What should I do if I receive a County Court claim form?

You can either admit the claim by completing the Admission form or dispute the claim by completing a Defence and Counterclaim form. You must not ignore these documents or your creditor could ask the court for a Judgement by default. This could mean paying the outstanding balance in full in addition to any court costs.

If you admit the claim, you will be asked to complete an income and expenditure section (to determine how much you have available to offer to your creditors each month after essential living costs have been accounted for) along with details of all your priority debts and credit debts.

You will then be able to calculate an affordably monthly offer of repayment based on a pro-rata formula, which apportions payments as fairly as possible so that each debt is paid off at the same time and no creditor is given preference, is as follows:

(Claimant debt / total credit debt) x available monthly surplus = monthly claimant offer of repayment

So, for example, if the total debt owed to the claimant accounted for half of you total credit debts, then it would receive half of the amount you have available to give to creditors each month.

Debt Advice Foundation is a registered UK charity offering free, confidential support and advice on any aspect of debt, including County Court Judgements. If you need to talk to someone about CCJs or would like general debt advice, please call 0800 043 40 50 to speak to an adviser.