Responding to a Claim
A defendant who has just been served with a claim form and particulars of claim is standing at a fork with four paths, and each path has its own clock attached. Admit the claim, acknowledge service to buy time, file a defence to fight it, or do nothing and let judgment fall by default. Understanding exactly how these four paths interact — which clocks start when, which extensions are automatic and which require permission, and what happens if the defendant simply ignores the letter — is the procedural backbone of civil litigation practice, and it is precisely the kind of applied, deadline-driven reasoning SQE1 rewards.
The moment particulars of claim are served, a countdown begins. A defendant has exactly four possible immediate responses: file an admission, file an acknowledgment of service, file a defence, or do nothing — in which case the claimant may ultimately obtain default judgment. Every piece of procedural advice a solicitor gives in the days after service flows from choosing among these four.
Deemed service matters, not receipt. Under CPR 6.14, the rules on deemed service determine the date from which the 14-day and 28-day response periods run. A solicitor advising a defendant should calendar the acknowledgment of service and defence deadlines from the date of deemed service, not the date the documents physically land on the desk — a claim form read on a Friday but deemed served the following Tuesday still starts its clock on the deemed date.
Filing an acknowledgment of service under CPR Part 10 tells the court and the claimant one of two things: the defendant intends to contest the claim, or the defendant intends to dispute the court's jurisdiction. Under CPR 10.3, the defendant has 14 days after service of the particulars of claim to file it.
The strategic value of the acknowledgment of service is that filing it within the initial 14-day period automatically extends the deadline for filing a defence — no application, no agreement, no court order needed. This single filing converts a tight 14-day defence deadline into a considerably more workable 28-day one, which is often essential where instructing solicitors are still gathering evidence or taking full instructions.
Disputing Jurisdiction
If a defendant wants to argue the English court has no business hearing the claim at all, the acknowledgment of service is also the gateway to that argument. The defendant must file the acknowledgment of service and then apply under CPR Part 11 within 14 days of filing it. Critically, filing an acknowledgment of service without making that Part 11 application in time is treated as accepting the court's jurisdiction — the silence is read as submission, not preservation of the objection. This is a classic trap: a defendant who wants to fight jurisdiction cannot simply file the acknowledgment and sit on it.
The defence deadline is where the two response paths — acknowledging service or not — diverge in consequence.
| Scenario | Deadline for defence | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| No acknowledgment of service filed | 14 days from deemed service of particulars of claim | CPR 15.4(1)(a) |
| Acknowledgment of service filed | 28 days from deemed service of particulars of claim | CPR 15.4(1)(b) |
Beyond these baseline periods, the parties are not locked in. Under CPR 15.5, claimant and defendant may agree in writing to extend the defence deadline by up to 28 days without troubling the court at all. Push past that additional 28 days, however, and the informal route closes: any further extension requires the court's permission under CPR 15.5. Practically, this means a solicitor should always reach for a written agreement first — it is faster and free — and only apply to the court once the negotiated ceiling is reached.
Under CPR Part 14, a defendant may admit the whole of a claim, part of a claim, or a specified amount of money owed. Admission is not surrender in the way default judgment is; it is an active procedural choice with its own toolkit.
- A defendant making a full admission to a money claim can request time to pay under CPR 14.9 — turning what looks like capitulation into a negotiated payment schedule.
- Where a defendant makes a partial admission that the claimant accepts, the claimant may enter judgment for the admitted amount and continue the claim for the remaining balance — the litigation narrows rather than ends.
- Where the defendant admits liability but disputes the amount, the court determines the amount if the parties cannot agree it themselves.
Why this distinction matters: a judgment obtained following a Part 14 admission is conceptually distinct from a default judgment. The former reflects a defendant who has actively engaged with the claim and made a considered choice; the latter reflects a defendant who did nothing at all. The consequences for setting the judgment aside differ accordingly, as the next section shows.
Under CPR Part 16, a defence must state, allegation by allegation, which parts of the particulars of claim are admitted, which are denied, and which are neither admitted nor denied. This is not a stylistic preference — it has teeth.
- A denial must come with the defendant's reasons for denying, and if the defendant intends to advance a different version of events, that version must be pleaded.
- An allegation neither admitted nor denied, where the claimant is simply required to prove it, is treated as the defendant putting the claimant to proof of that allegation.
- Crucially, an allegation in the particulars of claim that the defence simply fails to address is treated as admitted — with one exception: allegations about the amount of money claimed are never deemed admitted by silence.
This last rule rewards precision and punishes sloppy drafting: a defence that responds to nine of ten factual allegations has, by omission, conceded the tenth.
The statement of truth is not optional. A defence must be verified by a statement of truth signed by the defendant or their legal representative. A defence lacking one may be struck out — a reminder that procedural formality in litigation is substantive, not decorative.
A defendant is not limited to defending; under CPR Part 20, a defendant may bring a counterclaim against the claimant arising out of the same or related facts as the original claim. Timing governs whether permission is needed:
- A counterclaim filed at the same time as the defence requires no permission from the court.
- A counterclaim filed after the defence, or brought against someone who is not already a party, requires the court's permission under CPR 20.4.
The combined document is so common in practice that it has its own name: a Defence and Counterclaim. Once served with one, the claimant may respond in kind — filing a defence to counterclaim, which follows exactly the same content rules (admit, deny, neither admit nor deny) as an ordinary defence. Separately, a claimant may also file a reply to deal with matters the defence raised that the original particulars of claim did not address. A reply is never compulsory, and choosing not to file one is not treated as an admission of anything the defence said.
This is the fourth path, and the one every deadline above exists to prevent falling into by accident. Under CPR Part 12, a claimant may obtain default judgment where the defendant has failed to file an acknowledgment of service or a defence within the applicable time limit. A defendant who ignores a properly served claim form risks a judgment that can then be enforced without further notice of the merits — the court never weighs whether the claim was actually any good.
Default judgment is not, however, automatically available whenever a deadline is missed. Three safeguards under CPR Part 12 protect against injustice:
CPR 12.3(1) — No default judgment is available if the defendant has filed an acknowledgment of service or a defence in time, even if that defence is weak. Timely engagement, however thin, blocks default judgment entirely.
CPR 12.3(3) — No default judgment against a child or protected party without the court's permission.
No default judgment where the defendant has satisfied the whole claim, including costs, before judgment is entered.
Procedurally, the route to judgment also depends on what is being claimed. Default judgment for a specified sum of money can usually be obtained simply by filing a request with the court — no hearing required. Default judgment for an unspecified amount, or for a remedy other than money, generally requires an application to the court supported by evidence, since the court needs to work out what the judgment should actually award.
A default judgment is not necessarily the end of the story. Under CPR Part 13, it may be set aside or varied, and the rules split cleanly into two categories: grounds where the court must act, and grounds where the court may act.
Mandatory: CPR 13.2
The court must set aside a default judgment if:
- the conditions in CPR 12.3 for entering it were never satisfied in the first place, or
- the whole claim had already been satisfied before judgment was entered.
These are not matters of discretion — if either is true, the judgment falls.
Discretionary: CPR 13.3
The court may set aside or vary a default judgment if:
- the defendant has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim, or
- there is some other good reason for the judgment to be set aside, or for the defendant to be allowed to defend.
The real prospect of success test under CPR 13.3 is the same test the court applies on an application for summary judgment — a relatively familiar, moderate threshold rather than a demand for a guaranteed winning case.
Even where a defendant clears that threshold, the court's discretion is not automatic. In deciding whether to exercise it, the court must have regard to whether the defendant applied to set aside the judgment promptly. Delay counts against the defendant even where the underlying defence has real merit — a defendant who sits on a default judgment for months before applying, despite having a strong case, risks losing the application on delay alone. The practical lesson for a solicitor: act as soon as reasonably practicable after becoming aware of the judgment, and support the application with evidence, including a draft defence, so the court can see exactly what would be argued if the judgment were lifted.
If the application succeeds, setting aside the judgment restores the litigation to the position before judgment was entered — the defendant may then file a defence and contest the claim as if the default judgment had never happened.
Default judgment and admissions are largely defendant-driven events. Discontinuance, by contrast, is the claimant's tool for exiting the litigation. Under CPR Part 38, a claimant may discontinue all or part of a claim at any time by filing and serving a notice of discontinuance. In most circumstances this is available as of right — no court permission needed.
That right narrows under CPR 38.2 in three situations, where the court's permission becomes necessary:
- the claimant has already obtained an interim injunction, or an undertaking has been given to the court;
- a party has received an interim payment relating to the claim being discontinued;
- there is more than one claimant and not all of them consent to the discontinuance.
Discontinuing is not free of consequence. Under CPR 38.6, a claimant who discontinues is liable for the defendant's costs of the proceedings up to the date of discontinuance, unless the court orders otherwise — walking away from a claim still means paying for the trouble caused along the way. The defendant, for their part, is not without recourse either: a defendant may apply to have the notice of discontinuance set aside under CPR 38.4 within 28 days of service of the notice, for instance where the defendant would prefer the claim to be dismissed on the merits rather than merely discontinued.
Two further points matter for exam purposes. First, discontinuance does not by itself amount to an admission of any factual or legal issue in the discontinued claim — a claimant who discontinues has not conceded the case was hopeless. Second, a claimant who discontinues and later wants to bring the same or substantially the same claim against the same defendant generally needs the court's permission to do so — discontinuance is not a costless way to reset the litigation clock and try again unannounced.
The choice between admitting, acknowledging service, defending, or allowing default judgment to be entered is never merely academic — it carries distinct cost and time consequences that a solicitor must advise on promptly after service. A client who wants to fight should be steered toward acknowledgment of service to secure the 28-day window and time to prepare a properly pleaded defence. A client who accepts liability but disputes the sum may be better served by a Part 14 admission and a request for time to pay. A client who ignores the letter risks a default judgment enforceable without any consideration of whether the underlying claim had merit — recoverable only through the sometimes uncertain, always time-sensitive route of CPR Part 13. Getting the diagnosis right, and the diary entries right, is where procedural competence in dispute resolution begins.