Small claims court in England and Wales

The small claims court is the everyday route for getting money back from a person or business through the courts without a full, expensive lawsuit. In England and Wales the limit on the amount you can claim in the small claims track of the County Court is £10,000¹, and the process "often used to be known as taking someone to a 'small claims court'"². You apply to a county court, online or by post, and a judge decides the case at a hearing if the other side defends it.

The claim is designed to be manageable for individuals. Relatively straightforward claims for £10,000 or less are allocated to the small claims track¹, the costs each side can recover from the other are tightly capped, and claims are steered towards free mediation before they ever reach a courtroom³. Court fees run from £35 for a small claim to £455 for one between £5,000 and £10,000⁴, and if you win but are not paid, there are further enforcement steps, ending in bankruptcy or winding up for a debtor who simply refuses⁵.

What the small claims track is for: disputes up to £10,000

The small claims track is one of the tracks a county court uses to sort claims by size and complexity. If your claim is for £10,000 or less and is relatively straightforward, it will be allocated to the small claims track¹. The limit on the amount you can claim in the small claims track of the County Court is £10,000¹. Sometimes claims for more than £10,000 can be allocated to the small claims track if the court allows it¹, so the figure is a rule of thumb rather than an absolute wall, but a claim above the limit should not be assumed to stay small.

Two categories carry a lower ceiling. Claims for personal injury and housing disrepair will only be considered for the small claims track if they are for less than £1,000¹, and lower limits of £1,000 apply for housing disrepair and personal injury³. The reasoning is that these claims usually need medical or technical evidence that makes them less straightforward than a simple unpaid invoice or a faulty product.

What the track buys you is a simplified procedure and protection on costs. In exchange, a judge may decide that the case cannot be heard as a small claim if it is deemed to be too complex³, in which case it moves to a different track with different costs rules, where the risks of paying the other side's costs are higher.

The track suits disputes where the facts can be shown on paper: an unpaid bill, a deposit not returned, a trader who did not finish the work, goods that arrived faulty. It is a route for money, and the claim needs to be for a fixed amount you can state precisely when you issue it.

Small claims limits differ across the UK

The £10,000 figure applies to England and Wales only. In Scotland and Northern Ireland the maximum you can claim is £5,000³. The processes are separate too: there is a different process to make a court claim in Scotland and to make one in Northern Ireland².

In Northern Ireland, the small claims process covers debts of less than £5,000, and the County Court deals with the small claims process, but the costs are limited⁶. If the amount is not more than £5,000, you can take your case to the Small Claims Court and you do not need a solicitor⁷. Costs recovery is narrower there as well: in Northern Ireland you can only claim the court fee³, rather than the expert fees and earnings losses that are recoverable in England and Wales.

Scotland runs its own simplified procedure for claims up to its limit. The site has a separate guide to the simple procedure in Scotland and one on small claims in Northern Ireland, and this page covers England and Wales.

Costs added to a money claim, by claim value

Issuing a claim requires a court fee, and the fee scales with the amount you are claiming. StepChange sets out the costs added to a money claim by value⁴:

If the claim is served by the court rather than by you, there are further fixed solicitors' fees: £60 for a claim of £25 to £500, £90 for £1,000 to £5,000, and £100 for £5,000 and above, or £110 if it is served by the creditor⁴. Judgment stages carry their own fees: £25 for judgment in default, £40 for judgment by acceptance on a claim of £25 to £5,000 (£55 over £5,000), and £175 for summary judgment on a claim of £25 to £5,000 (£210 over £5,000)⁴.

The practical point is that the fee is paid up front by the person claiming, and it is only recovered if you win and the other side pays. On a £9,000 claim, the £455 issue fee is real money at risk. On a £250 claim, the £35 fee is small, but the time and evidence needed are the same, which is why the pre-court steps in this page matter whatever the size of the claim.

What you can recover if you win, and the caps on it

Winning gets you the money you claimed, plus some but not all of what it cost you to get there. The caps are what define the small claims track as a low-risk route:

• Court fee: recoverable as part of the judgment.
• Expert fees: the limit for recovering expert witness fees in court is £750¹, the upper limit of the amount that can be recovered for experts' fees in a case allocated to the small claims court³.
• Loss of earnings: up to £90 for loss of earnings if you had to take unpaid time off work to attend the court hearing³.
• Northern Ireland: you can only claim the court fee³.

The £750 expert fee cap deserves attention before you spend anything. An expert report that costs more than £750 leaves the excess with you even if you win, so for small claims the evidence that matters is usually your own: contracts, receipts, photographs, correspondence. The £90 earnings cap works the same way: a self-employed person losing several days to a hearing may recover only a fraction of that.

These caps are the trade at the heart of the track. They stop a losing trader from being hit with a large bill for your lawyers and experts, and in return they stop you from recovering your full costs. It keeps the process usable for claims that would never be worth a solicitor's hourly rate.

Evidence you need before you claim

A claim lives or dies on the paperwork you can put in front of a judge. Trading Standards Wales advises gathering evidence to prove your claim before suing in court, such as receipts, contracts, photographs and written records of what was agreed and what went wrong⁸. The strongest claims are ones where the dispute is about whether the money is owed, not about what happened in the first place.

Both sides exchange evidence between them 14 days before the hearing date³, so the judge and the other side see your material in advance. That deadline works both ways: it gives you the other side's evidence, which often shows how strong their defence really is, and it means you cannot spring a document on the day.

Before claiming, it is worth checking your statutory position as well as your paperwork. If the dispute is about faulty goods or a service that was not delivered, your statutory rights may already give you the answer the court would reach, and saying so in your letter before claim makes the claim harder to defend.

The letter before claim comes first

You cannot go straight from an unresolved dispute to a claim form. If you are taking a company to the small claims court to get your money back, you must send them a letter before you claim⁹. This letter must comply with the Pre-Action Protocol⁹, the rules that govern what must be attempted before court action starts.

The letter needs a summary of the facts⁹: what was agreed, what went wrong, what you are owed and what you want done, with a deadline. It should also record your position on resolving the matter without a hearing. Which?'s template letter includes the wording:

Which? template letter before small claims court claim⁹

Which? publishes the template as a free downloadable file⁹. Sending it does more than tick a procedural box: a trader who ignores a proper letter before claim looks unreasonable to a court, and many disputes end at this stage because the letter shows you are serious.

Trying a complaint or the ombudsman first

For disputes with a financial firm, court is usually the last stop on a route that starts with a complaint. The process is consistent across the ombudsman's material: make a formal complaint to the company first, and if they do not send you a final response letter within eight weeks, or you are unhappy with the response, you can bring the complaint to the ombudsman¹⁰. As the ombudsman's own guidance puts it, "You need to do this first, or we can't get involved"¹¹.

The same first step applies to other schemes. Before applying to the Pensions Ombudsman, you must first make a formal complaint directly with the relevant party, such as the trustees or manager of your pension scheme, the administrator or an employer¹².

The ombudsman route is free to the consumer and does not need a court fee, which is why it is normally tried first for financial disputes. The site explains how to complain to a financial firm, taking a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and which ombudsman scheme handles which complaint.

The relationship between the ombudsman and the court matters at both ends. Consumers can still go to court if they do not want to accept the ombudsman's decision¹³. But neither side can appeal an ombudsman's final decision to another ombudsman, or to court, just because they disagree with it¹⁴. And if you accept an award made in a final decision, it is unlikely you will be able to take the business to court for more compensation later¹⁵. The ombudsman's own leaflet states the position plainly:

Financial Ombudsman Service consumer leaflet¹⁶

So the sequence is: complain to the firm, wait for the final response or eight weeks, then choose between accepting the ombudsman's decision or keeping your court option. Accepting the award closes the court door for more money; rejecting it leaves court open. The comparison page on ombudsman or small claims court sets the two routes side by side.

One more timing point: the Pensions Ombudsman notes the Limitation Act 1980, which sets time limits for legal claims in England and Wales, with equivalent laws in Scotland and Northern Ireland¹⁷. Court claims do not stay available indefinitely, so a long ombudsman process should not be allowed to run down the clock on the court option.

Making a claim online or by post

You can apply to a county court to claim money you are owed by a person or business, online or by post². You can start a claim online if it is for a fixed amount of money, it is for less than £100,000, and you have the details of who you want to start the claim against¹. The online service is generally known as Money Claim Online, and it is the usual route for small claims.

The steps in order:

1. Complain to the trader and give them a chance to put it right.
2. Send a letter before claim that follows the Pre-Action Protocol⁹.
3. Issue the claim, online or by post, paying the fee for your claim value².
4. Wait for the defendant's response. They may pay, admit the claim, defend it, or ignore it.
5. If they defend, the claim moves to mediation and then, if needed, a hearing.

You can also make a claim against them, a counterclaim, if you think they owe you money, though you might have to pay a court fee for it¹⁸. Ignoring a claim is the worst option: you might have to pay more or get a county court judgment (CCJ) against you¹⁸.

Mediation comes before a hearing

Most defended small claims are steered into mediation before a judge sees them. A mediation service could be quicker and cheaper than going to court², and the service is confidential and usually quicker and cheaper than going to court⁵. For court claims of £10,000 or less, the mediation service is free⁵.

Referral is now largely automatic. HM Courts and Tribunals Service provides the Small Claims Mediation Service, and if you reply with a defence to a money claim, the case will automatically be referred to it where the criteria are met²⁰. For claims issued on or after 22 May 2024, the criteria are: the value of the claim is less than £10,000, the claim is only for a specified sum of money, and the claim is not for personal injury and does not relate to a road traffic accident²⁰. A claim started before 5 November 2024 using the Online Civil Money Claims process is not automatically referred²⁰.

Attendance is not always optional. If your claim is disputed by the trader and is for £10,000 or less, you will be informed that you must attend mediation¹. If you do not attend mediation when required, the court may apply a sanction, such as ordering you to pay additional costs²⁰. You will be asked whether you would like to be referred to a mediation service after you start a small claims court claim³, but once a defended claim is in the system, treating the appointment as optional is a mistake that can cost money.

If mediation fails, the claim goes to a hearing. One timing rule to know well in advance: rules introduced in 2017 mean you can only cancel a hearing and get a full refund of your fees up to 28 days before your scheduled hearing date³. Settle or withdraw later than that and the fee is spent.

When the court is unlikely to take your case

Some disputes do not fit the small claims route, and it is better to know before paying the issue fee. A judge may decide that the case cannot be heard as a small claim if it is deemed to be too complex³, which pushes it to a track with fuller costs rules and real risk of paying the other side's legal costs if you lose.

Disputes already resolved elsewhere are closed. If you accept an award made in an ombudsman's final decision, it is unlikely you will be able to take the business to court for more compensation later¹⁵. The court is not a second bite at a decision you have already accepted.

Some debts cannot be enforced at all. A loan from a loan shark is not legally enforceable²¹, so a court claim to recover money lent outside the regulated system is not a route the borrower needs to fear, and equally a lender operating outside the law cannot use the courts to collect. If you have borrowed from an unlicensed lender, the problem is the lender, not the court, and debt advice is the place to start.

Finally, claims need a legal basis. A claim that simply asserts that something was unfair, without a contract, a statutory right or a loss to point to, will not get far. Checking your position under statutory rights or unfair contract terms before claiming tells you whether there is anything for a judge to enforce.

If the other side doesn't pay the judgment

Winning is not the same as being paid. If the debtor ignores the judgment, the failure to pay after the stated terms means the claim stays on the record for up to six years³, which damages their credit standing and is often the pressure that produces payment.

Beyond that, enforcement is a further process with further steps. If they ignore a statutory demand or cannot repay the money, you can apply to a court to make someone bankrupt, or get a company wound up (liquidated)⁵. These are serious steps with their own costs, and for a small claim they are the end of the line rather than the first move.

Where the debt relates to certain recoverable amounts, legislation sets out the recovery methods: by deduction from benefit, by deduction from earnings, through the courts, or by adjustment of benefit²². In practice, for a consumer with a judgment against a trader, the usual sequence is asking for payment, then using the court's enforcement options, then the insolvency route for a debtor who can pay but will not.

If you are the one who cannot pay a judgment entered against you, the position is different: you might have to pay more or get a county court judgment (CCJ)¹⁸, and unpaid court debts have their own consequences. Free, impartial debt help is available from charities such as StepChange, whose guidance on court fees and court debts is cited throughout this page, and the debt section of this site covers the options.