Should I sue someone?

This guide is for you if:

• you are thinking about suing someone (taking someone to court) in either England or Wales, and
• your case involves a claim for £25,000 or less, and
• you are representing yourself without the help of a lawyer (you are a litigant in person).

This guide is also for people supporting litigants in person, for example Support Through Court volunteers, CAB volunteers, and advice workers, as well as relatives and friends.

It is not for you if you are involved in:

• a criminal case,
• a family case (such as an application for a domestic violence injunction or a divorce),
• a housing disrepair or housing possession case including mortgage possession,
• injunctions (including court claims about anti-social behaviour),
• a medical accident case,
• a case involving defamation (that is libel or slander) or
• a tribunal case (such as a discrimination, employment or immigration case).

Sometimes going to court is likely to be your best or only option, for example:

• if your home or health or safety is at risk - you may need an urgent solution, one that only a court can provide; or
• When solving the problem in other ways is not possible or has failed - see How to sort out your legal problem before or instead of going to court.

However it is important to understand that starting legal proceedings (the law calls this ‘litigation’) can be risky, unpredictable, expensive, and surprisingly formal. There will be lots of forms to fill in, and a strict court timetable to follow. The process is likely to be stressful and time-consuming, and may take a long time to conclude.

We hope this guide will give you the information you need to decide whether or not suing someone might be worth your time, money and effort. 

Top tip

Have a look at our overview of the process to get an overview of what a typical case might look like and at our at-a-glance summary table.

Can you spare a few minutes?

We would be grateful if you could tell us what you think of this information by completing our Feedback survey. We will use your feedback to improve our guides, inform our future work and seek funding.

January 2022

‘I was leaving the office, when I tripped over a cable and fell, breaking my leg and injuring my wrist. The cleaner had left a vacuum cleaner cable plugged in a waist high socket, trailing across the corridor and I hadn’t seen it. I ws off work for a long time. As well as the pain, I couldn’t play with my children, clean the house, go to the gym, and worst of all I had to cancel our holiday. On top of that, I lost three months wages, and had to pay for extra childcare, cab fares, and new clothes to go over the plaster. I was in pain, miserable and seriously out of pocket. My boss said it was my fault for not looking where I was going, but my friend said that I should take them to court and get compensation. I don’t know what my chances are or if it’s worth the effort …’

In this section we explain the main things you need to understand to get to grips with the idea of suing someone.

Civil courts

A civil court is a court which deals with claims between people, or between people and organisations. They deal with hundreds of thousands of legal disputes each year when one person or organisation claims that another person or organisation has done something wrong which has caused injury, damage, financial loss, or expense.

This guide focuses on the sort of disputes where the person bringing the claim wants the court to order the wrongdoer to pay compensation. Financial compensation awarded or agreed in court proceedings is often called ‘damages’.

There are different types of civil courts. The civil court that most people will come across is the county court. There is also the high court, but that deals with the most serious civil claims, generally ones worth over £50,000 for personal injury claims, or over £100,000 for other claims, or claims that are legally very complex. This guide focuses on everyday civil claims in the county court.

We talk about the court ‘doing’ things in this guide. For example, the court may ‘send’ out a form or ‘make’ a decision. You may be more used to thinking of the court as a place - a building. But ‘the court’ is often used as shorthand to refer to the people working in the court, whether they are a judge or other court staff. This is similar to how we might talk about schools or hospitals. For example, ‘the hospital made me an appointment’ or’ the school sent me a letter’.

Types of claim

A  civil court can only deal with a dispute if there is a legal problem, with a legal solution.

The most common types of legal problem that you might take someone to court over are broken contracts, being owed money,  and because you were injured. For example, a builder not finishing the work they agreed to, being owed money for work that you did and haven’t been paid for, or if you were hurt in an accident that wasn't your fault.

The most common legal solution is asking the court to award an amount of money as compensation.

The main types of legal claim that we cover in this guide are listed below. It is important to work out which type your problem comes under as different types of claim may have different rules:

Breach of contract claim

A ‘breach of contract’ claim is when someone or an organisation breaks a legal agreement you have with them, and you suffer a loss. A legal agreement doesn’t have to be in writing, it can be a verbal agreement (also called an oral agreement). In a claim over a debt or consumer problem, you must show that someone broke the contract that they had with you, for example an agreement with a shop for them to provide you with goods but they failed to deliver the goods after you had paid for them.

Negligence or breach of duty claim

‘Negligence’ is a legal term for carelessness - a failure to behave with the level of care and duty that most people would expect. For example, if your neighbour’s builders are careless and drop a roof tile on your car. In this type of claim you have to show that someone has failed to exercise the level of care and skill that a reasonable person would have done, and that you suffered loss as a result.

Some claims can be both breach of contract and breach of duty.

Personal injury (including road traffic accidents) claim

Help us to help more people like you

We rely on donations to help us keep guides like this up to date and available when people need them. We are beginning to have to charge for some of our guides to enable our service to survive – but we’d much rather not.

MAKE A DONATION

'Cause of action'

You can only win a case and get compensation if you can prove that someone has done, or indeed not done, something which they should or shouldn’t have done under the law. For example, they broke a contract they had with you, or they acted in a way which was negligent and that caused you to suffer loss - this is caused a ‘cause of action’.

Below we give some examples of the different types of claims covered in this series of guides.

Breach of contract example:
Katrina wants her laptop repaired before she moves in three weeks’ time. She agrees to pay £200 upfront, but only on condition that the repair is carried out within that time, as it will be no use later. The engineer fails to carry out the repair by the agreed date, and though he returns the unrepaired laptop, he refuses to repay the £200. The engineer has broken the contract he made with Katrina by not carrying out the repair in the agreed time so Katrina has a cause of action.

Personal injury negligence examples:

1. SSam was walking around his local supermarket when he slipped on a puddle of milk on the floor. Sam is likely to have a cause of action in negligence against the supermarket as they have failed to ensure that the shop floor was safe for Sam to walk on, and / or they failed to provide reasonable warning of the spillage. As a result of his fall, Sam suffered a broken arm for which he brings a claim for compensation against the supermarket. 

2. Josie was standing outside her flat when the door slammed and she was locked out. She decided not to wait for her flatmate to get home, but to climb over the balcony to next door’s flat. While attempting this she fell to the ground breaking her leg. Josie has no cause of action because she has no one except herself to blame for the accident. Her rights have not been breached by someone else.

Negligence without personal injury:
Mona’s neighbour had his front garden re-concreted. The builders set up their concrete mixer close to where Mona had parked her new car. When she got home it was dark, and it wasn't till the next day that she saw that her car was spattered with concrete. By then it wouldn't wash off. It cost over £1,200 to get the car's paintwork sorted. Mona has a cause of action because the builders didn’t take a reasonable level of care to avoid damaging her car.

Quick check - is your problem a legal problem?

Was your problem caused because someone else:

• breached your legal rights by their negligence and/or,
• breached a contract they had with you; and
• you suffered injury, damage, loss or expense as a result?

If so, it is likely that you have a cause of action and that your problem is a legal problem.

This is an important question.  Take time to think, perhaps in discussion with your family or friends, what it is that you want to get out of taking legal action.

Taking someone to court is unlikely to help if you want an apology, or an explanation for what happened to you, or a promise that it won’t happen to anyone else. For the sorts of cases covered in this guide you are more likely to get money compensation.

Court rules and previously decided cases (called ‘precedents’) govern how much compensation can actually be awarded. Unlike some other countries, the courts of England and Wales do not award ‘punitive damages’, that is compensation that punishes the wrongdoer.

Quick check - Can the law give you what you want?

Do you want compensation? If so, the law may be able to give you what you want. But if not see What are the alternatives?.

In the past most claimants instructed a solicitor to manage their whole case for them. This can be very expensive. But legal aid was available for many people who couldn’t afford to pay for a solicitor on their own. Cuts and changes to legal aid now mean that the majority of claimants can’t afford a solicitor. In this section we set out some of the things you may have to pay for when taking someone to court as a litigant in person, together with any help available to meet those costs.

Court fees

You have to pay a court fee (called the issue fee) to start your court case, and further fees for any application to the court or for the hearing (trial). The issue fee varies depending how much your case is worth, and ranges from about £35 for a claim under £300 to many hundreds of pounds for higher value claims. You can check the exact amount in leaflet EX50 Civil and family court fees

Help with fees

You may be able to get help to pay the court fees if you are on benefits or a low income and with little in the way of savings. You can find out more in Get help paying court and tribunal fees and another guide in this series Things you need to know about court procedure before you sue.

Legal advice

Some solicitors still offer a limited amount of free advice, perhaps half an hour or an hour. It’s always worth ringing a solicitor to see if they offer this. There are also other ways of using a lawyer which can help you manage the costs:

Unbundling - pay as you go and fixed fee

In recent years some solicitors have started working in a new way, called ‘unbundling,’ where they will do some agreed part of the work - perhaps advising you on what evidence you need, and putting it together for you - but not the whole case. You have to agree with the solicitor who is responsible for what, where their task ends and yours begins. This will be cheaper than asking a solicitor to manage the whole case. It’s a bit like building work, where you agree that the builder will quote for the plumbing and wiring, and you will do the plastering and decorating. 

'No win no fee' - Conditional Fee Agreement

You may want to consider a conditional fee agreement (CFA) - commonly called ‘no win no fee’. There are pros and cons to conditional fee agreements – discuss the details with your lawyer before you commit. In particular, you are likely only to be able to get a conditional fee agreement for a claim which is not a small claim – that is, one worth over £10,000, or a personal injury claim where the personal injury element is worth over £1,000. (unless the injuries were caused by a car accident that happened on or after 31st May 2021 – see How to make a small claim about injuries caused by a car accident for more detail about what counts as a small claim.)

This is because conditional fee agreement providers make their money from getting back the legal costs from the other side if you win, or sometimes from your damages. In a small claim, they don’t get legal costs. For more information see 'No win, no fee'.

After the event insurance

There is also a form of insurance called ‘after the event’ insurance, known as ATE insurance, which you may be asked to get as part of a conditional fee arrangement. We usually buy insurance before things go wrong but with this kind of insurance you buy it after the event (your accident or other problem) happened, generally near the beginning of starting a claim. It is available for the sorts of cases which are more valuable than small claims, that is worth over £10,000 or personal injury cases where the personal injury element is worth over £1,000 (unless the injuries were caused by a car accident that happened on or after 31st May 2021 – see How to make a small claim about injuries caused by a car accident), and where the claimant has a good chance of success, so that the after the event insurance provider gets back their legal costs from the other side.

Legal expenses insurance

If you have house insurance (building or contents) or car insurance, your policy may include legal cover which could help to cover the cost of your claim. It is always worth checking your insurance if you have it just to make sure.

Legal aid

Legal aid is a government scheme – a means tested benefit to help you to pay for legal advice and help and representation. Sometimes it can also pay for things like an expert’s opinion or court fees.

The rules about who can get legal aid and what for changed in 2013. But some people can still get legal aid. For example, if you are bringing a claim for a person who is incapable of managing their affairs (perhaps because of dementia) or is under 18 (perhaps your 10-year-old has been injured), you may be able to get legal aid. Before you decide to take action alone, find out if you can get legal aid to pay for a lawyer to help you.

Unions

If you are a member of a trade union, you may be able to get help for some types of claim, particularly if it is work-related, such as an accident at work.

Charities

Some charities offer free legal advice or can signpost you to another organisation who can provide this.

McKenzie friend

'McKenzie friend' is the name for someone who can encourage and help you in court if you don't have a lawyer. Many do this for free, for example, a family member or a volunteer from a charity, but others charge for their services. See Legal Choices for more information about the pros and cons of using a McKenzie friend.  

Legal costs

Legal costs include things like court fees, the cost of expert reports, and if the other side is using a lawyer, what they charge for their work. For some types of claim you risk having to pay the other side’s costs if you lose.

How much you risk having to pay will depend on whether your case is treated as a ‘small claim’ or a ‘fast track’ claim.  Costs will be very limited if it is a small claim, but could be many thousands of pounds if it is a non-personal injury fast track claim. See Legal costs and who pays them for more information.

Quick check - what will it cost?

Do you understand how much you may have to pay for:

• fees,
• legal advice, and
• legal costs?

Can you afford it? If not, it is worth checking out How to sort out your legal problem before or instead of going to court.

As Sam found out, there are rules about how long you can wait before starting a claim. There are time limits which the law calls ‘limitation periods’. There are only two limitation periods for the type of cases in this guide, and they are both quite long – three years for personal injury and six years for everything else, but there are some exceptions which give extra time if you are in a particular situation. For more detailed information see Time limits for suing someone.

Quick check - am I in time?

If you bring a claim, you have to prove that the other person is legally at fault. You need to have a set of facts which are enough to justify a right to compensation or to enforce a right. This is called ‘having a cause of action’. You will also have to prove how much your case is worth.

There are two parts to what you have to prove in a civil claim:

Liability

‘Liability’ means proving that the problem is legally the defendant’s fault (they breached your legal rights or broke a contract with you).

It is irrelevant how badly injured you may be, or how much money you may have lost, if you can’t prove that is the defendant’s fault. 

Quantum

‘Quantum’ is the legal word for how much your claim is worth. You have to prove your claim is worth the amount you say it is.

If the defendant is liable, the value of damages (quantum) has to be assessed. This is how much your claim is worth. If you have lost nothing and are just annoyed, there is probably no point in taking the matter to court.

Quantum is assessed differently in different sorts of claims. We explain what you can claim for in How to start a civil claim.

When you take someone to court, it is your job to prove your claim, so you have to produce all the evidence to support it.

You will need evidence that proves that that the problem is the defendant’s fault, and also evidence about the value of your claim.

If your claim is for breach of contract, you will also need to have evidence to show how the contract came about, what it was for, and how it was broken (breached).

In Joe’s case the evidence he needs might include his estimate for the work, something to show that the customer accepted the estimate, the photographs he took showing the fitted carpet with no damage to the paintwork, a copy of his invoice and his email chasing the payment.

Keep your evidence in a safe place. If the case does go to trial a judge will only decide the case on the evidence available.

You can find out more about evidence and the type of evidence you will need to prove liability and quantum in Evidence needed to sue someone .  

Jane needs to check the publication ‘Guidelines for the Assessment of General Damages in Personal Injury Claims’ which will help her value the injury element of her claim. 

She will be able to claim for her net loss of earnings, holiday cancellation cost, reasonable cab fares and a limited amount for clothes to go over her plaster. She will need to produce receipts for everything. She is likely to lose a percentage of the value of her claim, perhaps 25 per cent or one third, or up to a half depending on the circumstances, as the accident was partly her fault for not looking where she was going.

You may think you should get a large amount of compensation for what has happened to you. But this may be unrealistic. Like Maria, any possible award may be considerably lower than what you were hoping for and may involve you paying unexpected legal costs.

As the court’s main remedy is money compensation, it is essential that you do your best to calculate what your claim is worth carefully, both for negotiating early on, and for court proceedings.

The value of a claim is assessed differently for different sorts of claims.

For a breach of contract claim, the aim of any compensation is to put you in the financial position you would have been in if the breach hadn’t happened. You will not get compensation for distress or upset unless the contract is one aimed at pleasure – so if a dry cleaner loses your curtains, you will only get the value of the curtains.  If a photographer loses your wedding photos, you will get some compensation for the distress.

For a personal injury claim, you will get compensation for the injury itself as well as the financial losses and expenses which you have had to incur as a result of the accident.

Sometimes claimants lose a percentage of compensation because of their own behaviour.  For example, if you are injured in a car accident which was totally the other driver’s fault, you may lose a percentage of the compensation if you weren’t wearing a seatbelt.

There is more information about how to value your claim in another guide in this series How to start a civil claim.

You need to take account of your opponent’s attitude to solving the problem because if they are not willing to negotiate or go to mediation you cannot force them to do so. But the law now says you have to make every effort to exchange information and communicate and negotiate before starting a case or the court may apply sanctions.

There are court rules to encourage this, called ‘pre-action conduct’ and ‘pre-action protocols’. For more information about these rules see another guide in this series Things you need to know about court procedure before you sue. So, it is important to keep a full record of attempts you make to resolve your case without taking the matter to court. The court sanctions include incentives for the defendant to co-operate in trying to settle too.

Many defendants will take their lead from how you organise and run your case. If you write and chase up in a business-like way if they don’t reply promptly, they will often become more responsive. If you write, but don’t chase for three months when they don’t reply, they will often continue to employ delaying tactics. The more efficiently you manage your own case, the more likely it is that your opponent (especially that is, if they are a reasonably managed organisation, rather than a disorganised individual) will be willing to negotiate.

1. You can’t prove liability

There’s a big risk that you might lose if you cannot convince the judge that the problem is legally the defendant’s fault.

2. You end up paying the other side’s legal costs as well as your own

If you lose the case, there is a risk in some types of cases that you will be ordered to pay the other side’s legal costs. If it is a small claim and you lose, you will only be ordered to pay the first £95 of any travel and witness expenses unless the Court thinks you have been really unreasonable. But it could be many thousands of pounds if it is a non-personal injury fast track claim. You can find more information about legal costs in another guide in this series Legal costs and who pays them.

3. You don’t get the compensation you are awarded

Although Manny won his case, his neighbour may not pay, either because she won’t or she can’t. Manny would have to spend more money to take ‘enforcement action’. Enforcement action is what the law calls the legal steps you may need to take to actually get the money the court awards you. Enforcement action doesn’t always work. For example, the person you have taken to court may simply not have the money, or they may move away and you are unable to track them down.

Before you begin the process of taking someone to court, it’s important to check whether your opponent has money or assets that they can use to pay you with. You can find more information about how to do this in another guide in this series Find out if the defendant is worth suing.

What are my chances of success?

When weighing up your chances of success ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I have a legal cause of action which is in time?
• Can I prove someone else is at fault or mostly at fault?
• Can I prove how much my claim is worth?
• Is it possible that the court will decide that what happened was partly my fault?
• Does any potential deduction from the value of my claim make it less worth pursuing?
•  Is the defendant likely to be able to pay any compensation the court awards me?
• If the defendant doesn’t pay me voluntarily, how likely is it that any enforcement action I take will be successful?
• Can I afford the cost of bringing a claim?
• If I lose, can I afford to pay all or part of the defendant’s costs (which will include the costs of any lawyers they use if it is not a small claim)?
• Given that my case is likely to take between twelve and eitghteen months from start to the final hearing, is this something I really want to do?  (Small claims dealt with via the online money claim system may be substantially quicker, even where they do go all the way to a trial. Nearly half of small claims are now settled via mediation which makes them substantially quicker – usually within two months of starting proceedings).

If you decide that you want to go ahead and take legal action, consider getting legal advice if you possibly can to see if a lawyer agrees that you have a legal cause of action, that your chances of success are reasonable, that you have valued your claim correctly and that your opponent will be able to pay you if you win. You can find more information about where to get legal advice in the section on What will it cost?

Although Afzal’s claim is important to him it isn’t worth a lot of money even though he had a lot of annoyance and disruption to put up with. He could have taken them to court, but the cost and risks of claiming make this type of case ideal for alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

There are a number of different ways of resolving a dispute without going to court:

• As in Afzal’s case, some traders belong to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes.
• Depending on the type of claim, if you have insurance it may be quicker and easier to claim on that.
• If it is a problem with goods or services, and you paid by credit card, you may be able to make a claim for a refund under s75 Consumer Credit Act.
• If it is a problem with goods or services, and you paid by debit card, you may be able to make a ‘chargeback’ claim under the Consumer Credit Act.
• There may be an ombudsman who can help sort out your problem.

For more detailed information on alternative ways to resolve a dispute see Sort out your legal problem before or instead of going to court

Deciding to do nothing is different from not doing anything because you cannot decide what to do. If you look at the situation you are in and decide to take no action at all, as long as nothing bad is likely to happen as a result, this may be the best outcome for you. It’s a definite decision that may also be a great relief. However, get advice if you can before deciding to do nothing if your problem is urgent or has to do with threats to your home, livelihood, health or safety.

Now that you have asked yourself the key questions you should have a better idea about whether or not to takle someone to court. If you want to begin the process please read the rest of the guides in this series - a good place to start is Who to sue?.

If you want to try a different approach see How to sort out your legal problem before or instead of going to court.

If you have decided to do nothing, hopefully you are happy that your decision is an informed one.

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) – a range of options for resolving disputes, often without going to court.

Assets – money and savings and other valuable items which could be sold to pay debts, for example, a house, flat, jewellery or car.

Cause of action – having a legal case you can start a claim about.

Civil court – a court, usually a county court, where you can bring a claim for financial compensation against someone who has wrongly caused you loss, damage or injury.

Civil claim – a non-criminal legal case against an individual or a company for compensation and/or to assert a particular legal right.

Claimant – person or organisation who starts the case.

Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) – these used to be known as ‘no win no fee’ agreements. You only pay the lawyer’s fees and expenses in certain circumstances – usually if you win, out of your compensation.

Damage – this is when you have suffered some sort of loss or harm – it is very confusing that this word is so similar to ‘damages’ which is used to mean money compensation.

Damages – the name for money compensation awarded by the court (and see Damage above).

Defendant - person or organisation the case is brought against.

Duty of care – when someone has a legal responsibility to take a reasonable level of care to protect you from foreseeable harm.

Fast track – the processes and procedures the court applies for cases worth between £10,000 and £25,000.  Cases involving personal injury where you are claiming over £1,000 for the personal injury part of your claim but the overall amount is under £25,000 also follow the fast track, as do housing disrepair claims where the cost of repairs is over £1,000, but the overall amount is under £25,000.

Issue of proceedings – the formal start to the court proceedings.

Judgment in default – when the defendant has failed to file a defence in time, the claimant can ask the court to enter judgment (you have to fill in a form and send it to the court).

Liability – proving fault.

Litigant in person – a person bringing or defending a claim without a solicitor or barrister.

Litigation – the process of going to court.

McKenzie friend – the name for someone who can support and help you in court, for example, by taking notes or quietly giving you advice, but cannot speak for you.

Mediation – a way of helping you and your opponent try to find your own way of solving the problem.

Negligence – negligence is when someone or an organisation owes you a duty of care, they have broken the duty of care, and you have suffered foreseeable injury or damage as a result. 

Other side – an everyday phrase used to talk about the defendant and their legal representatives if you’re the claimant, and the claimant if you’re the defendant.

Parties – the names for all the claimants and defendants in a case.

Personal injury – when you have suffered the sort of harm which leaves you with a physical or mental injury.

Pre-action – before court proceedings start.

Pre-action conduct – official rules setting out how you should behave before you issue a claim.

Pre-action protocol – an official procedure explaining what you have to do before court proceedings start in some sorts of cases.

Precedents – decisions in past cases which are used by courts to help them make decisions now, for example, on liability, and also quantum.

Quantum – the amount of compensation your claim is worth.

Settle – this means finishing your case without a trial, usually by reaching an agreement with the other side.  

Small claims – A small claim is one where the claim is worth under £10,000. (This is except for a personal injury claim where the overall value is under £10,000 and the personal injury element is worth under £1,000, or under £5000 if injuries were caused by a car accident that happened on or after 31st May 2021, or a housing disrepair claim where the overall amount is under £10,000 and the cost of the repairs is under £1,000.) In a small claim the court processes and procedures are more informal, and if you win or lose the costs you get back or have to pay are very limited. 

Trial – the final hearing which takes place in front of a judge who decides who wins and who loses the case.

Disclaimer

The information in this guide applies to England and Wales only. The law may be different if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland. The law is complicated. We have simplified things in this guide. Please don’t rely on this guide as a complete statement of the law. We recommend you try and get advice from the sources we have suggested.

The cases we refer to are not always real but show a typical situation. We have included them to help you think about how to deal with your own situation.

Acknowledgements

This guide was produced by Law for Life's Advicenow project. We would like to thank everyone who has commented or helped with the guide, especially Mr Christopher Field, Solicitor and Higher Courts Advocate (Civil) for peer reviewing it.

This update of this guide in 2022 was supported by the Ministry of Justice and The Access to Justice Foundation through the Legal Support for Litigants in Person grant.

 

Can you spare a few minutes?

We would be grateful if you could tell us what you think of this information by completing our Feedback survey. We will use your feedback to improve our guides, inform our future work and seek funding.