A longer wait for those going through the County Court due to larger numbers of claims

Liam O’Shea, Director, Solicitor and Head of Astle Paterson’s Litigation & Debt Recovery Department, discusses the increase in time for claimants pursuing claims through the County Court.

Recently published evidence confirms that the County Court is beginning to feel the pressure under the high volume of claims it is having to deal with.

The Ministry of Justice has revealed that from July to September 2017:

• 560,000 claims were issued in the County Court, of which 445,000 were specified money claims – an increase of some 15% on the same period in 2016.
• Unspecified money claims were up 10% from the previous year, with the majority being personal injury claims.
• There was an increase in defended claims of 5% (76,000).
• 14,000 Trials were conducted – an increase of 11%
• Judgments increased by 24%
• There was a significant rise of 33% in Warrants being issued.
• The average time between the issue of a small claim and Trial was 32 weeks, a minor increase from the same period the previous year.
• The average time taken for a multi and fast track claims was 56 ½ weeks – an increase of 3 weeks from the year before.

If you’re unsure whether you need to go through the Courts, or you need assistance or advice regarding disputes or Court proceedings please contact Astle Paterson online, call 01283 531366 or email loshea@astlepaterson.co.uk.