Practice Direction update 111: Online Civil Money Claims and County Court Online
Practice Direction update to the Civil Procedure Rules relating to PD 51R Online Civil Money Claims and PD 51S County Court Online.
Applies to England and Wales
Documents
Details
Amendments to Practice Directions are contained in the 111th Update to the Civil Procedure Rules and are effective from 11am on 9 September 2019.
The update includes the following changes.
PD 51R Online Civil Money Claims pilot (OCMC)
The OCMC service went live to the public in March 2018. It offers a digital service for specified money claims not exceeding £10k. Over the course of the pilot, the OCMC project has added additional features to the claim process, which has necessitated various past updates to PD 51R. These changes have included amendments to allow testing on selected claims of a full/part admission stage of a civil money claim, including a formula calculator to capture and assess a defendant’s means, and provision for the defendant to state they have already paid in full the amount claimed.
The PD update extends the pilot to 30 November 2021 (from 30 November 2019) to enable further IT development and testing. It also releases several new features for testing on selected claims.
| Summary | Details |
|---|---|
| Directions Questionnaire (DQ) | The new online DQ is instead of the existing small claims DQ paper form, so that information can be collected from the parties in a more streamlined manner. There will also be an additional question to the DQ online process requiring information to support those requiring additional arrangements, such as sign language, interpreter services or disabled access. |
| Mediation opt-out | There is a presumption of mediation for certain defended claims as part of an ‘opt out’ online process. This means that, unless parties decide to ‘opt- out of mediation’, the case will proceed to mediation, and the court will refer the matter to the Small Claims Mediation Service if appropriate. This will reverse the current process whereby the claim is only referred to mediation if the parties opt in to mediation. |
| HMCTS legal advisors | Legal advisors are enabled to exercise certain functions in relation to selected claims within the OCMC pilot, in particular to issue directions in claims where the amount claimed is £300 or less. This will create a new online framework for case progression in a phased approach, and will be supervised by the Judiciary initially across four pilot sites of Birmingham, Edmonton, Manchester and Clerkenwell and Shoreditch. |
| Section 7C | The update removes Section 7C of PD 51R, which caters for the situation where a defendant part admits a claim, but makes no further response. This is because it is not possible for a defendant to part admit a claim and remain silent as to the balance; the balance is defended. Accordingly, Section 7C is removed as unnecessary. |
| Paid in full defence | The update expands the testing of a new feature relating to the handling of a defence because the claim has been paid in full. By these amendments the process will be available in relation to all forms of defence of the whole of the claim. |
| Email communication | The update ensures consistency and comprehensiveness in relation to the expression of time, and includes references to email communication in the provisions on timing. |
PD 51S County Court Online (CCO)
The CCO Project went live in September 2017. It offers a digital service for specified and unspecified money claims. This alternative service for professional users is available to legal representatives on an invitation-only basis, and is less advanced than the OCMC project and is governed by Practice Direction 51S.
The PD update extends the pilot to 30 November 2021 (from 30 November 2019) to enable further IT development and testing.
Forms
No forms have been created or modified with this update, save for the introduction and modification of an online DQ within OCMC.
Take notice and looking ahead
The Civil Procedure Rule Committee (CPRC) Secretariat is now operating a new email address. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the secretariat via CPRC@justice.gov.uk.
The next routine Statutory Instrument (SI) updating the CPR is anticipated to be laid before Parliament in February 2020 for commencement in April 2020, subject to Parliamentary approval. The contents of said SI and accompanying Practice Direction (PD) update is not yet known, but usual practice would be that items for inclusion will be assembled from decisions made by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee at its meetings between July and December 2019 inclusive. However, it may be that further PD updates are necessary in the interim and if so, they will be communicated in the usual way.