In the last two years, there has been a transition for courts and litigators away from traditional paper-based ways of working towards embracing digital working. One of the most significant changes is the way in which documents are transmitted.
As part of this increasingly digital approach to litigation, HM Court and Tribunals introduced the Damage Claims Portal (DCP), which began operating on a pilot basis last year and was governed by Practice Direction 51ZB. The DCP is an online claims process for county court damages claims and was intended, in the long term, to be a complete end-to end portal for damages claims in the county court. It currently, however, only operates from issue of proceedings to filing of directions questionnaires.
Since 4 April 2022, all legally represented claimants bringing county court damages under part 7 – subject to limited exceptions – have had to use the DCP. Defendants, who have been able to use it on voluntary basis, were preparing for their turn as mandatory usage for defendant firms was set to follow. Under the 145th update to the Civil Procedure Rules, the rules regarding the DCP were amended to require legally represented defendants to also use the DCP to respond to claims that fall within its scope from 2 June 2022. However, at the last minute, this was pulled for unknown reasons, with Master of the Rolls Sir Geoffrey Vos and Justice minister Tom Pursglove signing the 148th CPR update, revoking the 145th update on 1 June. An HMCTS spokesman has stated that portal continues to be available to all those who need it and that a new date for changes will be announced in due course.
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