Home > Areas of Law > Litigation Civil > Small Claims

The process by which we enforce our rights normally in respect to money claims, which are considered to have a low value, and then are dealt with, within the small claims. This is governed by the Civil Procedure Rules Part 27, and sets out what is expected by the Court. These types of clams will always be dealt with in the County Court. The court may adopt any method of proceeding at a hearing that it considers to be fair. Hearings will be informal. The strict rules of evidence do not apply. The court need not take evidence on oath. The court may limit cross-examination. The court must give reasons for its decision.

​As such the process is very informal, however this does not mean that the matters are not complex, and the need of a lawyer has been extinguished.  The judges still need witness statements, served on the parties, evidence prepared and a understanding of the issues to enable them to decide the case. Below are three examples of small claims cases. 

Airline Compensation

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These are typical small claims in that whilst highly complex issues arise of both fact and law, they are generally of a low value. Costs can be recovered but these are fixed costs. Where a flight has been cancelled or delayed in excess of three hours, there is a right to compensation, so long as the cause of the delay was not for exceptional circumstances, such as a volcano eruption, and that the airline took reasonable steps to avoid the cancellation. 

Road Traffic Accidents

A day to day risk of driving is that someone will collide with your car or you with theirs. If there is some personal injury less than £1,000, i.e. relatively minor in nature, then the case is likely to be allocated to the small claims track. This does not mean that it is uncomplicated, for instance the issue of hire purchase continues to take considerable time for parties to consider and a lot of case law in respect to these issues. 

Contractual disputes 

Often a party proving a service is not paid for those services for one reason or another. After relevant warnings a party may seek to recover the money owed and enforce the contract. Equally a party that has paid but not received the services may seek to recover the money paid. The issues range from clear acceptance of work done, no dispute, simply no payment, to counter claims worth more than the original contract was worth due to loss caused. 

Even in these cases which are considered low value it is often the case that some legal assistance from a litigator with experience of the area, can make the difference between a case that fails and a successful outcome recovering the sums of money sought. If you need legal assistance please do not hesitate to contact Adam, at adam.tear@scomo.com, or through the contacts page.