Small Claims Court - Money Claim

[bruncher]

I am considering using the online process for a small amount of money.

Looking at the government website it says

You may be able to claim the fees back if you win the case.

but I can't see further details on this. If the other party stumps up, is it normal practice that they would also pay my court fee?

[johnhemming]

It can be a question of negotiation as part of a settlement, but you will otherwise get a court fee. Litigants in person can also claim some costs (the rules are on the net), but if you want to claim for your time you need to put it in on the original claim.

I did one of these about a year ago against Virgin Media and got my court costs plus interest, but I hadn't put in for my time so I didn't get that.

The Bank teller said to me that she didn't often see cheques from Virgin Media.

[UncleEbenezer]

I did one of these about a year ago against Virgin Media and got my court costs plus interest, but I hadn't put in for my time so I didn't get that.

Do you have any details of that you'd be willing/able to share? For example, if you wrote about it anywhere online?

I seem to be in dispute with Virgin now[1], and I wonder if anything in your case might be relevant.

[1] Some problems leading up to it feature in viewtopic.php?f=39&t=9712 .

[bruncher]

If I make a money claim, and I lose, does this mean I have a County Court Judgement against me? Some forms - especially insurance policy applications - ask have you ever had a County Court Judgement against you.

[supremetwo]

If I make a money claim, and I lose, does this mean I have a County Court Judgement against me? Some forms - especially insurance policy applications - ask have you ever had a County Court Judgement against you.

If by 'lose' you mean that the Court decides that the defendant has made a case that no money is owed, that does not constitute a judgement against you.

OTOH, if the defendant makes a counter-claim:-
https://www.gov.uk/respond-to-court-cla ... -the-claim

If you lose the counter-claim, pay the full amount within a month and you can get the judgment removed from the register.

[johnhemming]

Do you have any details of that you'd be willing/able to share? For example, if you wrote about it anywhere online?

I seem to be in dispute with Virgin now[1], and I wonder if anything in your case might be relevant.

I may have written about it somewhere, but is faster to type a short summary. I cancelled an account with Virgin. They took a direct debit that they shouldn't have taken and my account was in credit. They refused to repay me (even to the bank account they took it from) unless I sent them a letter on my headed notepaper. I don't have any printed headed notepaper and was not willing to print some. In any event their records proved they owed me money. Hence I sued them.

Your problem is probably one best resolved by getting another supplier. It does depend in part of where you are and what alternatives there are. I am using BT and PlusNet at the moment for two links both fibre optic at 75M and they are both OK.

[UncleEbenezer]

Thanks @johnhemming for the reply. Doesn't really look relevant to my case, though it looks symptomatic of the same impenetrable Kafka's-castle setup.

I am indeed using an alternative provider for 'net access. In fact, a 4G service from EE, which works very well from here and saves lock-in to another contract lest I finally move house.

In retrospect, if I'd moved here just a couple of months later, I could've stuck with my previous ISP (plusnet), whose service over more than a decade was a whole lot better than Virgin. ADSL here is still very marginal, but the BT Fibre cabinet appeared just round the corner just after I moved, bringing a new option.