Particulars of Claim when you start your claim online

[ScrumMaster]

Hi everybody,


I started a claim yesterday on moneyclaims online.

My Particular of Claims are twice as long as the allowed number of words, so it did not make any sendsein pasting them into the PoC field on the claim form.
I only wrote a VERY brief summary for what I was claiming the money for and ticked the box with the statement that I am sending the extended PoC to the Defendant myself.

Now I am worried the court will reject my claim because the PoC on my form are very brief.

What I am wondering is:

- how will the Court get a copy of my extended PoC? It is not an obligation to send it to the court, I could not find it in the instructions or elsewhere.

- if the Cort thinks my PoC are not enough on the submitted form, will they reject my claim?


Many thanks foro your answers in advance.

[echat11]

Hi Scrummaster

The MCOL has a character limitation of 1,000 characters. What you should of done is sent a copy in the post and got Proof of Postage. It might be possible to ring them up and tell them you want to send it by post instead, considering it's an admin thing, they may allow you to do that.

Check with them, call them at 9.00am.

[ScrumMaster]

Just called them and they said it was not necessary for me to send them the extended PoC.

That is very strange imo, since my PoC are very brief in the claim, like almost nothing.
I only say I want to claim money for fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of duty and negligence, that is it.

I asked the clerk how the Court and the Judge will know what to do with my claim and he said that my extended PoC will eventually bcome a part of the evidence.

I find it strange. What if I want to amend the PoC? How would they know it was really amended?

[echat11]

Just called them and they said it was not necessary for me to send tem the extended PoC.

That is very strange imo, since my PoC are very brief in the claim, like almost nothing.
I only say I want to cliaim money for fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of duty and negligence, that is it.

I asked the clerk how the Court and the Judge will know what to do with my claim and he said that my extended PoC will eventually bcome a part of the evidence.

I find it strange. What if I want to amend the PoC? How would they know it was really amended?

The thing is, the Defendant has to defend the claim, there really aren't any specifics in the Particular of claim to defend.

des8 ostell Can you take a look and advise, many thanks.

[ScrumMaster]

Just to clarify, I sent the PoC to the Defendant with the signed for delivery.
It is the Court itself I am worried about.

[echat11]

Just to clarify, I sent the PoC to the Defendant with the signed for delivery.
It is the Court itself I am worried about.

So you sent the Court one set of Particulars of Claim (brief) and the Defendant a full set of Particulars of Claim.
You need to send the Court a full set of Particulars of claim, email, fax, do it today with an explanation.

[des8]

The MCOL judge will look at your claim, see that it is has a cause of action etc and then allocate it to your local court.
At that point other steps occur which will eventually end with the court having the full story.

It could be that your long PoC is longer than necessary and contains details which more properly will be in your witness statement.

The processes can be found here:
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/..._in_Person.pdf
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/...+web+FINAL.pdf

[R0b]

If you can't fit the necessary particulars into the limited character count in the box, there is an option just above that you can tick to say you will serve detailed particulars within 14 days of the claim form being served (it is deemed served 5 days after the date of issue). You ought to have really gone that route instead of doing it the way you did.



Based on the Civil Procedure Rules, your detailed POC sent to the defendant would constitute an amendment and requires you to file an application for permission to amend since the claim form has now been issued, at a cost of £275. This could also cause confusion to the Defendant who will receive two sets of particulars and one of them not sanctioned/approved by the court.

What you could have done is, waited for the Defendant to file their defence and then use your right to reply to the defence and expand on your POC (but your not allowed to introduce new allegations). You would have gotten away with having to pay any amendment fee too.

[ScrumMaster]

Very grateful for all your replies.

I feel I need to clarify what I have done, as it looks like people understood it differently.

Yesterday I filed a claim on MoneyClaims online. The sum I claim is 25 000 GBP.

My PoC are quite long and I could not cut it down to any meaningful and short description, so I wrote very short statetement that I wanted to claim damages for fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of duty and negligence. I gave no further details.


I ticked the box indicating I will send the extended PoC to the Defendant, which I also did later, with the signed for mail service.

Submitted the claim, paid the fee.

Then, as a first-timer, I became worried that maybe my very short summary of PoC was not enough for the court to act upon or decide what track to allocate it to. Imo it's a rather complex case that requires evidence.

I called their Helpdesk and explained the situation. The clerk said that they did not need any extended PoC at this stage, it will only become necessary when the claim is defended. According to him, I should not do anything more with my extended PoC.

But I am still worried, because I think that it's impossible to decide anything on the basis of what I entered into the online form.

Also I find it strange that the online claim form doesn't have any facility to attach the extended PoC.
I can guess that there are quite a few people who cannot fit their PoC onto the claim form.

I have the Litigant Handbook and I search for the answer elsewhere too, but was not able to find anything that would give me peace of mind.

If the court finds my PoC on the claim form insufficent, will they thorow out my claim or just tell me to submit a "better" one?

[ScrumMaster]

I found the answer:

Particulars of claim and certificate of service
6.1 Where the particulars of claim are served by the claimant separately from the claim form pursuant to paragraph 5.2(2), the claimant must –

(1) serve the particulars of claim in accordance with rule 7.4(1)(b); and

(2) file a certificate of service in form N215 at the County Court Business Centre within 14 days of service of the particulars of claim on the defendant.

6.2 The certificate of service may be filed by sending form N215 by email to ccbc@justice.gov.uk. However, the subject line to the e-mail must contain the claim number.

6.3 The claimant must file the particulars of claim at the court to which the proceedings are sent under paragraph 12.1 or 12.2 within 7 days of service of the notice of transfer by the court.

6.4 Where the proceedings are not sent to a County Court hearing centre under paragraph 12.1 or 12.2 and remain at the County Court Business Centre, the claimant is not required to file the particulars of claim unless ordered to do so.

Thanks everyone.

[R0b]

To be honest, I'm still not sure what your question is.

The reason behind the limited character count on MCOL is because the Claim Form is auto-generated, so that is the maximum number of characters that can fit within the box as if you were submitting a paper version.

If you ticked the box to say you will file detailed particulars, then the claim form will add a couple of lines to say something like, "I agree to provide the Claimant with detailed particulars within 14 days of the Claim Form being served". Your claim form then becomes the brief details about your claim and then your detailed particulars becomes the Particulars of Claim and overrides what you inserted into the box on MCOL.

So, if you as you say, you sent a more detailed POC to the defendant then I can't see what the issue is because what you entered online is now pretty much irrelevant as your detailed POC overrides.

If the defendant takes issue with the lack of particulars then you can clarify as I suggested by exercising your right to reply to the defence. Alternatively, the court may decide to strike out your claim if it discloses no legally recognised cause of action or if your particulars are poor. However, the general rule is that you should be afforded an opportunity to remedy the defect, possibly with costs attached but that's discretion of the judge and how hard the defendant pushes.