Court Proceedings

If a claim is brought via the County Court, both sides have to attend and judgement is made on the arguments put forward.

Within the Court Civil Procedure Rules a judge can ask whether any other dispute resolution has been considered. If it hasn’t, then they can direct both parties to look at other ways to resolve the dispute, such as arbitration, and can postpone the court case for up to one month while you explore this. This can lead to further delays and loss of your court fee.

Court Fees

Please make sure that you know the costs of going to court. You'll find details on the Courts Service website.

We strongly advise you to check first whether you have a good chance of winning your case. We can't help you with this, but you could contact:

• Citizens Advice Bureau in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland
• Your local Trading Standards office