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Taking a case to court can be complicated and is not always the best thing to do. If you do decide to take court action, this page gives an overview of what’s involved.

Depending on the nature of your claim, you may need advice and representation.

Is court action appropriate?

If you are thinking of going to court, you must consider whether your problem is something that you should go to court about. There is no fixed list of what you can go to court about and what you should not go to court about, but you could go to court about issues such as:

• getting back an unprotected deposit or other money
  
• repeated or persistent failure to carry out repairs, or badly done repairs
  
• damage to your home or belongings
• noise nuisance or antisocial behaviour
• personal injury.

You should not go to court about:

• serious crime, for example, a theft or violent assault – you should report it to the police
• less serious problems, which can often be dealt with by making a complaint
• the amount of rent you have to pay or other issues that can be dealt with by a Rent Assessment Committee (RAC) instead
• a dispute that can be dealt with by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT)
• a dispute that is already being dealt with by alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or an existing court case
• appeals involving public authorities – unless the procedure tells you to go to court.

Sticking to timescales

You must give a person or organisation the chance to put things right before you start your court case. You need to do at least one of the following:

• Write a letter explaining your claim and what needs to be done to put it right.
• Use alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
• Use a pre-action protocol (these are required in certain types of cases).
  

Sometimes going to court happens very quickly and there is no warning to the other person. But that is rare, and in cases like that you should have representation.

Working out which court should examine your case

Before beginning a case, you must find the right court. Almost always, you need the county court. All money cases for less than £15,000 (or £50,000 in personal injury cases) and residential possession cases must be brought in the county court. But judicial review and some other cases have to be brought in the High Court.

If you are only claiming money, you can start your case in any county court. So choose one convenient for you. But if your case is about your home or another property, you may have to use the right court for the area. This may not necessarily be the nearest court. The easiest way to find out is to telephone your nearest county court and check the address is in their area.

You can get more information about courts from the Ministry of Justice HM Court Service website.

Completing the claim form

When you start a court case, you need to complete a claim form. Usually this will be a form N1. You can get the form from the court or from the Ministry of Justice HM Court Service website, which can also give you information about how to complete the form. If there isn’t room on the form for all that you need to say, use extra pages. You can set out your case in a separate document, which is called ‘particulars of claim’.

To start a possession case and for some other cases, a form N208 is needed. These cases must be accompanied by ‘particulars of claim’ on other court forms. You can ask the court which form you should use if you are not sure, or get advice.

Read the guidance notes that come with the form and check whether you have to attach other documents, for example a copy of your tenancy agreement. Attach photocopies, and keep the originals yourself.

Setting out your case

It is important to make the case against the right person, company or organisation. This is called the defendant. For example, if you have a claim against your landlord and your landlord is a company, it will do no good (and might cost you money) to start a case against one of the directors. But if your landlord is a person, you cannot start a claim against his/her company. If you are not sure who the defendant should be, ask a solicitor or adviser.

You need the original form (and attached documents) for the court and copies (including attached documents) for every other party. So the minimum is one for the court, one for you and one for the other party (defendant). Also take one extra copy to keep while you are waiting to get the form back from the court.

Paying court fees

The rules on court fees are complicated and you should ask at the court office how they work.

If you know how much the fee is, you can post the forms to the court with a cheque, but if you don’t know, or if you want to ask the court not to charge you a fee, take the forms to the court. The main reason for not charging you the fee is if you can’t afford it.

One common misunderstanding is about small claims. There is no special small claims form. You complete the normal forms, but if your case is for less than £5,000 it will usually be allocated to the 'small claims track' automatically at a later date.

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