Civil Court Procedure

The Court controls the case from the moment that we file your proceedings at Court.

The Defendant is allowed 28 days after the date of service of your proceedings to enter a Defence or Admission to your accident claim.

It is usual for the Defendant to send the proceedings to their insurance company to deal with direct, who then normally pass it on to their solicitors.

If no Defence is filed at Court and served on us by the Defendant within the time limit we are able to apply to the Court to enter Judgement in Default.

The effect of this Judgement is to decide that the Defendant is liable to compensate you and to fix a date for the Court to hear evidence to assess the accident compensation that should be awarded.

This hearing is called a "Disposal Hearing" and in most circumstances you do not have to attend and your claim for accident compensation can be assessed by the court by means of a statement.

If a Defence is filed it must set out fully what the other side say happened and state their case in clear terms.

However, it may be a "real" Defence which denies liability and alleges that the accident was caused by your own fault or it may be a "tactical" Defence blaming you but really filed to allow the Defendant more time to negotiate and to prevent us obtaining Judgment.

On receipt of the Defence the Court will send us and your opponent detailed questionnaires that we will have to complete so that the court will then know what legal and evidential issues are still in dispute.

The court will decide what level of Judge should hear your case and put your case on a "Track" within the Court System.

Most cases are dealt with on the "Fast Track" which applies where the value of the claim is less than £15,000.

The court will also make what is known as a "Case management Order" to manage the steps that have to be taken in the claim. These include, but are not limited to:

a) exchange of lists of relevant documents - the Judge usually allows four weeks for this step and will specify the documents to be produced.

You will need to sign a statement declaring to the Court and your opponent that all the documents that you will be relying on at the trial to prove your claim for accident compensation, including documents unhelpful to your case, have been disclosed to your opponent.

b) exchange of witness statements - the Judge usually allows ten weeks for this step and will specify the witness to be called and what evidence that they may give. We will prepare the statements for you and your witness.

c) exchange of expert reports - The Judge usually allows fourteen weeks for this step and will decide what experts may give evidence and on what issues.

Finally a hearing date for Trial will be given by the court.

In a "Fast Track" case the trial will usually take place within thirty weeks of the Court's Case Management Order.