On the 4 April 2022 the new digital county court system for issuing became mandatory for use for certain types of personal injury claims. HMCTS have indicated that there will be a period of grace to 29 April 2022 where the paper system can still be used.

Following on from the last webinar which attracted a huge number of questions, join Brett Dixon, who is the only practitioner member of the Damages Committee, and John McQuater, APIL Secretary in a special two hour webinar to look at the practical aspects of using the system, and look at the issues raised by the questions at the last session:

• Understanding scope
  • What is in and what is out
  • When will the scope be extended
  • Welsh language cases
  • Children and protected parties
  • Foreign vehicles and address for service issues
  • The overlap with PD51R – Online Civil Money Claims
• Dealing with the Defendant
  • What to ask
  • When to ask
  • Dealing with lack of cooperation 
• Document issues
  • What can you upload?
  • Scanned PDFs – statements of truth etc
  • Amending claim forms before notification/service – coming out of the system
• Interacting with the system
  • Email alerts
  • Supervision of fee earners
  • Email addresses used
• Notification
  • Is it service?
  • Provision of information in relation to the defendant
  • Do you have to do it? Issuing and not serving/notifying – how do you choose to do that?
• Other sources of information
  • YouTube
  • APIL hosted webinars
  • HMCTS factsheets
• What happens after you have issued?
  • Unrepresented defendants
  • Claim forms that lapse – automatic strike out – QOCS and costs implications
  • Can you add in solicitor service details received after issue and before notification/service?
  • Costs budgeting provisions
  • Once you are out you are out – no hokey cokey!
  • Communication with the defendant
  • Dealing with multiple defendants – one in and one out?
• General issues
  • Why not just use ce-file?
  • Guarding against wrong email addresses – setting aside judgment
  • Fee remissions
  • Wrong court fees entered – who is responsible?
  • Defendants who do not want to use the system - before and after defendant mandation
• Future steps
  • Default judgment
  • Applications
  • Expansion of scope
  • Fee remissions
• Training and systems
  • Who issues?
  • Use of proformas 
  • Complying with deadlines

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If you missed the live session, you can purchase a recording of the previous webinar by clicking the link below:
Issuing proceedings in the County Court: 
The new digital system, the demise of paper and avoiding negligence claims and other pitfalls