Sometimes going to court is likely to be your best or only option, for example:

• if your home or health or safety is at risk - you may need an urgent solution, one that only a court can provide, or
• when solving the problem in other ways is not possible or has failed (see How to sort out your legal problem before or instead of going to court).

However, it is important to understand suing someone can be risky, unpredictable, expensive, and hard work. There will be lots of paperwork or online forms to fill in, and a strict court timetable to follow. The process is likely to be stressful, time-consuming, and take a long time to conclude.

We hope this guide will give you the information you need to decide whether or not taking someone to court might be worth your time, money and effort.

In this section we explain the main things you need to understand to get to grips with the idea of taking someone to court.

Civil courts

A civil court is a court which deals with claims between people, or between people and organisations. They deal with hundreds of thousands of legal disputes each year when one person or organisation claims that another person or organisation has done something wrong which has caused injury, damage, financial loss, or expense.

This guide focuses on the sort of disputes where the person bringing the claim wants the court to order the wrongdoer to pay compensation. Financial compensation awarded or agreed in court proceedings is often called ‘damages’.

There are different types of civil courts. The civil court that most people will come across is the county court. There is also the high court, but that deals with the most serious civil claims, generally ones worth over £50,000 for personal injury claims, or over £100,000 for other claims, or claims that are legally very complex. This guide focuses on everyday civil claims in the county court.

We talk about the court ‘doing’ things in this guide. For example, the court may ‘send’ out a form or ‘make’ a decision. You may be more used to thinking of the court as a place - a building. But ‘the court’ is often used as shorthand to refer to the people working in the court, whether they are a judge or other court staff. 

Types of claim

A  civil court can only deal with a dispute if there is a legal problem, with a legal solution.

The most common types of legal problem that you might take someone to court over are broken contracts, being owed money,  and because you were injured. For example, a builder not finishing the work they agreed to, being owed money for work that you did and haven’t been paid for, or if you were hurt in an accident that wasn't your fault.

The most common legal solution is asking the court to award an amount of money as compensation.

The main types of legal claim that we cover in this guide are listed below. It is important to work out which type your problem comes under as different types of claim may have different rules:

Breach of contract claim

A ‘breach of contract’ claim is when someone or an organisation breaks a legal agreement you have with them, and you suffer a loss. A legal agreement doesn’t have to be in writing, it can be a verbal agreement (also called an oral agreement). In a claim over a debt or consumer problem, you must show that someone broke the contract that they had with you, for example an agreement between you and a shop for them to provide you with goods but they failed to provide the goods after you had paid for them. 

Negligence 

‘Negligence’ is a legal term for carelessness - a failure to behave with the level of care and duty that most people would expect. Sometimes this is also called a ‘breach of duty’ because they have failed to meet their duty of care towards you. For example, if your neighbour's builders are careless and drop a roof tile on your car. In this type of claim you have to show that someone has failed to exercise the level of care and skill that a reasonable person would have done, and that you suffered loss as a result.

Some claims can be both breach of contract and negligence.

Personal injury (including road traffic accidents) claims

You might see these types of claims abbreviated to PI for personal injury and RTA for road traffic accident. 

Personal injury is one of the most common types of negligence claims. In a personal injury claim, you have to show that someone else is at fault, or mostly at fault, for causing your injury, by being negligent. To claim against your employer, you have to show they are to blame, for example by not having safe premises or equipment or a safe system of work. If you are injured in a road traffic accident, you have to show someone else was to blame, for example another driver, or possibly that the highway authority was responsible for the accident because they didn’t safely maintain the road. You also have to show that you have suffered an injury as a result.

Legal aid used to be available for many of these types of claim, particularly if they involved several thousand pounds, but generally this is no longer the case. (See What will it cost?).

Small claims

A ‘small claim’ is a claim that is worth compensation of £10,000 or less (however there are special rules for personal injury and housing disrepair small claims).

The small claims process is supposed to be relatively quick and easy, and you are not expected to need a lawyer to help you. Because of this any legal costs you pay if you lose, or get back if you win, are usually very limited.

The ‘small claims track’ is the name for the process that the court uses to deal with small claims, which is less formal than other types of claims.

A personal injury case is a small claim if the total value of the claim is worth up to £10,000, and the injury part of your claim is worth up to £1500. However, if the injuries were caused by a car accident the boundaries are a little different. If the care accident happened on or after 1st June 2021 it would be a small claim if the total value of the claim is £10,000 or less and the injury element is up to £5,000 and no other exceptions apply. If the car accident happened before that, it would be a small claim if the total value of the claim was up to £10,000 and the personal injury element was worth up to £1000. See How to make a small claim about injuries caused by a car accident. 

A housing disrepair case is a small claim if the total value of the claim is worth up to £10,000, and where the cost of repairs is worth up to £1,000 (however, we don’t cover housing disrepair claims in this guide).

Fast track claims

Fast track claims are dealt with by the County Court. A ‘fast track’ claim is a claim that is not a small claim and is worth compensation of up to £25,000.

Litigant in person

A ‘litigant in person’ is someone who starts or responds to a claim without a lawyer. You may see this shortened to ‘LiP’. Since the withdrawal of legal aid for most civil claims in 2013, the majority of people who need to go to court can’t afford a lawyer and have to represent themselves, unless they can find free help, for example from a charity, or get alternative funding, for example through a Conditional Fee Agreement. See the section What does it cost? below for more information.

Although judges may be helpful to you as a litigant in person, you will be expected to follow the same court rules as litigants who are represented by solicitors or barristers.

Legal names

• ‘Claimant’ is what the law calls the person who starts court proceedings, the one taking the other person to court.
• The ‘defendant’ is the person or organisation being taken to court.
• ‘Other side’ is the informal term used by the claimant to refer to the defendant, and by the defendant to refer to the claimant.
• ‘Party’ is a legal term used for anyone who is a claimant or defendant in the case. ‘Parties’ are all the claimants and defendants in a case.

Going to court

The question ‘will I have to go to court?’ is often what worries people most when they are considering suing someone. Although we still talk about ‘going to court’ most civil cases don’t get as far as the final hearing (the trial)  - which often takes place in a court building but could also take place remotely, with everyone joining by phone or video call. Although there is no guarantee that you will be able to sort out your individual case without going to a hearing trial, you may find it reassuring to know that statistically it is quite unlikely you will have to attend a court hearing, either in person or by phone or video call. 

There are two common reasons why so few cases end up in a trial:

• You might win your case early on because the ‘other side’, the defendant, doesn’t respond to your claim in time.
• Both sides might reach an agreement and the case ends before it gets as far as the trial – this is very common. 

Most cases settle because under modern court rules starting a legal case and going to trial are considered a last resort. Lots of cases settle before people start a civil claim or shortly afterwards. Small claims are now offered free mediation to help people come to an agreement. All the evidence on which both sides intend to rely has to be exchanged before the trial, including statements by the witnesses and this therefore allows both sides to see the strength of each other’s cases beforehand. 

If you decide to take someone to court, there are many more things you need to know before you start a civil claim. See Things you need to know about court procedure before you sue.

Online court

Some court processes are now online. This is intended to make the process easier for people to do without a lawyer as the online system guides you through all the steps so that there are fewer things you can get wrong. (That said HMCTS do make mistakes and Advicenow often highlight to Government areas where the people without a lawyer may be misled into thinking a system is more straight-forward than it is or where they may accidentally give up some important rights – please do read our guides where they are relevant as they will help you avoid common problems). Most claims about money for up to £10,000 can now be started and responded to online. 

You can only win a case and get compensation if you can prove that someone has done, or indeed not done, something which they should or shouldn’t have done under the law. For example, they broke a contract they had with you, or they acted in a way which was negligent and that caused you to suffer loss - this is called a ‘cause of action’.

Below we give some examples of the different types of claims covered in this series of guides.

Breach of contract

Katrina wants her laptop repaired before she moves in three weeks’ time. She agrees to pay £200 upfront, but only on condition that the repair is carried out within that time, as it will be no use later. The engineer fails to carry out the repair by the agreed date, and though he returns the unrepaired laptop, he refuses to repay the £200. The engineer has broken the contract he made with Katrina by not carrying out the repair in the agreed time so Katrina can take them to court. 

Personal injury negligence

1. Sam was walking around his local supermarket when he slipped on a puddle of milk on the floor. Sam is likely to have a negligence case against the supermarket as they have failed to ensure that the shop floor was safe for Sam to walk on, and / or they failed to provide reasonable warning of the spillage. As a result of his fall, Sam suffered a broken arm for which he starts a claim for compensation against the supermarket. 
2. Josie was standing outside her flat when the door slammed and she was locked out. She decided not to wait for her flat mate to get home, but to climb over the balcony to next door’s flat. While attempting this she fell to the ground breaking her leg. Josie can't take anyone to court over it because she has no one except herself to blame for the accident. 

Negligence without personal injury

Mona’s neighbour had his front garden re-concreted. The builders set up their concrete mixer close to where Mona had parked her new car. When she got home it was dark, and it wasn't until the next day that she saw that her car was spattered with concrete. By then it wouldn't wash off. It cost over £1,200 to get the car's paintwork sorted. Mona could take the issue to court because the builders didn’t take a reasonable level of care to avoid damaging her car.

Quick check - is your problem a legal problem?

Was your problem caused because someone else:

• breached your legal rights by their negligence and/or,
• broke a contract they had with you; and
• you suffered injury, damage, loss or expense as a result?

If so, it is likely that your problem is a legal problem and that you could take them to court. 

This is an important question. Take time to think, perhaps in discussion with your family or friends, what it is that you want to get out of taking legal action.

Taking someone to court is unlikely to help if you want an apology, or an explanation for what happened to you, or a promise that it won’t happen to anyone else. For the sorts of cases covered in this guide you are more likely to get money compensation.

Court rules and previously decided cases (called ‘precedents’) govern how much compensation can actually be awarded. Unlike some other countries, the courts of England and Wales do not award compensation that punishes the wrongdoer.

Quick check - Can the law give you what you want?

Do you want compensation? If so, the law may be able to give you what you want. But if not see the section called What are the alternatives?

In the past most claimants instructed a solicitor to manage their whole case for them. This can be very expensive. But legal aid was available for many people who couldn’t afford to pay for a solicitor on their own. Cuts and changes to legal aid now mean that the majority of claimants can’t afford a solicitor. In this section we set out some of the things you may have to pay for when taking someone to court as a litigant in person, together with any help available to meet those costs.

Court fees

You have to pay a court fee to start your court case, and further fees for any application to the court or for the hearing. How much it costs to start your case depends on  how much your case is worth, and ranges from about £35 for a claim up to £300 to many hundreds of pounds for higher value claims. You can check the exact amount in court guidance EX50.

Help with fees

You may be able to get help to pay the court fees if you are on benefits or a low income and with little in the way of savings. You can find out more in Get help paying court and tribunal fees and another guide in this series Things you need to know about court procedure before you sue.

Legal advice

Lawyers

Some solicitors still offer a limited amount of free advice, perhaps half an hour or an hour. It’s always worth ringing a solicitor to see if they offer this. There are also other ways of using a lawyer which can help you manage the costs:

Pay as you go and fixed fee

In recent years some solicitors have started working in a new way, where they will do some agreed part of the work - perhaps advising you on what evidence you need, and putting it together for you - but not the whole case. You have to agree with the solicitor who is responsible for what, where their task ends and yours begins. This will be cheaper than asking a solicitor to manage the whole case. It’s a bit like building work, where you agree that the builder will quote for the plumbing and wiring, and you will do the plastering and decorating. 

'No win no fee' - Conditional Fee Agreement

You may want to consider a conditional fee agreement (CFA) - commonly called ‘no win no fee’. There are pros and cons to conditional fee agreements – discuss the details with your lawyer before you commit. In particular, you are likely only to be able to get a conditional fee agreement for a claim which is not a small claim – that is, one worth over £10,000, or a personal injury claim where the personal injury element is worth over £5,000. (unless the injuries were caused by a car accident that happened before 31st May 2021 – see Make a small claim about injuries caused by a car accident for more detail about what counts as a small claim.)

This is because conditional fee agreement providers make their money from getting back the legal costs from the other side if you win, or sometimes from your damages. In a small claim, they don’t usually get legal costs. For more information see 'No win, no fee'.

There is also a form of insurance called ‘after the event’ insurance, known as ATE insurance, which you may be asked to get as part of a conditional fee arrangement. We usually buy insurance before things go wrong but with this kind of insurance you buy it after the event (your accident or other problem) happened, generally near the beginning of starting a claim. It is available for the sorts of cases which are more valuable than small claims, and where the claimant has a good chance of success.

Legal expenses insurance

If you have house insurance (building or contents) or car insurance, your policy may include legal cover which could help to cover the cost of your claim. It is always worth checking your insurance if you have it just to make sure.

Legal aid

Legal aid is a government scheme – a means tested benefit to help you to pay for legal advice and help and representation. Sometimes it can also pay for things like an expert’s opinion or court fees.

Most people cannot get legal aid but if you are starting a case on behalf of a person who is incapable of managing their affairs (perhaps because of dementia) or is under 18 (perhaps your 10-year-old has been injured), you may be able to. Before you decide to take action alone, find out if you can get legal aid to pay for a lawyer to help you.

Unions

If you are a member of a trade union, you may be able to get help for some types of claim, particularly if it is work-related, such as an accident at work.

Charities

Some charities offer free legal advice or can signpost you to another organisation who can provide this. See How to get free legal advice about a civil problem. 

McKenzie friends

'McKenzie friend' is the name for someone who can encourage and help you in court if you don't have a lawyer. Many do this for free, for example, a family member or a volunteer from a charity, but others charge for their services. See Legal Choices for more information about the pros and cons of using a McKenzie friend.  

Legal costs

Legal costs include things like court fees, the cost of expert reports, and if the other side is using a lawyer, what they charge for their work. For some types of claim you risk having to pay the other side’s costs if you lose.

How much you risk having to pay will depend on whether your case is treated as a ‘small claim’ or a ‘fast track’ claim.  Costs will be very limited if it is a small claim, but could be a considerable amount if it is a  fast track claim. See Legal costs and who pays them for more information.

Quick check - what will it cost?

Do you understand how much you may have to pay for:

• fees,
• legal advice, and
• legal costs?

Can you afford it? If not, it is worth checking out the section called What are the alternatives? 

There are rules about how long you can wait before starting a claim. There are time limits which the law calls ‘limitation periods’. There are only two limitation periods for the type of cases in this guide, and they are both quite long – three years for personal injury and six years for everything else, but there are some exceptions which give extra time if you are in a particular situation. For more detailed information see Time limits for suing someone.

Quick check - am I in time?

If you take someone to court, you have to prove that the other person is legally at fault. You need to have a set of facts which are enough to justify a right to compensation or to enforce a right. You will also have to prove how much your case is worth.

There are two parts to what you have to prove in a civil claim:

1. That the problem is legally the defendant’s fault (they breached your legal rights or broke a contract with you). This is called 'liability'. It is irrelevant how badly injured you may be, or how much money you may have lost, if you can’t prove that is the defendant’s fault. That your claim is worth the amount you say it is. This is called 'quantum'. 
2. If the defendant is liable, how much your claim is worth has to be assessed. If you have lost nothing and are just annoyed, there is probably no point in taking the matter to court. 

How much your claim is worth is assessed differently in different sorts of claims. We explain what you can claim for in Start a civil or fast track claim.

When you take someone to court, it is your job to prove your claim, so you have to produce all the evidence to support it.

You will need evidence that proves that that the problem is the defendant’s fault, and also evidence about the value of your claim.

If your claim is for breach of contract, you will also need to have evidence to show how the contract came about, what it was for, and how it was broken (breached).

In Joe’s case the evidence he needs might include his estimate for the work, something to show that the customer accepted the estimate, the photographs he took showing the fitted carpet with no damage to the paintwork, a copy of his invoice and his email chasing the payment.

Keep your evidence in a safe place. If the case does go to trial a judge will only decide the case on the evidence available.

Jane needs to check the appendix in Official Injuries Claim's Guide to making a claim which will help her value the injury element of her claim. If her injuries are not covered in that, she needs to buy a copy of Guidelines for the Assessment of General Damages in Personal Injury Claims. 

She will be able to claim for her net loss of earnings, holiday cancellation cost, reasonable cab fares and a limited amount for clothes to go over her plaster. She will need to produce receipts for everything. She is likely to lose a percentage of the value of her claim, perhaps 25 per cent or one third, or up to a half depending on the circumstances, as the accident was partly her fault for not looking where she was going.

You may think you should get a large amount of compensation for what has happened to you. But this may be unrealistic. Like Maria, any possible award may be considerably lower than what you were hoping for and may involve you paying unexpected legal costs.

As the main thing the court can order is money compensation, it is essential that you do your best to calculate what your claim is worth carefully, both for negotiating early on, and for court proceedings.

The value of a claim is assessed differently for different sorts of claims.

For a claim about a broken contract, the aim of any compensation is to put you in the financial position you would have been in if nothing had gone wrong. You will not get compensation for distress or upset unless the contract is one aimed at pleasure – so if a dry cleaner loses your curtains, you will only get the value of the curtains.  If a photographer loses your wedding photos, you will get some compensation for the distress.

For a personal injury claim, you will get compensation for the injury itself as well as the financial losses and expenses which you have had to incur as a result of the accident.

Sometimes claimants lose a percentage of compensation because of their own behaviour.  For example, if you are injured in a car accident which was totally the other driver’s fault, you may lose a percentage of the compensation if you weren’t wearing a seatbelt.

There is more information about how to value your claim in another guide in this series Start a civil or fast track claim.

1. You can’t prove liability

There’s a big risk that you might lose if you cannot convince the judge that the problem is legally the defendant’s fault.

2. You end up paying the other side’s legal costs as well as your own

If you lose the case, there is a risk in some types of cases that you will be ordered to pay the other side’s legal costs. If it is a small claim and you lose, you will only be ordered to pay the first £95 of any travel and witness expenses unless the Court thinks you have been really unreasonable. But it could be many thousands of pounds if it is a non-personal injury fast track claim. You can find more information about legal costs in another guide in this series Legal costs and who pays them.

3. You don’t actually receive the compensation you are awarded.

It is always worth considering Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), if it is available for your case, before deciding to go to court. Most forms of alternative dispute resolution do not stop you from going to court afterwards if you are unhappy with the outcome. For more detailed information about alternative dispute resolution see Sort out your legal problem before or instead of going to court. We also have a guide to using mediation in civil disputes which explains that option. You usually have to pay for civil mediation but it may cost less than beginning court proceedings. 

It is almost always worth negotiating to see if you can reach a settlement, although you have to make sure you bear in mind the time limit for starting your claim. Modern court procedures treat the court as a last resort and expect you to make attempts to negotiate and settle under ‘pre-action conduct’ rules or ‘pre-action protocols’ before you start a small claim or legal case. For more information about these rules see Things you need to know about court procedure before you sue.

Deciding to do nothing is different from not doing anything because you cannot decide what to do. If you look at the situation you are in and decide to take no action at all, as long as nothing bad is likely to happen as a result, this may be the best outcome for you. It’s a definite decision that may also be a great relief. However, get advice if you can before deciding to do nothing if your problem is urgent or has to do with threats to your home, livelihood, health or safety.

Now that you have asked yourself the key questions you should have a better idea about whether or not to take someone to court. If you want to begin the process please read the rest of the guides in this series - a good place to start is Who to sue?.

If you want to try a different approach see Sort out your legal problem before or instead of going to court.

If you have decided to do nothing, which is a valid and often sensible choice, hopefully you are happy that your decision is an informed one.

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) – a range of options for resolving disputes, often without going to court.

Assets – money and savings and other valuable items which could be sold to pay debts, for example, a house, flat, jewellery or car.

Cause of action – having a legal case you can start a claim about.

Civil court – a court, usually a county court, where you can bring a claim for financial compensation against someone who has wrongly caused you loss, damage or injury.

Civil claim – a non-criminal legal case against an individual or a company for compensation and/or to assert a particular legal right.

Claimant – person or organisation who starts the case.

Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) – these used to be known as ‘no win no fee’ agreements. You only pay the lawyer’s fees and expenses in certain circumstances – usually if you win, out of your compensation.

Damage – this is when you have suffered some sort of loss or harm – it is very confusing that this word is so similar to ‘damages’ which is used to mean money compensation.

Damages – the name for money compensation awarded by the court (and see Damage above).

Defendant - person or organisation the case is brought against.

Duty of care – when someone has a legal responsibility to take a reasonable level of care to protect you from foreseeable harm.

Fast track – the processes and procedures the court applies for cases worth between £10,000 and £25,000. If your case is worth this amount but involved personal injury, it will be a fast track case if you are claiming over £1,500 for the personal injury part of your claim (or over £5000 for a personal injury if it was caused by a car accident that happened on or after 1 June 2021) or if it is now a small claim because of another exception. If your case is a housing disrepair claim, it will be a fast track case if the cost of repairs is over £1,000, but the overall amount is £25,000 or less. 

Issue of proceedings – the formal start to the court proceedings.

Judgement in default – when the defendant has failed to file a defence in time, the claimant can ask the court to enter judgment (you have to fill in a form and send it to the court).

Liability – proving fault.

Litigant in person – a person bringing or defending a claim without a solicitor or barrister.

Litigation – the process of going to court.

McKenzie friend – this is the name for someone who can support and help you in court, for example, by taking notes or quietly giving you advice, but cannot speak for you.

Mediation – a way of helping you and your opponent try to find your own way of solving the problem.

Negligence – negligence is when someone or an organisation owes you a duty of care, they have broken the duty of care, and you have suffered foreseeable injury or damage as a result. 

Other side – an everyday phrase/phrase we use to talk about the defendant and their legal representatives if you’re the claimant, and the claimant if you’re the defendant.

Parties – the name for all the claimants and defendants in a case.

Personal injury – when you have suffered the sort of harm which leaves you with a physical or mental injury.

Pre-action – before court proceedings start.

Pre-action conduct – official rules setting out how you should behave before you issue a claim.

Pre-action protocol – an official procedure explaining what you have to do before court proceedings start in some sorts of cases.

Precedents – decisions in past cases which are used by courts to help them make decisions now, for example, on liability, and also quantum.

Quantum – the amount of compensation your claim is worth.

Settle – this means finishing your case without a trial, usually by reaching an agreement with the other side.  

Small claims – A small claim is one where the claim is worth up to £10,000. (This is except for a personal injury claim where the overall value is  £10,000 or below and the personal injury element is worth under £1,000, or up to £5000 if injuries were caused by a car accident that happened on or after 31st May 2021, or a housing disrepair claim where the overall amount is under £10,000 and the cost of the repairs is under £1,000.) In a small claim the court processes and procedures are more informal, and if you win or lose the costs you get back or have to pay are very limited. 

Trial – the final hearing which takes place in front of a judge who decides who wins and who loses the case.

Disclaimer

The information in this guide applies to England and Wales only. The law may be different if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland. The law is complicated. We have simplified things in this guide. Please don’t rely on this guide as a complete statement of the law. We recommend you try and get advice from the sources we have suggested.

The cases we refer to are not always real but show a typical situation. We have included them to help you think about how to deal with your own situation.

Acknowledgements

This guide was produced by Law for Life's Advicenow project. We would like to thank everyone who has commented or helped with the guide including editorial teams at Thomson Reuters who kindly reviewed this updated version. 

This guide was updated thanks to funding from the Ministry of Justice.