Small Claims Court. I'm in England but the company is based in Scotland, which court do I use?

Retro_UK

 Hi there. I'm trying to make a claim against a company but have found that there are separate claims courts for Scotland and England. I want to make sure I go through the process as simply as possible, but I'm not sure if I go with the Scottish court or the U.K one?

 The company is based in Scotland but I live in England. Thanks for any advice. 

DullGreyGuy

Need to look at the terms of any agreement you made with them, it should hopefully address the matter of legal jurisdiction. If it doesnt then it somewhat comes down to what you paid them for, where the activities occurred, if you are a consumer or business in the transaction etc.

There is no "UK" law, there is three:

• England & Wales
• Scotland
• N.Ireland

user1977

Retro_UK said:

or the U.K one?

There isn't a "UK one", that's your problem!

Retro_UK

Thanks for the replies. I did make a mistake later in the post, but just to clarify, I did point out in the first sentence that I knew there were separate courts for Scotland and England. It was purely a slip of the "tongue" when I said U.K later on. 

brianposter

Is the amount over £750 which would permit you to make a winding-up petition in Scotland ?

eskbanker

brianposter said:

Is the amount over £750 which would permit you to make a winding-up petition in Scotland ?

That might ultimately be possible but there are many steps to go through first and there's no reason to infer from OP that it's anywhere near that stage, given that no claim has even been started yet!

You can apply to the court to 'wind up' a company if both:

• it cannot pay its debts of more than £750
• you've taken the necessary steps to demand settlement and enforce payment

https://www.mygov.scot/wind-up-company

You'll normally instruct a solicitor to prepare and submit the winding-up petition. You must be able to:

• prove the company owes more than £750 (to one or more creditors)
• prove the company cannot repay what they owe

You can prove that a company cannot pay its debts using any of these reasons:

• the company does not comply with a 'statutory demand' served on behalf of a creditor owed over £750 within 3 weeks
• a creditor obtains judgment against the company and there are not enough assets or funds to clear the debt (the ‘execution is unsatisfied’)
• the company cannot pay its debts when they are due
• the company's total debts are more than its total assets

https://www.mygov.scot/wind-up-company/before-you-petition-the-court

brianposter

Looks like lawyers have managed to "get at" the whole procedure since I used it forty years ago. It was then simple, straightforward and effective.