Category: #HPC Headliners

The Small Claims Track (often referred to as the Small Claims Court) is the place to go for disputes worth up to £10,000 but in fact half of the claims in that Court are for less than £500.

This blog is about claims to recover unpaid sums of money either due under invoices or because someone failed to do something when they were supposed to or how they were expected to deliver a service or things.

On the last working day of January 2022 the final piece in the jigsaw of interlocking reports and consultations addressing the reformed civil justice system was published.

Typical claims handled by the Small Claims Track are unpaid invoices or arguments about building work carried out on residential properties.

The purpose of this month‘s column is to divine (with Biblical inspiration!) the direction of travel for civil justice in England and Wales (E&W) to understand whether much vaunted reforms are likely to happen and, if so, when.

“The case for revisiting the way we charge court fees is based firmly on the need to ensure that Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service (“HMCTS”) is funded properly to protect the vital principle of access to justice.”

“Racing to realisation” is the apt phrase Nik Carle, FCIArb used to describe recent developments in civil justice reform. He is right to use that phrase.

The acronym KISS stands, as most will know, for Keep It Simple Stupid and was most recently employed, in the context of civil justice reform, by Lord Justice Haddon-Cave when he delivered the Gray’s Inn Reading for Gresham College on 17 June 2021.

In this month’s column I look more closely at County Court Online and the Damages Claims Portal to see what they tell us about the nature of the Modernisation Programme.