Every piece of civil litigation begins the same way: a claim form is issued at court and served on the defendant. For a solicitor, getting these mechanics right is non-negotiable. The rules carry hard deadlines, and a slip — issuing too late, serving by the wrong method, or on the wrong person — can lose a perfectly good claim before it has even been argued. This lesson gives you a clear, practical command of those steps, so you can start a claim and serve it without anything going wrong.
What this lesson covers:
- Issuing the Claim Form — how proceedings are commenced, what 'issue' means, and why the date of issue stops the limitation clock.
- Validity and Extending Time for Service — how long a claim form stays valid and the rules for extending time before and after it expires.
- Methods, Place and Recipient of Service — the permitted methods of service and where and on whom a claim form must be served.
- Deemed Service — the legal fiction that fixes the date a claim form is treated as served.
- Particulars of Claim and the Defendant's Response — what accompanies the particulars and how the defendant must respond.
- Alternative Service and Service Out of the Jurisdiction — service by other means and the rules for serving defendants abroad.