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17 January 2023
Categories: Legal News , Procedure & practice , Damages , Technology
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LNB NEWS: HMCTS releases civil fact sheets on online damages and money claims

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has published fact sheets on the progress it has made in two civil court projects around the Damages Claims Portal (DCP) and the Online Civil Money Claims (OCMC) service. This is part of HMCTS’s programme to modernise the courts and tribunals system to improve accessibility and efficiency.

Lexis®Library update: Since its launch in May 2021 the DCP has issued more than 63,000 claims. The service allows claimant and defendant solicitors to issue and respond to claims through the portal.

By the end of 2023 the DCP aims to introduce the ability to:

• issue and respond to multi-party claims

• facilitate judges providing standard directions orders

• allow legal representatives to request and receive interim judgments

• allow legal representatives to issue a ‘general’ application, with respondents having the ability to reply and judges the ability to make an order

For more information on the DCP, see Practice Note: Damages claims pilot scheme—CPR PD 51ZB.

Since its launch in March 2018 the OCMC service has issued more than 330,000 claims. The project has sped up the claims process as settlements are now reached in an average of 24 calendar days.

By the end of 2023 the OCMC aims to:

• expand to allow legal representatives to issue and respond to claims up to £25,000 in value

• allow multiple users to issue and respond to claims

• allow the issuing of general applications

• introduce the ability to issue default judgments

For more information on the OCMC, see Practice Note: Online Civil Money Claims pilot scheme—CPR PD 51R.

Guidance on the HMCTS reform programme can be found here.

Source: HMCTS Reform: Civil fact sheets 

This content was first published by LNB News / Lexis®Library, a LexisNexis® company, on 16 January 2023 and is published with permission. Further information can be found at: www.lexisnexis.co.uk.

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