Accredited official statistics

Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly: April to June 2026

Published 3 September 2026

Applies to England and Wales

1. Main Points

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Increase in County Court claims, driven mostly by money claims	Compared to the same period in 2025, County Court claims from April to June 2026 were up 11% to 571,000. Of these, 495,000 (87%) were money claims (up 13%).
Damages claims were down 4% to 26,000	The decrease in damages claims was driven by a fall in personal damages claims and other damages claims (both down 4% to 11,000 and 15,000 respectively) compared to the same quarter in 2025.
The number of claims defended increased; while the number of trials decreased	There were 82,000 claims defended (up 15%) and 12,000 claims that went to trial in April to June 2026 (down 10%) compared to the same quarter in 2025.
Median time taken from claim to hearing has fallen for fast/intermediate/multi track; while the median time for small claims has risen	The median time taken for small claims to go to trial was 41.0 weeks in April to June 2026, 0.7 weeks longer than the same period in 2025. The median time taken for fast/intermediate/multi track claims to go to trial was 6.1 weeks faster than the same period last year, at 55.9 weeks in the current quarter.
Judgments were up 26% and default judgments were up 27%	Judgments were up 26% (to 368,000) in April to June 2026, compared to the same period in 2025; with 94% of these being default judgments.
Enforcement applications fell to 9,900 and orders fell to 8,500	Enforcement applications were down 7%, and enforcement orders were down 17% in April to June 2026 when compared to the same quarter in 2025.
Warrants issued increased to 73,000	Warrants issued were up 30% when compared to the same quarter in 2025.
1,300 judicial review applications	There were 1,300 applications for Judicial Reviews in Q2 2026, up 42% on Q2 2025.
There were two new applications for interim privacy injunction proceedings in the first half of 2026	There was one proceeding on whether to continue or amend an interim injunction, and one proceeding on whether to issue a final privacy injunction.

This publication gives Civil County Court and Judicial Review Statistics for the latest quarter (April to June 2026), compared to the same quarter in 2025. Should users wish to compare against earlier time periods, they can do so using the accompanying statistical tables.

This quarter’s publication also includes data on Privacy Injunctions considered during the first half of 2026. For more details, please see the supporting document.

Statistics on the Business and Property Court for England and Wales have also been published alongside this quarterly bulletin as Official Statistics. For technical detail, please refer to the accompanying support document.

A visualisation tool that provides further breakdowns of the Civil County Court cases in a web-based application can be found here. For general feedback on the tool and related content of this publication, please contact us at: CAJS@justice.gov.uk

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2. Statistician’s comment

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County court claims received, claims defended and judgments increased this quarter compared to the same quarter in 2025, with claims received and judgments both rising to the highest level since the start of the time series, and claims defended rising to the highest level since Q3 2009. Warrants issued continued to increase over the same period, after falling sharply in Q3 and Q4 2025. Warrants volumes are largely driven by bulk user behaviour and as such can fluctuate significantly. In contrast, allocations to track, claims gone to trial, enforcement-related applications and orders made decreased over the same period.

The median average time taken for fast/intermediate/multi track claims to reach trial continued to decrease this quarter, falling by 6.1 weeks compared to the same quarter in 2025. The median average time taken for small claims to reach trial rose by 0.7 weeks over the same period.

There were 1,300 judicial review applications received this quarter, up 42% on the previous year. This is the highest level since Q4 2015, driven by a rise in civil (other) and civil immigration and asylum applications.

This quarter also includes details of privacy injunctions in the High Court between January to June 2026. These can be found in section 9.

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3. Claims Summary

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County court claims were up 11% on the same quarter of 2025, driven mostly by money claims.

Non-money claim volumes were at 50,000, up 3% when compared to the same quarter in 2025.

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Figure 1: Quarterly County Court claims by type, Q2 (April to June) 2021 to Q2 (April to June) 2026 (Source: table 1.2)

In the most recent quarter, total claims were up 11% compared to the same period in 2025 (from 514,000 to 571,000), likely driven by a rise in claims to recover monies in relation to parking on private land. Of these, 522,000 were money and damages claims, up 12% from April to June 2025 (from 466,000). Money and damages claims made up 91% of all claims in April to June 2026, up 1pp on its share in April to June 2025.

Non-money claims were up 3% (from 48,000 to 50,000) in the current quarter compared to the same period in 2025, driven by an increase in claims for return of goods and other non-money claims.

Within non-money claims, ‘other’ non-money claims showed a general decline from 2018. This decrease is likely to be partly the result of whiplash reforms reducing the volume of road traffic accident claims going to court. However, since Q2 2022, these have remained relatively stable, up 3% (to 17,000) in the latest quarter compared to the same period in 2025.

Similarly, Mortgage and Landlord Possession claims have remained relatively stable in previous quarters, with 29,000 claims recorded in April to June 2026, stable compared to the same quarter of 2025. Further details can be found in the Mortgage and Landlord Possessions publication here.

Claims for return of goods increased steadily to a high of 3,500 in July-September 2018 but have since declined. Following a further decline due to the impact of Covid-19 to 700 in Q2 2020, there has been recovery in these figures and volumes have remained relatively stable since Q1 2022, around pre-covid levels, although there is some quarterly volatility within this series. This quarter, volumes are up 37% (from 2,400 to 3,300) compared to the same period in 2025.

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4. Money and Damages Claims

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Money claims were up 13% (to 495,000 claims) in April to June 2026 compared to the same quarter in 2025.

Damages claims^{[footnote 1]} were down 4% to 26,000, driven by a decrease in personal injury claims and other damages claims (both down 4%) to 11,000 and 15,000 respectively compared to the same quarter in 2025.

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Figure 2: Money claims by monetary value, Q2 (April to June) 2021 to Q2 (April to June) 2026 (Source: civil workload CSV^{[footnote 2]})

Almost all (over 99%) money claims are processed and issued at the Civil National Business Centre (CNBC)^{[footnote 3]}. There were 494,000 such claims at the CNBC in April to June 2026 (up 13% on the same quarter in 2025).

The increase in the volume of money claims is mostly driven by claims valued under £500. These were up 21% to 245,000 claims in the period April to June 2026 compared to the same quarter in 2025, likely driven by a rise in claims to recover monies in relation to parking on private land.

Damages claims – made up of personal injury and other damages claims^{[footnote 4]} - have fluctuated between 21,000 and 35,000 claims each quarter over the last five years (since April to June 2021). In the current quarter, volumes were down 4% to 26,000 compared to the same period in 2025. This was driven by a decrease in personal injury claims and other damages claims, both down 4% from 12,000 to 11,000 and 16,000 to 15,000 respectively. Other damages claims volumes can be prone to volatility in quarterly volumes. These accounted for 58% of all damages claims in the most recent quarter, stable compared to April to June 2025. The volume of other damages claims have increased in recent quarters due to claims issued for limitation purposes following the introduction of the Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims. This is for claims arising from an accident on or after 31 May 2021 which are below the Small Claims Limit in Road Traffic Accidents. The limitation period for these claims is three years and, as such, limitation claims have been received from 1 June 2024 onwards.

Personal injury claims^{[footnote 1]} showed general decreases between Q3 2020 and Q1 2022, falling from 33,000 to 18,000, and has been gradually trending down since Q4 2022.

4.1 Allocations (table 1.3)

In April to June 2026, 32,000 money and damages claims were allocated to track, down 15% (from 37,000) compared to the same period in 2025. Compared to April to June 2025, of these allocations:

• 21,000 were allocated to small claims, down 15% on April to June 2025. This accounts for 66% of all allocations (compared to 67% of all allocations in the same quarter of 2025).
• 8,300 were allocated to fast track, down 15% on April to June 2025. This accounts for 26% of all allocations (unchanged compared to the same quarter of 2025).
• 770 were allocated to intermediate track, up 9% on April to June 2025. This accounts for 2% of all allocations (unchanged compared to the same quarter of 2025), although these are expected to increase as the new track is embedded.
• 1,600 were allocated to multi-track, down 19% on April to June 2025. This accounts for 5% of all allocations (unchanged compared to the same quarter of 2025).

Note that the nature of reporting allocations data means the series can show short-term fluctuations, and larger changes when revised. Therefore, caution should be taken when comparing the current quarter to previous data in the time series.

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5. Defences (including legal representation) and Trials

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The number of claims defended was up 15% to 82,000 compared to the same quarter in 2025.

The number of trials was down 10% to 12,000 compared to the same quarter in 2025.

Median average time taken from issue to trial for small claims was 41.0 weeks (0.7 weeks longer compared to the same quarter in 2025) and for fast, intermediate and multi-track claims it was 55.9 weeks (6.1 weeks faster than April to June 2025).

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Of those claims defended in April to June 2026, 37% had legal representation for both claimant and defendant, 41% had representation for claimant only, and 3% for defendant only. Most (87%) damages claim defences had legal representation for both the defendant and claimant, compared with 24% of money claim defences.

Figure 3: Proportion of legal representation for each type of defence, April to June 2026 (Source: table 1.6)

The total number of claims defended was up 15% in April to June 2026 compared to the same quarter in 2025, from 71,000 to 82,000 cases, caused by the knock-on effect of the rise in claims received. Claims defended as a proportion of claims issued remained stable at 14% over the same period. Money claim defences were up 20% from 50,000 to 60,000 compared to April to June 2025. An increase was also seen in defended damages claims (up 3% from 16,000 to 17,000).

5.1 Trials and Time Taken to Reach Trial (table 1.5)

Defended cases which are not settled or withdrawn, generally result in a trial. In total, there were 12,000 trials in April to June 2026, down 10% compared to the same period in 2025. Of the claims that went to trial, 8,900 (75%) were small claims trials (down 11% compared to the same quarter in 2025) and 3,000 (25%) were fast, intermediate and multi-track trials (down 5% from the same quarter of 2025).

Timeliness data for the intermediate track has been included with the Fast and Multi track trials data from Q3 2024.

Figure 4: Average (mean/median) number of weeks from claim being issued to initial hearing date, Q2 (April to June) 2021 to Q2 (April to June) 2026 (Source: table 1.5)

In April to June 2026, it took a median time of 41.0 weeks between a small claim being issued and the claim going to trial, 0.7 weeks longer than the same period in 2025. The Timeliness metric for Small Claims only includes those cases concluding at trial rather than those concluded through other routes like mediation. There is regional variation within this metric with longer waiting times experienced in London and the South East.

Mediation is being fully integrated as a key step in the court process for small civil claims valued up to £10,000. This, when successful, results in outcomes which are not used within the timeliness calculations. Statistics on small claims mediation can be found here.

For fast/intermediate/multi track claims, it took a median time of 55.9 weeks to reach a trial, 6.1 weeks faster than in April to June 2025.

Timeliness figures for the mean average are included in table 1.5 of the accompanying statistical tables.

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6. Judgments

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Judgments were up 26% compared to the same quarter in 2025.

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Figure 5: All claims, judgments and default judgments, Q2 (April to June) 2021 to Q2 (April to June) 2026 (Source: tables 1.2 and 1.4^{[footnote 5]})

There were 368,000 judgments made in April to June 2026, up 26% compared to the same quarter of 2025, as a result of the knock-on effect of the rise in claims received. Of these, 94% were default judgments, up 1pp on its share in April to June 2025. These remained relatively stable between 2018 and 2022, with around 9 out of every 10 judgments resulting in a default judgment. The proportion has generally increased from 2023, from 91% in Q1 2023 to 94% in Q2 2026.

The second largest type of judgment was ‘admissions’^{[footnote 6]}, of which there were 15,000 in April to June 2026, up 22% on the same quarter in 2025 (from 12,000). ‘Admission’ judgments accounted for 4% of all judgments in the current quarter.

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7. Warrants and Enforcements

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Warrants issued were up 30% when compared to the same quarter in 2025.

Enforcement applications were down 7% and enforcement orders were down 17% when compared to April to June 2025.

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Figure 6: Warrants and enforcements issued – Q2 (April to June) 2021 to Q2 (April to June) 2026 (Source: tables 1.7 and 1.8)

7.1 Warrants (table 1.7)

In the latest quarter (April to June 2026) there were 73,000 warrants issued, up 30% (from 56,000) on the same quarter in 2025. Warrants of control accounted for 82% of total warrants, and were up 44%, from 41,000 to 59,000, compared to the same period in 2025. These volumes are largely driven by bulk user behaviour and as such can fluctuate significantly. The sharp rise seen in Q1 2026 was due to bulk users issuing in greater volumes after a period of lower volumes in Q3 and Q4 2025.

There were 13,000 possession warrants issued in April to June 2026, down 9% (from 15,000) on the same quarter in 2025. These had a general upwards trend from Q3 2020, following a sharp drop in Q2 2020 due to the impact of Covid-19, yet have remained relatively stable since the start of 2024.

7.2 Enforcements (table 1.8)

In April to June 2026, there were 9,900 enforcement-related order applications (which include attachment of earnings orders, charging orders, third party debt orders, and administration orders), down 7% compared to the same quarter of 2025. Attachment of earnings (AoE) applications down 16%, third party debt applications down 6%, charging order applications down 2% and administration orders applications down 64%.

There were 8,500 enforcement-related orders made in April to June 2026, down 17% compared to the same quarter of 2025. AoE fell by 11%, from 2,000 to 1,700, third party debt orders fell by 7%, from 230 to 210, charging orders fell by 18%, from 6,200 to 5,100, and orders to obtain information fell by 21%, from 1,800 to 1,400, driving the overall fall in volumes.

Over the longer term, there has been a decreasing trend in enforcement-related applications received and orders made since 2009, possibly due to claimants’ preference for using other methods instead to retrieve money, property or goods.

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8. Judicial reviews^{[footnote 7]}

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There were 1,300 judicial review applications received in Q2 2026, up 42% on Q2 2025 (940).

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Figure 7: Judicial Review Applications, by type; Q2 2021 to Q2 2026 (Source: table 2.1)

Of the 1,300 applications received in Q2 2026, 400 were civil immigration and asylum applications, 890 were civil (other)^{[footnote 8]}, which recorded its highest level since the start of the time series, and 38 were criminal, up 28%, 52% and down 3% respectively from Q2 2025. Of the civil immigration and asylum cases, none have since been transferred to the UTIAC.

Of the applications that were made in Q2 2026, 10% are now closed. Of the total applications, 220 reached the permission stage in Q2 2026, and of these:

• 15% (32) were found to be totally without merit.
• 53 cases have already been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed and 130 were refused at the permission stage. One case refused at permission stage has so far gone on to be granted permission at the renewal stage.
• 54 cases were assessed to be eligible for a final hearing and of these, 2 have since been heard.
• The mean time from a case being lodged to the permission decision was 39 days. Although timeliness for cases being lodged to final hearing are included in the tables, this is based on too few cases to be meaningful. The actual average time taken for these cases will only be known when they have had time to work their way through the system.

8.1 Applications lodged against departments (table 2.5)

Table 2.5 presents judicial review figures by defendant type (i.e. individual government department or public body). This table provides the number of judicial review applications lodged, permission granted to proceed to final hearing, and decisions found in favour of the claimant at final hearing.

The information presented is derived from the ‘defendant name’ – a free text field completed by the claimant, which is matched and grouped by department. All efforts have been made to quality assure the data presented. However, this is a manually typed field, and as such is open to inputting errors and should be used with caution.

The key findings for Q2 2026 are:

• Local Authorities had the largest number of JR applications lodged against them, with 410 applications. Of these, 31 have so far been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed to final hearing (8% of applications) to date.
• The second largest recipient of JR cases was the Home Office, with 400 cases received, of which to date 12 have so far been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed to final hearing (3% of applications).
• The third largest recipient was the Ministry of Justice, having 180 applications lodged against it. Of these, 6 have so far been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed to final hearing (3% of applications) to date.

A more granular view of the JR data by department and case type can be found in the data visualisation tool found here. Feedback is welcome on this tool to ensure it meets user needs.

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9. Privacy Injunctions^{[footnote 9]}

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In the first six months of 2026, there were 2 proceedings where the High Court considered an application for a new interim privacy injunction.

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Figure 8: Number of privacy injunction proceedings, by type of proceeding, from Jan-Jun 2016 to Jan-Jun 2026 (Source: tables 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3)

9.1 New interim privacy injunctions (Table 3.1)

One of the 2 proceedings at the High Court that took place in January to June 2026 was granted, whilst the remaining one was refused. In the first six months of the previous year (January to June 2025) 11 new interim privacy injunction proceedings took place. Of these, nine were granted and two were refused.

9.2 Continuation of existing interim injunctions (Table 3.2)

An undertaking is different from an injunction, in that it is a promise given by the defendants, rather than an injunction which is an order of the court.

The continuation of one existing interim injunction proceeding that took place in January to June 2026 was granted/varied. There were no proceedings considered on whether to continue or amend an undertaking in the same period. In January to June 2025, the continuation of six existing interim injunction proceedings was granted/varied.

9.3 Final privacy injunctions (Table 3.3)

There was one final privacy injunction dealt with in January to June 2026, this was granted, and no final undertakings dealt with in the same period. There was one final privacy injunction dealt with in the same period from the previous year (January to June 2025) and this was granted.

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10. Further information

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10.1 Provisional data and revisions

The statistics in the latest quarter are provisional, and revisions may be made when the next edition of this bulletin is published. If revisions are needed in subsequent quarters, these will be annotated in the tables.

10.2 Accompanying files

As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:

• A supporting document providing further information on how the data is collected and processed, as well as information on the revisions policy and legislation relevant to civil justice.
• The quality statement published with this guide sets out our policies for producing quality statistical outputs for the information we provide to maintain our users’ understanding and trust.
• A set of overview tables (also available in accessible format) and CSV files, covering each section of this bulletin. These can be found here.
• A set of tables providing statistics on the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, also available in accessible format.
• A Judicial Review data visualisation tool (to provide a more granular view of the JR data by department and case type). This can be found here.
• A Sankey tool which shows case progression of civil cases in the county courts is here.
• A Civil data visualisation tool to provide a more granular and interactive view of cases through the civil claims system. This can be found here.

10.3 Rounding convention

Figures greater than 10,000 are rounded to the nearest 1,000, those between 1,000 and 10,000 are rounded to the nearest 100 and those between 100 to 1,000 are rounded to the nearest 10. Figures less than 100 are given as the actual number.

10.4 Accredited Official Statistics status

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in January 2019. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled as accredited official statistics.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the OSR, which sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

It is the Ministry of Justice’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected for Accredited Official Statistics. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with the OSR promptly. Accredited Official Statistics status can be removed at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.

10.5 Future publications

Our statisticians regularly review the content of publications. Development of new and improved statistical outputs is usually dependent on reallocating existing resources. As part of our continual review and prioritisation, we welcome user feedback on existing outputs including content, breadth, frequency and methodology. Please send any comments you have on this publication including suggestions for further developments or reductions in content.

10.6 Contacts

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) press office:

Emily Cornish - email: pressofficecourtslaw@justice.gov.uk

Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to the Courts and People division of the Ministry of Justice:

Matteo Chiesa - email: CAJS@justice.gov.uk

Next update: 3 December 2026

1. Since the launch of the Damages Claims service in May 2021 to March 2025 some cases submitted to the damages claims portal have been incorrectly assigned as personal injury case type, even in cases which should have been classified as other damages claims. This means data during this period is not comparable to the rest of the series, and so caution should be used when looking at historic trends. ↩ ↩²

2. Following the alignment of the fees for online and paper civil money and possession claims in May 2021, figure 2 shows all data with the updated claim brackets for comparison, a further breakdown of these brackets is available within the CSV. The CSV shows updated claim brackets from 2021. ↩

3. This includes claims for the Civil National Business Centre (CNBC), Courts and Tribunals Service Centre Salford, and County Court Online. ↩

4. This category includes all damages claims that are not related to personal injury. ↩

5. The Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 figures in the January to March 2026 publication excluded a proportion of judgments cases. The figures for the two quarters have been revised in this publication, with these cases now included. ↩

6. Judgment by admission is where the defendant admits the truth of the claim made. ↩

7. The judicial review data are Official Statistics ↩

8. Civil (other) includes Homelessness, Town and Country Planning, and Disciplinary Bodies. For a full list of topics included in civil (other) please see section 3.2 of the publication guidance released alongside this publication. ↩

9. The privacy injunction data are Official Statistics ↩