Accredited official statistics

Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly: July to September 2024

Published 5 December 2024

Applies to England and Wales

© Crown copyright 2024

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1. Main Points
Increase in County Court claims, driven mostly by money claims Compared to the same period in 2023, County Court claims from July to September 2024 were up 3% to 460,000. Of these, 383,000 (83%) were money claims (up 4%).
Damages claims were down 17% to 25,000 The decrease in damages claims was driven by falls in both personal injury claims (down 10% to 16,000) and other damages claims (down 28% to 8,700) compared to the same quarter in 2023.
The number of claims defended increased compared to 2023, while the number of trials decreased There were 71,000 claims defended (up 5%) and 12,000 claims that went to trial in July to September 2024 (down 9%) compared to the same quarter in 2023.
Mean time taken from claim to hearing has fallen for small claims The mean time taken for small claims to go to trial was 50.7 weeks, 5.0 weeks less than the same period in 2023. The mean time taken for multi/fast track claims to go to trial has remained relatively stable at 76.8 weeks, over the same period.
Judgments were up 12% and default judgments were up 14% Judgments were up 12% (to 294,000) in July to September 2024, compared to the same period in 2023; with 93% of these being default judgments.
Enforcement applications rose to 14,000 and orders also rose to 10,000 Enforcement applications were up 2%, while enforcement orders were up 4% when compared to the same quarter in 2023.
Warrants issued decreased to 70,000 Warrants issued were down 16% when compared to the same quarter in 2023.
680 judicial review applications There were 680 applications for Judicial Reviews in Q3 2024, up 2% on Q3 2023. Of the 150 cases in 2024 Q3 that have so far reached the permission stage, 14 (9%) were found to be ‘totally without merit’.

This publication gives civil county court and judicial review statistics for the latest quarter (July to September 2024), compared to the same quarter in 2023. Should users wish to compare against earlier time periods, they can do so using the accompanying statistical tables. 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

2. Statistician’s comment

Claims received in the county courts have continued to rise and are currently at the highest level since Q1 2020. This quarter’s increase was driven by money claims. Subsequently, the number of claims defended and judgements also increased over the same period, to the second highest level and highest level since Q1 2020 respectively. Decreases were recorded in claims gone to trial and warrants issued. Meanwhile, allocations to track have recovered following the closure of the County Court Money Claims Centre in Salford in May 2023.

The average time between issue and trial for small track claims decreased this quarter, by 5 weeks compared to the same quarter in 2023. In contrast, the average time taken for fast/multi track claims to reach trial remained relatively stable over the same period.

Enforcement-related order applications were up compared to the same quarter of 2023. Third party debt and charging order applications drove this increase. Attachment of earnings and administration orders applications fell over the same period.

3. Claims Summary

County court claims were up 3% on the same quarter of 2023, driven mostly by money claims.

There were 460,000 County Court claims lodged in July to September 2024. Of these, 408,000 (89%) were money and damages claims (up 2% from July to September 2023).

Non-money claim volumes were at 52,000, up 5% when compared to the same quarter in 2023.

Mortgage and landlord possession claims were up 10% over the same period to 32,000, ‘other non-money claims’ remained relatively stable at 18,000 and claims for return of goods were down 10% to 2,300.

Figure 1: County Court claims by type, Q3 (July to September) 2019 to Q3 (July to September) 2024 (Source: table 1.2)

In the most recent quarter, total claims were up 3% compared to the same period in 2023 (from 449,000 to 460,000). Of these, 408,000 were money and damages claims, up 2% from July to September 2023 (from 399,000) and the highest since Q1 2020. Money and damages claims made up 89% of all claims in July to September 2024, stable on its share in July to September 2023.

Prior to 2020, claim volumes had been relatively unchanged but volatile, driven by a few “bulk issuers” slowing down and then ramping up their volume of claims. Claim volumes decreased significantly following the outbreak of Covid-19. After an initial recovery in the second half of 2020, claims issued have remained relatively stable, close to pre-pandemic levels, although these have risen to the highest level since Q1 2020.

Non-money claims generally decreased between 2015 and Q1 2020. While these showed less of an impact following Covid-19 in contrast to money and damages claims, the recovery to pre-Covid19 volumes has been slow. These volumes have continued to rise gradually since Q3 2020. In the current quarter, these claims were up 5% (from 49,000 to 52,000) compared to the same period in 2023, driven by increases in Mortgage and Landlord Possession claims.

Within non-money claims, ‘other’ non-money claims have shown a general decline since 2018. However, since Q2 2022, these have remained relatively stable, at 18,000 in Q3 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. The previous decreases were likely to be partly the result of whiplash reforms reducing the volume of road traffic accident claims going to court.

The overall trend in Mortgage and Landlord Possession claims decreased from a peak of 60,000 in January to March 2014 to 29,000 in January to March 2020. Following the impact of Covid-19, when it fell to 3,200, the lowest recorded, these have increased gradually to 32,000 claims in July to September 2024, up 10% compared to the same quarter of 2023 (29,000 claims). 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, to around pre-covid levels. This quarter, volumes are down 10% (from 2,600 to 2,300) compared to the same period in 2023.

4. Money and Damages Claims[footnote 1]

Money claims were up 4% (to 383,000 claims) in July to September 2024 compared to the same quarter in 2023.

There were increases seen across all money bands over this period, however, this has been driven by rises in money bands of £500 or more. Money claims valued up to £500 were relatively stable over this period at 159,000, claims between £500 and £1,000 were up 5% to 64,000, claims between £1,000 and £3,000 were up 5% to 91,000, claims between £3,000 and £5,000 were up 9% to 31,000, and claims over £5,000 were up 10% to 39,000.

Damages claims were down 17% at 25,000 driven by a decrease in personal injury claims (down 10%) and other damages claims (down 28%) to 16,000 and 8,700 respectively compared to the same quarter in 2023.

Personal injury claims showed general decreases between Q4 2020 and Q1 2022 but have remained relatively stable since Q4 2022. The decreasing trend is likely to have been due to a combination of factors including the introduction of whiplash reforms (with some cases being processed via the online portal rather than going to court).

Figure 2: Money claims by monetary value, Q3 (July to September) 2019 to Q3 (July to September) 2024 (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 382,000 such claims at the CNBC in July to September 2024 (up 4% on the same quarter in 2023).

Other than in Q2 2020, damages claims – made up of personal injury and other damages claims - have fluctuated between 21,000 and 38,000 claims each quarter over the last five years (since July to September 2019). In the current quarter, volumes were down 17% to 25,000 in July to September 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. This was driven by a decrease in personal injury claims, down 10% from 18,000 to 16,000, and a decrease in other damages claims, down 28% from 12,000 to 8,700, although other damages claims volumes can be prone to volatility. Other damages claims accounted for 35% of all damages claims in the most recent quarter, down 5pp compared to July to September 2023, when they accounted for 40% of all damages claims.

4.1 Allocations (table 1.3)

In July to September 2024, 37,000 money and damages claims were allocated to track, up 36% (from 27,000) compared to the same period in 2023. Allocations to track, which dropped to 24,000 in Q2 2023, have recovered following the closure of the County Court Money Claims Centre in Salford in May 2023 and the transfer of work to the Civil National Business Centre. Compared to July to September 2023, of these allocations:

  • 26,000 were allocated to small claims, up 31% on July to September 2023. This accounts for 69% of all allocations (compared to 71% of all allocations in the same quarter of 2023);
  • 9,700 were allocated to fast track, up 52% on July to September 2023. This accounts for 26% of all allocations (compared to 23% of all allocations in the same quarter of 2023);
  • 2,000 were allocated to multi-track, up 29% on July to September 2023. This accounts for 5% of all allocations (compared to 6% of all allocations in the same quarter of 2023);

In October 2023, the extension of Fixed Recoverable Costs saw the introduction of a new Intermediate track which sits between the Fast and Multi track. The Intermediate track will be the normal track for claims valued between £25,000 and £100,000, with some exemptions[footnote 4]. The track applies to both money and damages claims and introduces fixed recoverable costs to claims in this track which would previously have been allocated to the multi-track. These cases are expected to be included in the next publication.

The number of claims defended was up 5% to 71,000 compared to the same quarter in 2023.

Of those claims defended, 49% had legal representation for both claimant and defendant, 32% had representation for claimant only, and 4% for defendant only.

The number of trials was down 9% to 12,000 compared to the same quarter in 2023.

Average time taken for small claims was 50.7 weeks (5.0 weeks less compared to the same quarter in 2023) and for multi and fast track claims it was 76.8 weeks (less than a week longer than July to September 2023).

Of those claims defended in July to September 2024, 49% had legal representation for both claimant and defendant, 32% had representation for claimant only, and 4% for defendant only. Most (89%) damages claim defences had legal representation for both the defendant and claimant, compared with 38% of money claim defences.

Figure 3: Proportion of civil defences and legal representation status, July to September 2024 (Source: table 1.6)

The total number of claims defended was up 5% in July to September 2024 compared to the same quarter in 2023, from 68,000 to 71,000 cases. Money claim defences were up 16% from 42,000 to 48,000 compared to July to September 2023. On the contrary, a decrease was seen in defended damages claims (down 16% from 20,000 to 16,000).

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 July to September 2024, down 9% compared to the same period in 2023. This decline is likely due to the decrease in claims allocated to track in previous quarters caused by the closure of the County Court Money Claims Centre in Salford. Of the claims that went to trial, 9,500 (77%) were small claims trials (down 6% compared to the same quarter in 2023) and 2,800 (23%) were fast and multi-track trials (down 18% from the same quarter of 2023).

Figure 4: Average number of weeks from claim being issued to initial hearing date, Q3 (July to September) 2019 to Q3 (July to September) 2024 (Source: table 1.5)

In July to September 2024, it took an average of 50.7 weeks between a small claim being issued and the claim going to trial, 5.0 weeks less than the same period in 2023. Timeliness for Small Claims remains a challenge with this metric measuring only those cases concluding at trial (rather than through settlement following mediation for example). 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.

For multi/fast track claims, it took on average 76.8 weeks to reach a trial, less than a week longer than in July to September 2023, continuing to exceed the upper limit of the range seen in 2009-2019 (which was 52 to 61 weeks).

Covid-19 and associated actions have led to an uptick in time taken for all claims to reach trial. Prior to this, a sustained period of increasing receipts had increased the time taken to hear civil cases and caused delays to case progression.

6. Judgments

Judgments were up 12% compared to the same quarter in 2023.

There were 294,000 judgments made in July to September 2024, compared to 262,000 in the same quarter of 2023. Of these judgments, 274,000 (93%) were default judgments.

Figure 5: All claims, judgments and default judgments, Q3 (July to September) 2019 to Q3 (July to September) 2024 (Source: tables 1.2 and 1.4)

There were 294,000 judgments made in July to September 2024, up 12% compared to the same quarter of 2023. Of these, 93% were default judgments, up 1pp on its share in July to September 2023. These have remained relatively stable since 2018, with around 9 out of every 10 judgments resulting in a default judgment.

The second largest type of judgment was ‘admissions’[footnote 5], of which there were 12,000 in July to September 2024, up 6% on the same quarter in 2023 (from 11,000). ‘Admission’ judgments accounted for 4% of all judgments.

7. Warrants and Enforcements

Warrants issued were down 16% when compared to same quarter in 2023.

In July to September 2024, 70,000 warrants were issued, down 16% from 84,000 in the same quarter of 2023. Of these, 55,000 (78%) were warrants of control, down 23% compared to the same period in 2023.

Enforcement applications were up 2% and enforcement orders were up 4% when compared to July to September 2023.

Figure 6: Warrants and enforcements issued – Q3 (July to September) 2019 to Q3 (July to September) 2024 (Source: tables 1.7 and 1.8)

7.1 Warrants (table 1.7)

In the latest quarter (July to September 2024) there were 70,000 warrants issued, down 16% (from 84,000) on the same quarter in 2023. Warrants of control accounted for 78% of total warrants, and were down 23%, from 71,000 to 55,000, compared to the same period in 2023. These volumes are largely driven by bulk user behaviour and as such can fluctuate significantly.

There were 15,000 possession warrants issued in July to September 2024, up 20% (from 13,000) on the same quarter in 2023. These have continued a general upwards trend since Q3 2020, following a sharp drop in Q2 2020 due to the impact of Covid-19.

7.2 Enforcements (table 1.8)

In July to September 2024, there were 14,000 enforcement-related order applications (which include attachment of earnings orders, charging orders, third party debt orders, administration orders, and orders to obtain information), up 2% compared to the same quarter of 2023. Third party debt and charging order applications increased, up 13% and 16% respectively. Attachment of earnings (AoE) and administration orders applications decreased, down 11% and 46% respectively.

There were 10,000 enforcement-related orders made in July to September 2024, up 4% compared to the same quarter of 2023. AoE orders fell, down 7% (from 2,600 to 2,400). Charging orders rose, which were up 6% (from 5,300 to 5,600), driving the overall rise 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 warrants instead to retrieve money, property or goods.

8. Judicial reviews[footnote 6]

There were 680 judicial review applications received in Q3 2024, up 2% on Q3 2023 (670).

Of the 680 applications received in Q3 2024, 170 have already closed, and 14 were found to be ‘Totally Without Merit’ (9% of cases that reached the permission stage).

Figure 7: Judicial Review Applications, by type; Q3 2017 to Q3 2024 (Source: JR CSV)

Of the 680 applications received in Q3 2024, 250 were civil immigration and asylum applications, 400 were civil (other), and 32 were criminal, up 9%, down 1% and up 3% respectively on Q3 2023. 3 of the civil immigration and asylum cases have since been transferred to the UTIAC.

Of the applications that were made in Q3 2024, 24% are now closed. Of the total applications, 150 reached the permission stage in Q3 2024, and of these:

  • 9% (14) were found to be totally without merit.
  • 45 cases have already been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed and 87 were refused at the permission stage. None of the cases refused at permission stage have so far gone on to be granted permission at the renewal stage.
  • 45 cases were assessed to be eligible for a final hearing and of these, 3 have since been heard.
  • the mean time from a case being lodged to the permission decision was 51 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 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 Q3 2024 are:

  • Home Office had the largest number of JR applications lodged against them, with 220 applications. Of these, 6 have so far been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed to final hearing (3% of applications) to date.
  • The second largest recipient of JR cases was the Local Authorities, with 180 cases received, of which to date 24 have so far been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed to final hearing (13% of applications).
  • The third largest recipient was the Ministry of Justice, having 120 applications lodged against it. Of these, 6 have so far been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed to final hearing (5% 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.

9. Further information

9.1 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.

9.2 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.

9.3 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. Less than 100 are given as the actual number.

9.4 National Statistics status

National Statistics status are accredited official statistics that meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value.

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 in January 2019. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

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

9.5 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.

9.6 Contacts

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

Sarah Cottrill - email: sarah.cottrill@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: 6 March 2025

  1. From 16th November 2023 to 17th July 2024, a small proportion (approximately 14%) of data relating to stages from allocation to track to final hearing may be missing, incomplete or not correctly represented for money claims and damages claims. This is due to some of these cases progressing on the damages and online money claims systems, rather than the legacy caseman system. On 17th July 2024 a manual work around was implemented which has resolved the issue. ↩

  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. PART 28 - THE FAST TRACK AND THE INTERMEDIATE TRACK - Civil Procedure Rules (justice.gov.uk) ↩

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

  6. The judicial review data are Official Statistics ↩

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