There has been a sharp fall in the number of court proceedings for money claims despite the poor financial climate. Figures published by the Ministry of Justice show a sharp decline from 2008 to 2010.

The actual figure for court proceedings initiated (all claims including money, land, and goods) show the following:

2008 (Q1 to Q3)                 1.562 million

2009 (Q1 to Q3)                 1.439 million

2010 (Q1 to Q3)                 1.222 million

In percentage terms there was a fall of 21.8% in proceedings initiated through civil courts.  The fall is slightly more when looking at money claims only which fell from 1.192 to 0.928 million, a fall of 22.2%.

At first glance the figures seem at odds with the current economic climate which would suggest that more people are experiencing financial hardship post “credit crunch”, in which case it may seem reasonable to expect an increase in claims made via the civil courts.

The probable explanation for the sharp fall in court proceedings could be partly explained by the more prudent lending in the last 2 years which will have resulted in less people taking on financial commitments that they are unable to afford.

That said with claims still averaging over 135,000 per month for 2010 (January to October) it is still around 1 civil court proceeding for every 20 adults each year.  Over a 6 year period (the life of the credit file data stored against individuals) this would equate to 1 civil court proceeding for every 3 adults in the England & Wales jurisdiction.

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