Northampton Bulk Centre
STOP PRESS!
Important message - Claimants and Defendants
The Money Claim Online (MCOL) service experienced some technical problems, which caused disruption between Thursday 29th May and Tuesday 3rd June.
The technical problems have now been resolved and the service is operating as normal. If you think you might have been affected please read the advice below.
During the period from 4am Thursday 29th May to 9am Tuesday 3rd June:
All Claims, Judgments, Warrants, Acknowledgements of Service or Defences submitted, have been received and processed. However they will not appear on MCOL but any further action can continue outside of the MCOL service. If this applies to you, we will be contacting you in writing within the next 2-3 days to advise you of the alternative processes. However if you require advice in the interim please contact the Helpdesk on 0845 601 5935 (8am to 5pm).
During the period from 9am to 7pm on Tuesday 3rd June:
If you submitted a request for a claim or warrant to be issued during this time your request has not been processed and the payment for the claim fee will not have been taken from your bank. You may wish to confirm this with your bank. If you still wish to issue a claim via the MCOL service then please re-submit your request in the usual manner.
If you require any further information please contact the Helpdesk on 0845 601 5935.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused
Bank Charge Claims
Following the High Court hearing on 22 May banks have been given leave to appeal.
Pending the final outcome of this matter, the management of individual cases in the county courts is a matter for county court judges to consider based upon the circumstances of each individual case. However, at yesterday's hearing, Mr Justice Andrew Smith confirmed that the reasons behind the original stay on such proceedings continue to apply at least until the disposal of the appeal.
If a customer decides to make a claim in a court or through Money Claims Online it will be issued in the usual way, but may then be stayed under arrangements put in place by the local judiciary.
Telephone Call Recording
Please note that a new digital telephone system has been installed at this office. Incoming and outgoing calls may be recorded for training and quality control purposes.
Please note that Her Majesty's Court Service does not accept that its staff are required to tolerate abuse from customers.
The purpose of the Bulk Centre is to provide an excellent service designed around the diverse needs of our customers. We utilise modern, streamlined systems to facilitate the removal of repetitive staff-intensive work from local courts to a central, computer-supported office in Northampton. There are about 200 staff dealing with the work at the Bulk Centre, which is made up of:
Claim Production Centre (CPC)
- which issues half of all county court 'specified amount' claims. There are around 190 users and we receive data electronically and on tapes/floppy disks each day. After processing, the case data is sent electronically to the court(s) selected by the claimant.
County Court Bulk Centre (CCBC)
- which, under the name of Northampton County Court, deals with 8 out of 10 CPC cases. Around 200 defences are received each day. Where a claim is defended, the claim is transferred to the defendant's local court, or where the defendant is a business, to the claimant's or his solicitors' local court. Judgment requests and requests to issue warrants of execution are received in computer-readable form. CCBC receives on average 90 requests for Certificates of Satisfaction each day.
Money Claim Online (MCOL)
- which enables a claimant to request issue of a claim online via the Internet. This service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and provides lower volume customers with the choice of issuing their claims electronically at a time that suits them rather than manually completing forms to be issued during normal court working hours.
Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC)
- which acts as a registration point for local authorities which have de-criminalised on-street parking and vehicle emission charges and, for the London boroughs, registration of bus lane encroachment and congestion charging penalties.
Centralised Attachment of earnings Payment System (CAPS)
- which monitors and processes payments on all single attachment of earnings orders. There are currently over 60,000 live orders on the system. On average, CAPS receives 11,000 payments a week and all payments are processed on the date of receipt so that maintenance payments can be forwarded on the following business day; Following the High Court hearing on 22 May banks have been given leave to appeal.
Pending the final outcome of this matter, the management of individual cases in the county courts is a matter for county court judges to consider based upon the circumstances of each individual case. However, at yesterday's hearing, Mr Justice Andrew Smith confirmed that the reasons behind the original stay on such proceedings continue to apply at least until the disposal of the appeal.
If a customer decides to make a claim in a court or through Money Claims Online it will be issued in the usual way, but may then be stayed under arrangements put in place by the local judiciary.