HM Courts & Tribunals Service did not mark a letter as urgent so the case was struck out

What happened

Ms R put in a claim through the small claims court. She wrote to the court explaining that she could not come to the hearing and asked for the case to be heard in her absence. The letter was received by the court within the time frame required, but as it related to an upcoming hearing, HMCTS should have marked it as urgent and processed it quickly. That did not happen and the letter was not on file in time for the hearing. The case was struck out on the grounds that Ms R had not attended the hearing or contacted the court.

Ms R complained. The court then referred her file and the letter to another judge for review, explaining what had happened. The judge reviewed matters but decided that the letter made no difference and upheld the original decision to strike out the claim.

What we found

HMCTS failed to make sure that Ms R's letter was on file in time for the hearing. However, it took reasonable steps to put this right by referring matters to another judge for review. As the judge upheld the original decision, we saw no evidence that HMCTS's mistake had affected the outcome of Ms R's case.

HMCTS's complaint handling was mostly adequate, but it would have been better if it had offered Ms R some compensation to recognise the frustration and inconvenience that the delay in filing the letter had caused.

Putting it right

HMCTS paid £100 compensation to Ms R and reminded staff to identify and process correspondence correctly.