Small claims limit increase - what does it mean for your claim?

What is a Small Claim?

In 1998 the civil courts in England and Wales, where claims about money and injuries are heard, introduced a new set of rules called the Civil Procedure Rules.  These rules created three ‘tracks’ for claims to be dealt with more expeditiously and fairly.  These tracks are called the Small Claims Track, the Fast Track and the Multi Track. 

Since 1998, a small claim has been anything involving a disagreement between two parties about money amounting to less than £10,000.00 or personal injuries worth less than £1,000.00.  There are some other rules around the complexity of a case or the number of witnesses, basically how much of the Court’s time is going to be taken up by the hearing, but the financial value of the claim has always been the main driver behind allocating a claim to the Small Claims Track.

What does it mean for me?

Solicitors are prohibited from recovering their legal costs from the responsible party in Small Claims.  Therefore if an injury is minor, a Claimant wishing to pursue a claim for that injury would have to represent themselves.  When the limit was £1,000.00 that was not a problem for most Claimants as the majority of injuries that last for more than a few weeks are likely to be worth more than £1,000.00.  In road traffic accident claims, increasing the limit to £5,000.00 has had a huge impact on whether or not injured parties are able to get real access to justice and to bring claims with the assistance of a legal professional.  Alongside the increase, the Ministry of Justice introduced the Official Injury Claim portal (the OIC), which is supposedly easier for people to use to represent themselves in Court.  As this is a new system that has had less than a year to ‘bed-in’, it is not really possible to know whether it is going to be a success or whether it will need to be changed, but if you don’t want to pay a solicitor out of your own pocket to deal with your claim, you are going to have to use the OIC portal yourself and hope for the best.

For all other claims, including accidents at work or in public places, defective products or accidents in private spaces, the limit is going to increase to £1,500.00 from April 2022.  If your injury is serious and lasts more than a month or two, things like complicated fractures, back injuries or head injuries resulting in concussion and some longer term symptoms, then you have nothing to worry about and you will still more than likely be able to get a solicitor to deal with your claim on a no-win no-fee basis, giving you proper access to justice.  In many cases, however, something that seems like a serious injury may turn out to be quite minor or not worth an awful lot of money.  Things like lacerations that are quite nasty at the time but heal quickly without scarring, food poisoning and sprained ankles that can be quite painful but heal quickly without physiotherapy are all things that could be worth less than £1,500.00.

It is also vitally important that you seek medical advice about your injury, even if it seems quite minor, because if it is not sufficiently serious to go to the doctor within a short time after the accident, it is probably not serious enough to get you out of the Small Claims Track and to get a solicitor to deal with it for you. 

If upon consulting one of our team we consider that your injury is too minor to be dealt with outside of the Small Claims Track, we will of course let you know as soon as we believe that to be the case.

What will happen in future?

The government is quite determined to press ahead with its personal injury reforms, even in the face of backlash from agencies and professionals who have been in this industry for decades and do not feel that it is necessary or appropriate.  So there are going to be more changes and we are expecting to see these most in clinical negligence claims and disease claims, which is where the focus is likely to move once the Small Claims Track has been changed. 

As usual, we will keep our clients updated with any changes that affect them or their claim as soon as we become aware of them but if you have any questions about your claim and how it will progress, don’t hesitate to contact one of our expert lawyers who will be happy to discuss it with you and answer any questions.