Is there a register held of money claims?

[TheBarnster]

Hi folks.

Can somebody advise if county courts or MCOL have a register of claims made, even if settled before any hearing at county court?

Reason I ask, two family members have not spoken for years, as there has been a family dispute.

One family member says a claim was made by the other, for work that was done by her husband, which she claimed was unsatisfactory. The 'worker' decided to simply settle the claim (three figures) rather than bother with a hearing. He says both her name and that of the partner was on the claim (summons, as he called it).

However, it transpires that the "joint claimant" wasn't aware that any claim was made in her name, and insists she has never received any payment. It *may* be that her partner (no longer with her) added her name/signature to the claim without her knowledge. This was between 5 and 6 years ago and has only just come to light in casual conversation as the two families have not spoken to each other.

As this was apparently "settled" before a hearing, is there any way the 'claimant' who claims not to have issued a claim, can check to see if any claim was made in her name?

If this should go in a specific forum, I'm happy to be told off

Thanks for your help!

[des8]

CPR 5.4 (https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pr...l/rules/part05) is about court records.

To trace the papers you will need to know which court, and then do a lot of legwork probably as i can't see the court staff finding the time to wade through thousands of cases for a record that might not even exist!

[TheBarnster]

Thanks for that! If there is a public register, she will happily search it by visiting the court. I assumed it could be searched by surname. However, I presume it (in 2016) would have been issued by Northampton having used MCOL, and as it had not been defended, not been allocated to a specific court? I've also been searching justice.gov etc for the "prescribed fee" but can't find it

[R0b]

Your answer lies within the link Des referred to.

4.1 Registers of claims which have been issued are available for inspection at the following offices of the High Court at the Royal Courts of Justice:

(1) the Central Office of the Queen’s Bench Division;

(2) Chancery Chambers;

(3) the Admiralty and Commercial Court Registry.

4.2 No registers of claims are at present available for inspection in county courts or in district registries or other offices of the High Court.

The prescribed fees for copy documents asked for by a person party to a claim are set out in EX50 Guidance on page 11 under Other civil court fees. As far as I'm aware, it is not possible for the court to do a search of a case without a claim number so you may struggle without it.

If the family member has not been impacted by the claim then is there any merit in pursuing this for the sake of her half of three figures, whatever that amount may be?

[des8]

I doubt you'll find it
In the first quarter of 2019 there were 435,000 money claims, and I doubt there is a register available to the public.
However, ask them1
pob lwc iddi

[R0b]

Courtserv are the nominated company for daily lists for County Courts. They do have an archive list but it is usually reserved for those in professional capacity, though if you contact them then they might be able to assist albeit for a fee.

Best bet is for them to search by the names (if possible).

CourtServe

[TheBarnster]

If the family member has not been impacted by the claim then is there any merit in pursuing this for the sake of her half of three figures, whatever that amount may be?

Probably not. The intention was to find out the real cause of the dispute - one says they received a claim (and paid it, rather than bother with court)
The other looked gobsmacked when I suggested that had happened and claimed they knew nothing of a claim.
The issue may have been down to a previous partner who had tagged her name on to the claim, causing a six year feud.

Either way, I had assumed it would have been simpler to establish, like visiting a court building armed with ID and dates and searching a list of claims, but clearly it isn't..

I'll pass on all the above to her. Thanks to Rob for the info and diolch yn fawr i Des8 am y gwybodaeth