1

Online AI sources uniformly and firmly insist that, no, it will not be sent/served by the court, and that this is the Claimant's responsibility, and that until this duty is fulfilled by the Claimant, which they normally have a period of 4 months to do, the Defendant will not be informed of the existence of the claim.

A professional barrister remarks that the court system is all a bit dysfunctional and broken these days, and treats its users more paternalistically and like children, so it will by default serve the claim upon the Defendant unless the Claimant asks it not to.

However, even if the Claimant does ask the Court not to send/serve the claim upon the Defendant on the basis that the Claimant prefers to do it by themselves, in their own time (of course, within the normal 4 months limit given by CPR unless subject to any ordered extension), the Court may well go ahead and send the Claim to the Defendant anyway, disregarding the Claimant's request (unclear if this is ostensibly so regularly done out of attitude/policy, or out of disorganised broken-/inept- ness.

But, what is the legal/procedurally "correct" way that the County Court of England and Wales ought to handle this situation, and what reasons may its various hearing centres' staffs have for deviating from this, and how regularly or often would one expect them to do this, particularly in the London area if anyone answering is familiar with that region of the County Court, or has specific experience with it?

user80346
  • 831
  • 2
  • 16

2 Answers2

2

This is covered by CPR rule 6.4(1):

The court will serve the claim form except where – (a) a rule or practice direction provides that the claimant must serve it; (b) the claimant notifies the court that the claimant wishes to serve it; or (c) the court orders or directs otherwise.

CPR 8.9 does not override this rule for Part 8 claims.

CPR 6.4(3) provides:

Where the court is to serve the claim form, the claimant must, in addition to filing a copy for the court, provide a copy for each defendant to be served.

If you look at the "Notes for claimant" associated with the Part 8 claim form you will see that it contains a statement which indicates that the above rule is being followed (emphasis added):

Copy the completed claim form, the defendant’s notes for guidance and your written evidence so that you have one copy for yourself, one copy for the court and one copy for each defendant. Send or take the forms and evidence to the court office with the appropriate fee.

If you are uncertain whether the Court has served the claim form (or, in the case where you've asked it not to, whether it has refrained from doing so) then you can call and ask. The courts use a computerised system to keep track of service.

If you are still in doubt, and the 4 month deadline for service is approaching, the safest option is to just serve. In the worst case scenario the defendant will get the claim form twice. Better that than missing the deadline and having to make a very risky application for relief from sanctions.

Note also that you will realise, significantly before the 4 month deadline, if the claim form hasn't been served by the fact that the defendant will fail to serve on the claimant their acknowledgement of service within 14 days under CPR 8.3. If you haven't been served an acknowledgment of service within a month of issuing the claim (allowing for up to 2 weeks for the court to serve) then you should start to become suspicious. In such a case, check with the court if they served. Do not check with the defendant; it may be that they have simply missed the deadline for acknowledgement of service in which case it's not in your best interest to alert them to it.

JBentley
  • 12,609
  • 32
  • 60
-5

Legally, the Claimant is responsible for serving the claim within 4 months, but courts often serve it by default unless instructed otherwise. Some courts, especially in London, may still serve the claim despite the Claimant’s request due to system inefficiencies. This deviation varies by hearing center and may stem from policy, disorganization, or procedural inconsistency.

ownish
  • 3
  • 1