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I filed an MCOL against BA back in November 2021 and after BA rejected the claim, I asked for it to go to court.
That was on 6th Jan 2022.
I am still waiting for a court date to be set.
I appreciate there is a long backlog after COVID, but does anyone know how long I am likely to wait?
When you say you asked for the claim to go to Court, do you mean you have filed a claim at MCOL? Obviously BA won’t do this for you. Has BA filed its Defence and have you both filed Directions Questionnaires? If your case has been started at the County Court Business Centre, they are taking about a month to process DQs but if you lodged a claim with MCOL on 6 Jan, it looks like something has gone wrong.
OP says it was 2022! Is there no way of accessing the case online to view if any progress has been made?
OP says it was 2022! Is there no way of accessing the case online to view if any progress has been made?
Yes, the case can be accessed online if it was made online, until it gets transferred to a local court. The post sort of reads that they were expecting BA to file the claim for them!
Apologies for lack of clarity!
My claim was filed with and I have an MCOL case number that allows me to check up on progress online (www.moneyclaims.service.gov.uk/dashboard)
Currently my status is:
“Wait for the court to review the case
You’ve rejected defendant’s response and said you want to take the case to court.
The court will review the case. We’ll email you if we set a hearing date to tell you how to prepare.”
Apologies for lack of clarity!
My claim was filed with and I have an MCOL case number that allows me to check up on progress online (www.moneyclaims.service.gov.uk/dashboard)
Currently my status is:
“Wait for the court to review the case
You’ve rejected defendant’s response and said you want to take the case to court.
The court will review the case. We’ll email you if we set a hearing date to tell you how to prepare.”
It would appear that something has gone wrong then, as cases from this January are already being heard. Has the Court sent you the Form N180 Directions Questionnaire? That would normally be sent to you and BA as soon as they file their Defence (ie the court knows it will be contested). If neither your nor BA have served and filed a DQ, you either need to call the CCBC (be prepared for a very long wait) or simply file the form which you can find online and that will prompt some action, but it will take at least a month for them to process it. You must send it to CCBCAQ@justice.gov.uk and make sure you get a receipt which comes within an hour. You need to serve it on BA as well of course.
September update.
I emailed MCOL – no reply. I called their helpline, and settled down for a long wait. In fact I have called them 4 times, 3 times it took over 40 mins to get through even at 8:30 when they open.
Anyway, the first time I got through the lady checked the details and agreed that the delay was abnormal. She thought it was likely an IT error and filed an error report – Nothing happened for over a week so I called again to be told to allow 10 working days to get a response.
In addition I received an email asking if I would consider an alternative to a court hearing: “Small Claims Mediation Service” There is a form to fill in, full of loaded questions which seem designed to push claimants to mediate:
Do you agree that the small claims track is the appropriate track for this case? If not say why.
Do you consider that this claim is suitable for determination without a hearing? if not say why.
Does anyone have experience of the mediation process? Are BA likely to contest the mediation, or will they just drop out at the last minute as expected when faced with a court hearing?
@Aliks – the form you are being asked to complete is the N180 DQ/Directions Questionnaire that I referred to above on 31 July. They aren’t loaded questions!
You should tick yes to the mediation – BA will not agree and even if they did, if it doesn’t work, your claim continues to a hearing.Re the other questions you cite:-
Do you agree that the small claims track is the appropriate track for this case? If not say why.
This is asking whether you are satisfied that your case is simple enough to be considerable on that track. The answer is yes, or you leave the small claims costs regime.
Do you consider that this claim is suitable for determination without a hearing? if not say why.
There is now a presumption that many cases will be considered by a judge on the papers without any court hearing or attendance. Aviation cases are one such type. If you feel you need an actual hearing you need to give specific reasons. BA will probably agree to paper, as that’s much cheaper for them.
If you tick the box for an ‘on the papers decision’ and anything happens, you can ask for this to be changed (again needing to provide reasons) – see Practice Direction 51ZC(5).
Many thanks!
I’m sure I read on here that mediation will be the first line process for MCOL rather than going straight to a Judge,
Of course not all cases are suitable for mediation but many will be so it’s still something you should consider doing,
“I want my day in court” isn’t going to be a valid reason for refusing mediation.
One thing I would say is that having read numerous cases on here and e.g. flyer talk it seems to me that many cases could be resolved by mediation as often it seems that both parties are talking at cross purposes and not understanding each other and a mediator would be able to draw the issues out and resolve the case much sooner.
Many thanks!
When you return the DQ to the Court, you must also serve BA and advise the Court in the covering email that you have done so. BA will do likewise.
The pdf form is a bit cryptic in places. For example the very first field to be filled in just has the text
“In the”
and the space for signature doesnt allow pasting of a signature file – presumably they want claimants to print it out, sign in ink and then scan it back in.
For “In the” they are looking for the name of court, so In the County Court Business Centre (if it’s still there) or Liverpool County Court or wherever it has been transferred to. The court usually sends a pre-populated form to the claimant as nobody knows these things. Re electronic signature, I’m not sure why it isn’t working for you – may depend on source of form, but if it’s problem, then just scan and send.
I also filed with MCOL against BA in September 2021. My Additional Claims details were served. BA’s Defence was received. Both parties’ directions questionnaires were served.
The case was transferred to my local court, as I requested, according to the MCOL site. Then silence. I understand Covid made a mess for everyone. My local court said they had received nothing from MCOL and so there was nothing they could do. I received a generic auto response to my email to MCOL 2 weeks ago. I have the same experience phoning them – its somewhat similar to calling BA. Multiple hour long holds. No answer.
I also filed with MCOL against BA in September 2021. My Additional Claims details were served. BA’s Defence was received. Both parties’ directions questionnaires were served.
The case was transferred to my local court, as I requested, according to the MCOL site. Then silence. I understand Covid made a mess for everyone. My local court said they had received nothing from MCOL and so there was nothing they could do. I received a generic auto response to my email to MCOL 2 weeks ago. I have the same experience phoning them – its somewhat similar to calling BA. Multiple hour long holds. No answer.
CCBC, where I guess your case currently resides pending transfer, is at least a month behind in answering emails, so you may need to wait a while longer. It does seem as though some older claims are stuck in the system as more recent ones have been transferred, so hopefully your email may reboot the process. Unfortunately, in respect of any compensation you are claiming you probably won’t get any interest and on anything else BA will challenge it for the reasons they will have put in their Defence.
I received an update from CNBC that all my case documentation had been transferred to my local county court (as requested in the directions’ questionnaire) in 2021 and there is nothing more they can do.
My local county court claim no papers were received, and there is nothing more they can do.
So my options are either to start the claim again and explain in the particulars of claim it never proceeded last time due to the court losing the papers (not BA’s fault) or write it off. Given it’s now 3+ years later from the original event occurring giving rise to the claim, I’m currently inclined to forget it and move on.
Steps to take depend on how much effort you wish to make. Your local county court (if that’s definitely where it is supposed to have been transferred) is being remarkably unhelpful – they should be chasing the CCBC. You would need to write to them both (using the appropriate local court email and the CCBCAQ email address) and ask them to resolve the matter between them immediately. If they haven’t done so within five weeks, write to your local MP who will get the Ministry of Justice to sort the matter quite quickly. Another option, if you have all the documents – claim form, defence, any reply to the defence, both DQs plus anything else is to send those to your local court and ask what more they need. In all cases you must copy your BA legal interlocutor and note in the body of the email that you have done so.
The other option, particularly if you think you still have a strong case after seeing the defence, is to write to BA proposing a settlement on the basis of them not having to go through the process again.
I raised a formal complaint online about my local court losing all documentation, asking for either a refund of the court fee or the proceedings to be restarted.
I’ve received a response asking for copies of all court documents and proceedings will be restarted.
I have sent copies of all the documents, so we’ll see what happens. I’ll need to refresh my own memory of events. I created a full skeleton argument at the time of the initial claim time so hopefully it’s all in there.
A hearing date has been set following the court losing the original paperwork so the online complaint seems to have worked. I’ll need to look up civil procedure re bundles, pagination, evidence copies etc.
A hearing date has been set following the court losing the original paperwork so the online complaint seems to have worked. I’ll need to look up civil procedure re bundles, pagination, evidence copies etc.
Well done for getting the case back on track! Re bundles, obviously you need to comply with any Directions you have received and the CPR but the key is to make everything very easily findable for the judge. You have probably already done a chronology and you should also make an index of the documents, starting with the procedural ones, with all the page numbers. Also, in any final submissions/skeleton argument, any reference to a document should have the page reference in square brackets after it. Much of this isn’t conpuksory, but anything that makes your case easy to understand and the evidence easy to find will greatly assist your prospects.
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