Responding to a Claim Form and the Deemed Date of Service

Under Part 6 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1996 (CPR) when a Claim Form has been served on a Defendant, the Defendant has 14 days to respond from the date of service. The Defendant must either:

1. Admit the whole of the claim; (for example agreeing that a payment should be made)
2. Dispute the whole of the claim; (e.g. disputing liability for the claim) or
3. Dispute part of the claim (e.g. admitting liability but disputing the sum of the claim)

If the Defendant intends to dispute any part of the claim but does not respond to the Claim Form by either filing an Acknowledgement of Service or Defence within the 14 days, the Claimant may obtain Default Judgment against the Defendant (Part 12 CPR).

For example further to a road traffic accident the Claimant may issue Court proceedings to recover his damages, if the Defendant does not respond to the Claim Form within 14 days of service the Claimant can enter Judgment in default against the Defendant regardless of whether liability for the accident is admitted or disputed by the Defendant.

Where a Defendant has not responded and Judgment has been filed by the Claimant, the Court will automatically find in favour of the Claimant, without a trial taking place. If the Defendant wants to contest liability he will then have to make an Application to the Court to get Judgment set aside (Part 13 CPR).

It is therefore extremely important if you receive a Claim Form to respond to the Court within the given time. If you are not legally qualified you should consult a Solicitor or your local Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB).

Where an Acknowledgement of Service is filed, the Defendant is given a further 14 days to submit a Defence to the Claimant's claim. Filing the Acknowledgement therefore gives the Defendant 28 days in total from the deemed date of service to file a Defence. This is particularly a good option where the Defendant needs to seek legal advice or a solicitor needs to take further instructions from their client before finalising the Defence.

When is the deemed date of service?

This may differ in certain cases so it is worth checking what information is included with the Claim Form and in practice on receipt of a Claim Form a Solicitor will telephone the Court to confirm this.

Prior to the implementation of The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2008, the deemed date of service for a Claim Form served by post was the second day after posting. i.e. if the date of posting was 25th June, the Claim Form would be deemed served on 27th June.

The rules as amended in 2008 however now provide that service does not occur until two “business days” after dispatch and therefore weekends are no longer counted. i.e. if a Claim Form was issued on a Thursday, the deemed date of service would not be until the following Monday. This rule applies regardless of the means used to serve a Claim Form. Documents other than a Claim Form are deemed served 2 days after dispatch regardless of the method.

One particular case I have come across that is slightly different to the above is where the Claim Form has been issued by the County Court Bulk Centre. In this case the included information provides the date of service as 5 days after the issue date detailed on the Claim Form. Proceedings issued from the Bulk Centre are usually simple debt collection matters which in the main is undefended.


Further information can be found on HMCS's website

"Help! I have received a County Court claim form for a road traffic accident"

Working in a solicitors firm within the RTA industry I deal with legal proceedings on a daily basis but if someone who is not familiar with them receives these through the post I can understand that they can be very daunting and quite worrying. Several times this week I have dealt with telephone calls from extremely distressed people who have received a County Court Claim Form in relation to road traffic accidents, some which even date back to 2004 (3 years ago). Some of these people have said that they have been physically sick especially as the form states that they need to respond within 14 days or face judgement against them in the region of thousands of pounds (the amount claimed).

Unfortunately sometimes proceedings are served directly on the insured rather than the insurance company or solicitors dealing with the matter. Should you receive such proceedings I hope that this post helps to alleviate your worries and explains exactly what you should do.

1. PLEASE DO NOT WORRY! The best thing I can recommend is to speak to either your insurance company or a solicitors (if appointed) to advise that you have received a claim form.

2. Usually they will ask you to send the claim form or a copy to them so that they can deal with it on your behalf.

3. If liability for the accident has been admitted then it is unlikely that you will need to do anything further, everything will be resolved by your representatives

Where liability (fault) is admitted the reason legal proceedings would be issued is a dispute over quantum (the value of the claim) or the limitation period is due to expire/has expired (see below for further information in relation to limitation)

4. Where liability is in issue it is likely that you may be required to attend court to give your version of events, however your representatives will be able to explain the process and exactly what is required of you if this is the case so feel free to raise any queries or worries with them


Turning to my above point in relation to "limitation" sometimes claims are not concluded until the limitation period expires. Once people have reported an accident to their insurance company and had their vehicle repaired they tend to forget about the matter. However what the insured does not see is the work that then has to be done by the insurance company or solicitors appointed by them when dealing with a third party claim.

In England and Wales you have 3 to make a personal injury claim - (I am sure you have seen the annoying people in the street asking if you have had an accident in the last 3 years). If a claim is not settled before the 3 year period expires most solicitors issue protective legal proceedings to ensure that their client receives their compensation. If this is not done and a client cannot go on to claim their compensation this can lead to professional negligence being raised.

Once the proceedings have been issued they must then be served within a 4 month period. Therefore if the claim is still not settled within these further 4 months the proceedings will be served (sent) to the Defendant - as mentioned above this maybe the insured rather than the solicitors acting.

I hope the above helps if you are faced with the above. If you have any queries please feel free to ask and I will try and answer them.

Further information about dealing with a claim and the claim form itself can be found at HMCS (Her Majesty's Court Service)