Can anyone explain how to start a small claim please?

[Mittens67]

And yes I have googled but there appears to be two routes either money claims online or I download a form to complete and return to the court. Are there differences between the two routes?
Can anybody tell me what they did to start and then continue a claim please?
How long does it take once you start a claim to get to court?
I am claiming against an individual not a company.
I have drafted a letter before claim and have a file of supporting evidence prepared ready for the court.

No, there is no difference between claiming online or downloading the form. Provided you know how much money you want to claim, I would recommend using the online route, but it isn't essential.

Before issuing a claim you need to send your letter before claim to the other party and give them a reasonable chance to respond. If they don't respond satisfactorily, you can then start your claim.

There is a full guide to the process at Making a small claim - Citizens Advice

It currently takes about a year for a claim to get to court.

@prh47bridge thank you. A year?! Christ on a bike. I thought maybe six months max.
Are you speaking from recent personal experience or is this your line of work?

It is from government statistics - Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly: April to June 2024 - GOV.UK. This says that "The mean time taken for small claims to go to trial was 50.6 weeks".

The time depends on whether the defendant files a defence or ignores the claim. Many defendants ignore the claim form and then you can enter judgement 14 days after service of the claim form and continue to enforce your judgement. If a defence is filed it will then depend on the amount of your claim as to what timetable will be followed. The hearing will usually take place at the Court closest to where the defendant lives. Some Courts are much busier than others. So there are lots of things which can affect how long the process will take. Please be aware that winning a case does not guarantee you will get your money. Does the defendant have assets or a job?

Our claim took about a year to get to court, then they cancelled the date and it was another six months.
we did win though and got the money.

as PP said, you send a letter before action by recorded delivery and give 28 days for them to respond.
before that though make sure you have copies of everything they could possibly delete - phone messages etc. as you need evidence.

@Mittens67 Everthing the previous posters have said! If you start a claim and both parties agree you can try mediation before claim which avoids a wait for a court case. Mediation is done over the phone, the mediator speaks to each party in turn, claimant and defendant don’t talk to each other. Any agreement reached is binding. It doesn’t guarantee you will get your money as is true for a court judgment, but if they fail to pay the claim is reinstated and will go to court.

The defendant is actually a neighbour and yes they have assets enough to cover what is owed. If successful and they refuse to pay I know I will need to get an enforcement order for the baliffs.
Obviously I would rather avoid the stress given they are a neighbour but I can’t afford to write off the money and there is no chance of maintaining a normal neighbourly relationship with them no matter what I do so I might as well try to get what I’m owed.
I have already tried mediation via the police referral and this person is not amenable to reason.
Even the mediator told me afterwards that mediation only works where both sides are prepared to reach agreement. My neighbour was not prepared to do so at all.
I have extensive evidence carefully prepared covering every point I want to make and witnesses who are prepared to come with me to a court hearing.
I had read 14 days for them to respond to a letter before action but will check that out again to be sure.

Just checked and it is indeed 14 days.

@Mittens67 Sorry, just seen that mediation isn’t possible in your case. The online process is easy to use. You need to give a brief description of your case. There is a character limit on the amount you can type in the relevant section (sorry can’t remember the precise limit) but have a succinct précis prepared as you won’t be able to submit multiple paragraphs of evidence at the initial stage of starting a claim.

I've had to take 2 separate clients to small claims. I did it online. It was due to non payment of invoices. £960 and £1300.
I think I paid around £35 online. They sent a letter. And within 14 days of both I had the invoices paid.
I had a paper trail of the t&c on invoices as proof, emails and WhatsApp sent to the clients. Where they had said ' they'll pay on xx date' and didn't. So they had acknowledged the debt.
It was pretty plain sailing .