Claims over £15,000.00 can be started in the High Court.

You must consider a number of issues before proceeding in the High Court:

1) Will you win – do you have a strong case

2) Is your solicitor confident?

3) Are you likely to be awarded costs ?

4) Can the Defendant pay your claim and costs ?

5) Is your case viable – time and money ?

6) Have you tried to settle before court action – important ?

Issuing proceedings in the High Court can focus a Defendants attention on the real prospects of winning a trial in a very formal and intimidating venue.

County Court (Debt Recovery)

The County court (from 26 April 99) will be the automatic court for claims of £15,000 and under.

You can represent yourself in any case. For amounts of less than £5000, the court would prefer the Claimant and Defendant to represent themselves.

If you started a claim for £10,000, in a straightforward case, you may be tempted to represent yourself (and why not). My words of caution are: what appears to you as straightforward may not be from the Defendant’s point of view, the Defendant may well employ a solicitor to expertly throw doubt on your claim, and finally, with the new rules a straightforward case should not get as far as a trial before the Claimant seeks Summary Judgment (see 4.14). If Summary Judgment is refused the court must believe there is sufficient argument to hear both sides.