Best time to call county court

I have a court case going on and I need to call the court to find out if my claim has been protectively issued. Otherwise I may miss my limitation date. However, when I call the court my queue position has been 117 or 101 . I am unable to wait this long. As a result when would you say is the best time to call the court

The best time is probably as soon as the court office opens. But you don't need to be worried about missing limitation. For the purposes of bringing a claim under the Limitation Act, the claim is 'brought' on the date it is received by the Court, not when it is issued (CPR PD7A Para 6.1).

Reply 2

Butterflywings24

OP

11

Original post by Crazy Jamie

The best time is probably as soon as the court office opens. But you don't need to be worried about missing limitation. For the purposes of bringing a claim under the Limitation Act, the claim is 'brought' on the date it is received by the Court, not when it is issued (CPR PD7A Para 6.1).

Please tell this to my solicitor who keeps asking me to call the court and find out if it’s been issued!

I am literally going to give her that CPR reference as soon as she responds to my email.

It’s so annoying because it’s like she’s saying she can’t give me a deadline for when she will be able to finish assessing my claim because she doesn’t know the date of issue of my claim. When she literally has all evidence from me, plus the subject access request docs from the other side and my limitation date is around November.

Then if the defendant chooses to provide a defence which is likely, it will take up to 14 or 28 days or 3 months in a complex case.

I really want this case to be concluded by the end of the year and for my solicitor to at least assess my claim by October. But she just keeps creating so much uncertainty

(edited 3 weeks ago)

Original post by Butterflywings24

Please tell this to my solicitor who keeps asking me to call the court and find out if it’s been issued!

I am literally going to give her that CPR reference as soon as she responds to my email.

It’s so annoying because it’s like she’s saying she can’t give me a deadline for when she will be able to finish assessing my claim because she doesn’t know the date of issue of my claim. When she literally has all evidence from me, plus the subject access request docs from the other side and my limitation date is around November.

Then if the defendant chooses to provide a defence which is likely, it will take up to 14 or 28 days or 3 months in a complex case.

I really want this case to be concluded by the end of the year and for my solicitor to at least assess my claim by October. But she just keeps creating so much uncertainty

I don't see why your solicitor can't assess your prospects now and review them when the Defence lands. Whether the assessment is just for your information or has more importance to the case such as for a CFA or legal expenses insurance, it's pretty standard to assess prospects at this stage and then adjust them in future if needed. What makes you think the claim will be concluded by the end of the year? If it's a defended claim that doesn't strike me as likely. You can obviously settle the claim, but that requires the other side to make a reasonable offer and/or for you to accept a reasonable offer, and clients do often overestimate the likelihood of that happening.

Reply 4

Butterflywings24

OP

11

Original post by Crazy Jamie

I don't see why your solicitor can't assess your prospects now and review them when the Defence lands. Whether the assessment is just for your information or has more importance to the case such as for a CFA or legal expenses insurance, it's pretty standard to assess prospects at this stage and then adjust them in future if needed. What makes you think the claim will be concluded by the end of the year? If it's a defended claim that doesn't strike me as likely. You can obviously settle the claim, but that requires the other side to make a reasonable offer and/or for you to accept a reasonable offer, and clients do often overestimate the likelihood of that happening.

So far I’ve just sent her all evidence that I have. Then she requested a subject access request form the defendant then asked me to provide any comments I had in relation to the documentation. No other pre-action steps have been taken thus far but she just keeps saying that she essentially can’t answer some of my questions as she is still in the process of accessing the merits of my claim. It’s just really annoying because she just keeps trying to exclude any liability I may have against her possible and saying things like “if I can help you” or “if you are eligible for legal help” etc.

Furthermore, as I had to protectively issue my claim. She valued my claim at the outset at no more than £30,000 and stated that it is a claim for disability discrimination for the purposes of the court docs. But that’s all she’s done and said it can be adjusted later.

It’s just that it’s been months already. This claim started around April and it’s now almost October

Original post by Butterflywings24

So far I’ve just sent her all evidence that I have. Then she requested a subject access request form the defendant then asked me to provide any comments I had in relation to the documentation. No other pre-action steps have been taken thus far but she just keeps saying that she essentially can’t answer some of my questions as she is still in the process of accessing the merits of my claim. It’s just really annoying because she just keeps trying to exclude any liability I may have against her possible and saying things like “if I can help you” or “if you are eligible for legal help” etc.

Furthermore, as I had to protectively issue my claim. She valued my claim at the outset at no more than £30,000 and stated that it is a claim for disability discrimination for the purposes of the court docs. But that’s all she’s done and said it can be adjusted later.

It’s just that it’s been months already. This claim started around April and it’s now almost October

Alright, so this is actually my practice area, and there is a likely good reason to hold off on a formal merits assessments if you have issued a disability discrimination claim protectively and may be eligible for legal help, because the merits assessment will have a direct impact on your funding that is difficult to challenge later. You obviously will have needed to issue protectively because of the short limitation period on disability discrimination claims, but it will be genuinely difficult to assess prospects if she hasn't even send a letter before claim yet (and therefore she won't know the other side's position either), and as I say, she will want to get this right to make sure you get any funding that you're entitled to. She is saying things like "if I can help you" because I suspect she's not getting paid for the work she's doing at the moment and her being paid anything for this case is dependent on you having sufficient prospects for legal aid funding. Legal help is an interim scheme that pays very little. So I would very much be minded to cut her a bit of slack here. She's a professional working in a very specialist area who is not going to be paid well, if at all, for the work she is doing. Your desire to resolve the case quickly quite properly comes after her desire to make sure your case is as strong as it can be to both secure funding and good prospects of you succeeding.

I think you have an unrealistic view of how long county court litigation takes. I generally represent Defendants/Respondents in disability discrimination claims in all jurisdictions including the county court, and unless the claim is really nailed on (and it rarely is, at least with the cases I see), the Defendant will likely at least put a Defence in to give itself a good negotiating position, and may push things further than that, even to trial if necessary. There's a lot of strategy to this, and it can be a pretty drawn out process if the Defendant wants it to be. If you've pleaded your claim at not more than £30,000 then that's Intermediate Track, which isn't as cost intensive or lengthy as multi track litigation used to be on the same value, but it is very far from straightforward. As and when this claim is issued and you serve your proceedings, you then need the Defence, directions questionnaires, and all preparatory steps after that for trial. That trial could very easily be summer next year depending on the availability in the court the claim is in. There is no guarantee at all that this is a quick process. And whether it is or not is not likely to be the fault of your solicitor.

(edited 3 weeks ago)

Best time to call county court

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