Small Claims Court & County Councils

iFoodie

I've been reading an MSE article entitled Pothole Claims, How to Claim for Pothole Damage by Kelvin Goodson dated 26 May '23. At the very end, it includes as section on applying to the "small claims court". The moneyclaim website, however, says the service can't be used for claims against a government department. A County Council is a government body so logically the "small claims court" isn't an available avenue after all.

Or am I missing something?

DullGreyGuy

Yes you are, for one if you click on the link that has the list of Government Departments you'll see local council isnt listed as they aren't part of the Crown. 

Secondly MCO is only one of the mechanism to issue proceedings in the County Court and it is limited as to who you can issue on etc. Just because you cannot use MCO doesn't mean you cannot use other mechanisms. If you select Yes to the Government Department question the system instructs you to claim using the N1 paper form.

If it goes to Small Track (aka small claims), Fast Track or Multi-Track is decided after issuance and the defendant has logged their defence. If it's under £10k without injury it should go to Small Track but other factors can push it to a higher track. 

bris

Pot hole claims aren't easy to win these days, your chances are slim now as you have to now prove the council was aware of pothole and done nothing about it. In other words if the council was negligent.

Most councils have regular checks now and they keep a record of them, so if there was no record of it then it will be noted in the report and the claim will fail, if it was noted and not fixed within reasonable time then you have a case.

Your insurance will cover it though.

 

iFoodie

Thanks for your input; much appreciated.