The "money-only" claims procedure starts when the creditor (The "Claimant") asks the court to send a "claim form" to you (The "Defendant").

At this stage you can choose to either defend the claim or admit the claim.

If for example you don’t agree that you owe the amount claimed you can choose to defend the claim. However, you shouldn’t defend a claim without getting advice first. If you lose your case, you may have to pay the creditor’s court costs, which could mean that your debt becomes even bigger.

If the creditor has not acted reasonably in trying to come to a payment arrangement with you, you can defend (argue that you should not have to pay) the court fee and the court costs part of their claim.

If you admit that you owe the money claimed, you should come up with an offer of payment based on what you think you can realistically afford. If the creditor accepts this offer, it will be recorded by the court and providing you keep up with the repayments, no further action can be taken against you. If the creditor turns down your offer, then a court official will normally decide how much you should pay. This is done without having a court hearing.

If you or the creditor doesn’t agree with the amount the court say you should pay, you have 14 days to ask for the decision to be "re-determined" by a District Judge. If the court then decided to have a hearing, the case will be transferred to your nearest court. You and the creditor will both be able to have your say before the court decides to change the original order for payment.

The Creditor will ask for judgement to be entered "by default" and the court will make the order for payment at the rate the creditor asks for. If you don’t make these payments, the creditor can use bailiffs or other measures to try and get the money that you owe.

If you were not able to respond to the summons, for example because it was sent to the wrong address or you were away when it was sent, you may be able to get the judgement "set aside". To do so, though you would need to have a good chance of defending the claim or you have another good reason for it to be set aside.

If you can no longer afford the payments set out in the court order, you can apply to the court to reduce them.

If your financial situation means that you really can’t pay anything, the court may be able to suspend the payments so that you don’t have to pay for a set period of time.