Has anyone experience of the Small Claims Court?

[TeamCuthbert]

Hello, I want to take a big company to court. Due to their negligence and the dishonest actions of a senior member of their staff, I suffered quite a big financial loss.

I have exhausted their internal Complaints Procedure and the Ombudsman for that industry has advised that I should take it to court, rather than through them.

I am so scared.

Don't be scared. They may decide to defend it or they may try to negotiate a settlement without going to court though that might be for a smaller sum of money than you're claiming. Usually the court is unimpressed if they do not negotiate with you at an early stage.

If it does go to court, its not one of the big scary ones you see on TV but usually a simple room with a judge, you and a representative of the company. Sometimes, the court will even decide on the paperwork and you'll go no where near the place.

The best place to start is Money Claim Online which gives you step by step instructions.

Good luck.

PS If you lose in small claims the other side can usually only claim very limited costs - I think travel and sometimes loss of pay. If you decide to use a solicitor, you'll obviously need to pay them.

None. But interested to hear from others. Have experience of self representation at a tribunal and it was a really positive experience. Although it required lots of paperwork so it was helpful that I have a job that involves close attention to detail in long documents/ interpretation of statute etc.

Thanks for the replies. I don’t feel so alone now. They don’t want to negotiate so I have no choice but to take it to court.

How long does it take before your case gets to court?

Just be aware that even if you get a judgement for yourself they will frequently not pay up. You would then have to instigate further action. We ‘won’ our case and the company was told to pay us around 2k. They didn’t. We had to take out another court action to ask the court to freeze their company bank accounts. Once that was lodged, they paid up promptly 😂

We filed the paperwork to take a big company to court. It was for a straightforward financial loss which we could quantify. They looked like they were up for the fight. Then they got a solicitor involved and settled quickly. I think they told them the court appearance for a day would cost the company more than they owed us!!

Do you have to swear on oath in the Small Claims Court? I do hope so.

What is "quite a big financial loss"? Did the ombudsman specifically advise Small Claims Court?

They may not want to negotiate now, but that can change when they get a claim form. A solicitor may have a different view from a manager - not add that some of these firms have solicitors funded by insurers and they are quite risk averse. A lot of the bigger companies will try a bullying attitude in the hope of scaring you off. Don't let them its just a tactical thing for them.

PS Is the claim for under £10k - if not you can't use Small Claims

Before you go to court you have to send a Letter Before Action in a last ditch attempt to settle (it should say Letter Before Action in big letters on it).

If they ignore that or their response in inadequate, I personally suggest filling out a Small Claims claim form with the most basic details - under Particulars, where you write out the story of your case, you can just put "To Follow" - print it and send it to them with a final letter saying if they don't respond/settle within 7 working days you plan to file it on Xth of May 2021 (or whenever). That usually does the trick.

If it doesn't then you can file your claim. But I think it's well worth doing if you're prepared to go to court anyway.

Fightthefoo is right. It is worth doing that not least because you have to pay a fee when you file. If they see the paperwork is all ready, they'll know you're serious.

And sorry that was bad of me, I should have mentioned the letter before claim first - you must do one. It is all explained in the site I linked

Yes, it’s for under £10k. The Ombudsman said I should take it straight to Small Claims Court because some of my supporting evidence is outside of what they normally accept. Although they did say that on the face of it, it is a case that is worth pursuing.

They were clearly in the wrong. All I wanted was a, “Sorry, we screwed up. Let’s us cover your expenses and we’ll say no more about it.”

But no. They’d rather lie, gaslight me and make up evidence. Seriously, the amount of man hours they’ve invested in this is ridiculous.

And we are talking about a MASSIVE company.

What if the Small Claims Court is unsuccessful? Is there anywhere else to take a case?

Depends on what the actual case is, is this a criminal matter?? But think about this sensibly - what kind of outcome are you hoping to achieve here? Court cases (beyond small claims) are expensive, the "massive" company have deep pockets and probably an in-house legal team, depending on the case your costs may not be covered even if you win and it will take up much more of your time, energy and headspace than theirs. The fact that you say they have invested many hours in this so far, you have exhausted their internal complaints procedure and the Ombudsman, suggests that they are not willing to admit defeat and, for whatever reasons, are prepared to contest this. If you can give some indication of what the actual problem is people may be able to advise better.