There are different ways to start your claim. You can now start lots of claims online, in particular if someone owes you a fixed sum of money.

For many people the new online process is easier as it was designed to be used by people who do not have a solicitor. Cases using the online system are also frequently resolved faster and sometimes the court fees are slightly lower.

You do not need to use the online system if you don’t want to. If you don’t feel confident or comfortable dealing with things online, it might be better for you to use the paper system. You don’t want extra things to worry about.

1) Money Claims

This is a new digital service that is designed to be used by people who do not have a solicitor to help them (often called Litigants in Person). You can use it to make a claim of up to £10,000 or less (these are called ‘small claims’) or respond to a claim started by someone else. You cannot use it if your claim is about anything other than money. 

You cannot use this service:

• if you are under 18, or don’t have an address in the UK
• if you are eligible for legal aid,
• to make a claim against more than one person or organisation
• to make a personal injury claim
• to bring a claim against a government department/agency,
• to get your tenancy deposit back from your landlord,
• to make a claim against a person or organisation based outside England and Wales,
• to make a claim in Welsh, or
• to bring a claim against someone without mental capacity or under 18.

You will need:

• a debit or credit card to pay the court fees (unless you are entitled to help with your court fee that pays your entire fee),
• an address in the UK, and
• an email address and regular access to a computer and the internet.

You can use this system if you are entitled to help with paying your court fees but you must apply for that help online (Make a claim shows you how to do this). Make sure you keep your reference number for the Help with fees application safe as you will need it before your claim can be officially started.

As part of the Money Claim service, both sides are offered free telephone mediation to help you come to an agreed solution(the defendant is offered it first and if they agree, the claimant is asked to agree). In this kind of mediation, a trained mediator speaks to both sides separately over the phone and helps them to come to a legally binding agreement (which often includes a payment plan). 

If you are able to come to an agreement using mediation, the case will be over (and you might receive your money) much more quickly, and neither side will have to pay a hearing fee. You will usually speak to a mediator within 2-3 weeks, and are likely to have to wait 30 weeks for a court date.

At the time of writing, you don't have to use mediation - you can choose not to use the service. But the Government has announced that mediation in small claims will become a mandatory part of the process.

You can find out more about it and start your claim at Make a court claim for money.

2) Money Claim Online (MCOL)

This is another online service run by HM Courts & Tribunals service. It was not originally designed to be used by people who don’t have a solicitor to help them (although you can) and as a result is less user friendly. 

You can use Money Claim Online to start your claim:

• if you know the exact amount you are claiming (which excludes all personal injury cases) and that amount is under £100,000
• if there are two defendants or less, and
• if your claim is against a person or organisation with an address in England or Wales.

The same exclusions apply as for the Money Claim described above. Money Claims Online is therefore most useful if you are claiming an amount that is over the £10,000 upper limit you can use Money Claims for.

You will need:

• a debit or credit card to pay the court fees,
• an address in the UK, and
• an email address and regular access to a computer and the internet.

You can find out more about this service at Money Claim Online.

The Money Claims Online process is like the N1 paper form. Follow the guidance in Completing the N1 paper claim form below.

One of the advantages of the Money Claims Online process over the paper form is that it automatically includes a claim for the court fee you will have to pay to start the case, and asks if you want to claim interest on the amount - although you have to calculate the amount of interest yourself.

3) Claim by post using an N1 paper form

Lots of people still use the paper form to start their claim. Currently, it is the only way you can make a claim for personal injury.  

To start your claim you will need to complete an N1 claim form, attach the necessary documents and the court fee (or an application for help with fees) and send it to the right court. You can find English, Welsh and large print versions of form N1 together with notes (N1A) explaining how to complete this form at GOV.UK. 

The rest of the guide takes you through the two main systems you will likely use – Money Claims and the N1 paper form. If you are using Money Claim Online, follow the advice in Completing the N1 paper claim form. 

This service is also called Online Civil Money Claims (OCMC) by lawyers and the courts. It is easy to use but be careful as it is easy to make a mistake. If you make a mistake about who your claim is against or what your claim is for, you may lose your case, miss out on money you could have claimed, or have to pay a fee again. Read Should I sue someone? and Who to sue? to avoid making these mistakes.

The first few screens of the Money Claims just check if you are able to use the service for the kind of case that you have. Then you have to create an account (unless you have been involved in other cases using the system before, or have applied for either a divorce or probate online).  

Next, you get to your claim overview screen. It includes a section which explains that you should not start a case unless or until you have tried other methods to resolve the problem. You can progress these in your own time.

Please buy the extended guide to read all our guidance, including what amounts you can claim for, how to provide the claim details (including an example).

The defendant

It is important to get things like the details of who you are claiming against correct. Please read Who to sue? for advice about identifying the right defendant to take your claim against and how to find the correct address for them. Make sure you have their name exactly right. This can be particularly tricky if it is an organisation you are taking a claim against.

Valuing an injury

To value an injury, you will need to get a medical report which sets out the details of the injury (or injuries) and the prognosis (when and to what extent you will make a recovery).

The notes for guidance (N1A) include some help on how to word what you might want to say about the value of your claim.
 

Where to send your claim

If you want your claim dealt with by the county court and your claim is just for money (this includes claims for compensation for personal injury) then you must send it to the:

Civil National Business Centre
St Katharine’s House
21-27 St Katharine’s Street
Northampton
NN1 2LH

In these cases, you enter ‘In the Civil National Business Centre’ in the heading on the form (or you can abbreviate to CNBC).If your claim is for anything other than money, then you should send it to your local court office. See Things you need to know about court procedure before you sue for more information about how to find your local court.

Checklist – what you need to put together to post to the court

• Form N1,
• Particulars of claim (if separate),
• Medical report (if claiming for personal injury),
• Schedule of loss (if claiming for losses and expenses),
• Cheque for the court fee, or application for Help with Fees if eligible, or both, and
• A complete set of copies for each defendant.

When you post the documents to the court, it is worth getting a certificate of posting from the post office. Then, if necessary, you can prove when you posted them.

You will know whether you have started your claim successfully when the court sends you a Notice of Issue.

Stopping a claim

If you regret starting the claim or the problem is resolved another way, you can stop the claim at any time. You do this by sending a completed ‘notice of discontinuance’ (Form N279) to the court and formally delivering a copy to every side in the case. But you will be responsible for everyone’s legal costs up until the date you give them this notice, unless you can convince the court that you don’t have to pay. This is not easy to do. Try contacting your opponent before you complete the 'notice of discontinuance' and ask them to agree that they will not claim for their costs if you stop your claim. You never know, you might get lucky.

If your case has been allocated to the small claims track before you stop the claim, then usually you will only have to pay your own legal costs and not everyone else’s as well.