Bell rings for round 25

The 25th update of the civil court rules may not be the most captivating reading, but District Judge Michael Walker says there are gems to be found in the small printThe latest Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR) update brings two significant developments: the introduction of Money Claims Online (MCO) - of fundamental importance to every practitioner - and the sixth pre-action protocol which relates to judicial review proceedings.Save for the new protocol, which takes effect on 4 March 2002, everything is already in force.Claiming the cyber wayThis is cutting-edge stuff, referred to as the first use by government of third generation Internet technology.

Anyone with access to the Internet - and that includes using a terminal in a library - will be able to issue a claim electronically, provided:l The claim is only for a specified sum, less than 100,000, in sterling and brought using the CPR, part 7 procedure;l The claimant is not 'fees exempt' and can pay the issue fee by credit or debit card;l The claimant is not a child or patient, or publicly-funded by the Legal Services Commission (LSC);l There is a single defendant, or two defendants if the claim is for a single amount against each of them;l The defendant is not the Crown, a child or a patient; and,l The defendant's address for service is within England and Wales.How to do itVisit the Court Service Web site at: www.courtservice.gov.uk/mcol.

A series of screens takes the reader step-by-step through the issue of the claim.

It is even possible to abort the exercise half way through, attend to that urgent injunction and then go back later to issuing the claim.

But one trap will catch the prolix.

The particulars of claim must be limited to not more than 1,080 characters, including spaces.

The reason for the limitation is that MCO is a bolt-on to the existing production centre at Northampton and therefore inherits the latter's limitations.What happens next?Northampton County Court, which is where the claim is issued, will serve a printed form of the claim form on the defendant and send out a notice of issue by post to the claimant.The claim form is then deemed to be served on the fifth day after the claim was issued irrespective of whether that day is a business day or not.To show that no favours apply, the defendant can himself use the system.

He can file an acknowledgment of service in writing on form N9, or he can acknowledge by telephoning the help desk (0845 6015935) or by sending an e-mail to: customerservice.mcol@courtservice.gsi.gov.uk.If the claim is defended, the defendant can file a defence at Northampton either by post or otherwise to the court office or, provided there is no counterclaim, by sending it via e-mail to the same address.Statement of truth The MCO practice direction at paragraph 8.3 says that the requirements of rule 22.6 are met if the person making the statement types his name underneath the statement of truth in an on-line claim form or a defence filed by e-mail.Having issued on-line, the claimant can apply for judgment either in default or where there is an admission of the whole of the claim by sending an on-line request form - a warrant of execution can be similarly requested.If the claim is defended, or there is an application to set aside judgment, or if a judge has to determine the time and rate of payment or if an application needs to be listed for hearing then, whichever event applies and assuming that the defendant is an individual, the court will transfer the claim to the defendant's home court - unless of course it is Northampton County Court anyway.

If the defendant is not an individual, transfer will normally be to the court for the district in which the claimant's address for service is situated.

This, as with much of MCO, replicates what happens at the moment at Northampton.One big advantage with MCO is that the Court Service will provide a facility for claimants to view an electronic record of the status of claims started using MCO.

The record will be updated daily for as long as the MCO system retains the case.So no more waiting for harassed court staff to answer the telephone and then receiving inaccurate information because the court file is not up to date.

All it will take is for you to enter a password and access your cases.MCO is the Court Service's first pilot of the modern technology now available.

It heralds much yet to come.

So get some hands-on experience.

Even if your practice does not deal with debt collection work what about those claims for outstanding costs? Just right for MCO.Reviewing - thepre-action protocol This follows a now familiar path of draft letters before claim and response with some helpful hints and addresses.However, the protocol cannot amend the time limit specified in CPR rule 54.5(1) requiring that any claim for judicial review must be filed no later than three months after the grounds to make the claim first arose.So, the defendant is only given 14 days to respond, even if that is to ask for further time to send a substantive reply.

Anyone going down the judicial review route, or anyone advising public bodies in the firing line, needs to give the protocol a careful read.

There are no excuses - the protocol only runs to eight pages and does not come into force for another two months.Other changes include:l A revised paragraph 1.5 is added retrospectively to practice direction 55 (relating to claims for possession) to make it clear that the prescribed forms for either issue or defence must be used.

This corrects an earlier drafting error which left open the possibility of individual creativity when drafting either a possession claim or defence.l Some changes are merely cosmetic, bringing the published material up-to-date with some of the recent changes or removing previous printers' notes.

Those affected are practice direction 4 (forms), practice direction 8B (part 8 claims), part 55 and practice direction 55 (possession claims), part 56 and practice direction 56 (landlord and tenant), part 57 and practice direction 57 (probate claims) as well as numerous forms which previously had been over-printed 'Embargoed until 15 October 2001'.l Those arranging telephone conferences must ensure that the telecommunications provider is capable of connecting the parties and the court.

That seemed pretty obvious, but practice direction 23, paragraph 6.5(1) now expressly so provides.l Practice direction 49B, dealing, among other things, with the Companies Act 1985, is amended to include several references to part VII of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FISMA).

A new paragraph 3A deals with applications under part VII of FISMA, all of which must be issued using the part 8 procedure, assigned to the Chancery Division and allocated to the multi-track.l The pre-action protocol for the resolution of clinical disputes now contains a reference to the LSC information booklet on 'Alternatives to Court' which lists a number of organisations that provide alternative dispute resolution services.l Three forms (the N150 allocation questionnaire, the N161A guidance on completing the appellant's notice and the N260 statement of costs for use in summary assessments) are reprinted in their new format which has been in use for some while.

The reprinting of the N260 acts as a timely reminder that there are four categories of fee-earners.District Judge Walker sits at Wandsworth County Court and is a contributor to Jordan's Civil Court Service