HMCTS's policy on issuing guidance leaflets for getting transcripts of previous court hearings

What happened

Mr F wanted to appeal a decision made in a small claims court. He personally visited the court and asked for information on how to appeal. The court staff advised Mr F to fill in an appeal form and pay a court fee. Mr F submitted his appeal application, but it was rejected by a judge because he had not provided a transcript of the original hearing.

Mr F complained that HMCTS had failed to provide him with a guidance leaflet to explain how he could obtain a transcript and go on to appeal. Mr F said that the small claims court was used by people with little knowledge of civil law, and HMCTS should have provided the guidance leaflet to him as a matter of course. He said that he had visited another court and been told that it issues the guidance leaflets as a matter of course.

Mr F said he had provided the appeal form and paid the fee as he had been asked to do, and so could not understand why his appeal application had been refused.

Mr F completed HMCTS's complaints process and then referred the matter to us through his MP. In one of HMCTS's responses to the complaint, it gave Mr F inaccurate information about the whereabouts of his case file. HMCTS acknowledged this mistake and apologised to Mr F for this.

What we found

We did not uphold the complaint. HMCTS has a policy of issuing guidance leaflets when these have been requested by a customer. HMCTS also publishes all of its guidance leaflets online. We concluded that HMCTS's policy was reasonable, and we could not see any evidence that Mr F had specifically asked HMCTS for advice on how to obtain a transcript. We told Mr F that a judicial decision had been made to refuse his appeal application, and we cannot consider a complaint about judicial matters; Mr F would have to appeal that decision in the courts. We noted that HMCTS gave Mr F inaccurate information about the whereabouts of his court file, but HMCTS had already done enough to put matters right by apologising.