You should try to resolve your problem informally before you take legal action – it might be the best way to get a solution. You’ll need to get all the facts together first.

If you’re being evicted because you’ve been discriminated against, you can challenge the eviction with discrimination law.

It’s stressful and expensive to take legal action.

Check the deadline for taking action

You can start legal action if you were discriminated against in the last 6 months or are still being discriminated against.

The court needs to receive your claim form 6 months less one day after the discrimination happened.

The date you were discriminated against could be when someone:

• made a decision – for example the date your landlord refused your request to make a reasonable adjustment

• discriminated against you by refusing to rent a property to you

If you have more than one claim, you might have different deadlines for each one. Check all the dates you were discriminated against and work out the deadlines for each claim.

If the discrimination happened more than once

You’ll need to work out whether the different incidents could be classed as ‘continuing over a period of time’. This is where they’re linked to each other, for example if your landlord uses homophobic language to describe you on several occasions or continues to apply a discriminatory policy to you.

If the incidents are linked, the law calls them  a ‘continuing series of acts’ or a ‘continuing act’ and time only begins to run when the last act is completed. This is covered in section 118(6)(a) of the Equality Act 2010.

If the incidents aren’t linked, you’ll need to make separate discrimination claims with different deadlines. For example if your landlord made a racist comment and the letting agent made a sexist comment, they might not be the same continuing act. You should then use the earliest date as your deadline.

Check if:

• the last incident is definitely discrimination – if it’s not and this means you made a late claim, the court could reject your case

• there’s a long gap between the different incidents – if they’re far apart, they might not be one continuing act

It’s best to use the earliest date so you can include as many incidents as possible. If you use a later date for the deadline, the court could decide that the later incident wasn’t discrimination or that the acts aren’t linked and you wouldn’t have time to make a new claim.

For example if the discrimination last happened on 12 March, the court must get your claim form by 11 September. If your deadline falls at the weekend or on a bank holiday, it’s best to take action on the last working day before the deadline so that you can be sure that your claim is made in time.

If you miss the deadline, you might be able to start a claim if the court thinks it’s fair – this is known as ‘just and equitable’. They might consider things like the reason for the delay, the length of the delay and the effect of a late claim on the other side.

You shouldn’t rely on this though as the court might decide not to allow you to make a late claim. Act quickly as this will give you a better chance of the court accepting your claim.

The court’s power to allow a late claim is in section 118 of the Equality Act 2010.

You should try to send a letter before action before you start legal action – allow time for this before the deadline too. It will take time to send the letter, get a reply and then start legal action.

If you don’t have time to send a letter before action, start the legal process anyway by getting your claim issued by the court. The court rules allow you delay sending the claim form to the other side after issuing the claim. Make sure you tell the court office that you want to send the form to the other side yourself. You have 4 months in which to send it. You can negotiate during that time. 

The rules for what you have to do to and when to serve the claim form on the other party are in Parts 6 and 7 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998.

It’s best to try to negotiate as well – the court might make you pay the other side’s costs or not order that they pay your costs even if you win the case if you don’t try to resolve your dispute out of court first.

If you didn’t take legal advice before issuing the proceedings you should take legal advice about the proceedings as soon as you can. 

Check how strong your case is

You should assess how strong your case is and reconsider this when you get any evidence from the other side. 

You should make sure that you:

• have identified your legal rights
• have shown how those legal rights have been breached
• know the elements that must be established to prove you’ve got a legal right – this is different for each type of discrimination

You should write down the different elements of the case and add the facts that you have to support them. You can then write down whether you have any evidence to support those facts – like an email saying why you’re being treated in a certain way.

Doing this will also help you to work out what extra evidence you might need to get to be able to prove your case and identify any gaps or weaknesses in your case.

If you’re claiming more than one type of discrimination

You’ll need to do this for each one. Sometimes you’ll be able to use the same evidence to show the different types of discrimination. For example, you might be able to use the same facts and evidence to show a claim of discrimination arising from disability as well as a failure to make reasonable adjustments.

Check if there’s any defence to the discrimination

Once you’ve matched the evidence you have to the elements of each type of discrimination, you should think about whether your landlord, property manager or controller will try to defend the case even if you can prove that the discrimination happened. 

For indirect discrimination and discrimination arising from disability they could say that the action is justified as it is a ‘proportionate means to achieving a legitimate aim’. Indirect discrimination is covered in section 19 of the Equality Act 2010 and discrimination arising from disability is covered in section 15 of the Equality Act 2010.

For reasonable adjustments they could say what you’ve asked for isn’t reasonable or that they don’t have to make the adjustments you’ve asked for. Reasonable adjustments are covered by sections 20, 36 and Schedule 4 of the Equality Act 2010.

You should think about anything that will weaken their argument, for example if there’s a less discriminatory way to achieve their aim or if their reasons have been inconsistent so don’t seem credible. 

If you identify gaps in your evidence or you think having looked at your evidence and that of your landlord, property manager or controller that they have a stronger case you might decide to gather some more evidence and then reassess your case.

Check how strong your evidence is

You don’t always need to have lots of evidence to have a strong case – it’s usually more important that the evidence is of a good quality. 

Strong evidence could include evidence that is:

• from someone who witnessed the discriminatory incident
• from someone who isn’t linked to either party
• factual – like a letter giving a poor reason for refusing a reasonable adjustment
• put together at the time or soon after the incident

Be careful about making claims or relying on incidents that you don’t have evidence to support – there is a risk that you might have to cover some or all of the other side’s costs if you’ve wasted court time because your claim wasn’t very strong or was bound to fail. There is also risk that it could distract the court’s attention from your stronger arguments. Get help from an adviser if you need help to do this.

Check the court rules you have to follow

If you decide to go to court because you’ve been discriminated against, you’ll be expected to follow the rules on court action. These rules include:

• the Civil Procedure Rules
• the Practice Direction on pre-action conduct
• the Practice Direction – Proceedings under Enactments Relating to Equality

If you or the other side – you’re called ‘the parties’ – don’t follow these rules, the court will take this into account when it makes its decision. If you haven’t done what you’re supposed to, you might find that:

• your case won’t be heard
• you might not be allowed to rely on certain evidence or arguments
• you might be ordered to pay the other side’s legal costs if you lose or run up legal costs unnecessarily by being unreasonable
• you might not recover your costs against the other side if you win the case if you run up legal costs unnecessarily by being unreasonable

The Civil Procedure Rules

The court’s main aim is to make sure that each case is dealt with fairly. If you decide that you want to take someone to court, the court will expect both parties to co-operate with each other as far as possible.

The Civil Procedure Rules are on GOV.UK – they’re there to make sure that:

• the parties are on an equal footing
• the parties have tried to use other methods of sorting out the problem – like alternative dispute resolution
• the parties try to save costs where possible
• the way the case is dealt with reflects how much money is involved, how important or complicated the problem is and the financial position of the parties
• the case it dealt with quickly, efficiently and fairly – the legal term for this is ‘expeditiously and fairly’

Rules you must follow before you go to court

There are rules the parties must follow as general rules of best practice to make sure that time and money aren’t wasted before going to court. The rules are set out in the Practice Direction on pre-action conduct on GOV.UK. It says the parties must:

• let each other see any key documents that are relevant to the issues in dispute
• share the cost of expert evidence where possible

If the claim includes a claim for personal injury, there are special rules that apply these are called the ‘pre-action protocol for personal injury claims’

Start legal action

If you’ve decided that your case is strong enough and you want to start legal action, there are a few steps you’ll need to follow:

1. try to settle your dispute
2. complete a claim form
3. send the claim form to court
4. prepare for court
5. go to a court hearing

There are court rules that you must follow before starting legal action. Some of them are in the ‘pre-action protocol’.

One of the rules says you should write a letter to whoever discriminated against you to say you’re going to start legal action. This is called a ‘letter before action’. You should do this if you have time before the court deadline.

Writing a letter before action could mean that you can resolve your dispute without having to to court. Even if you don’t manage to resolve it, writing the letter helps show you’ve tried to.

The pre-action protocol says that going to court should be a last resort. You can check the protocol on GOV.UK. If you don’t follow the protocol, the court might make you pay extra legal costs.

If you don’t have time before the court deadline to write a letter before action and get a reply, you can go straight to filling in the claim form and send it to the court with your court fee. This could give you time to send a letter to the other side to try to resolve the case and reduce the risk of you having to pay extra costs.

You’ll need to ask the court to issue the claim but not serve it. This means they’ll stamp your form but won’t send it to the other side. If you want to continue with your claim, you’ll need to serve the form on the other side within 4 months. The rules on what you need to do and when in order to serve the claim form are in the Civil Procedure Rules Parts 6 and 7.

Writing a letter before action

If you’ve already made a complaint, you could base the letter on that.

Your letter should include:

• the words ‘letter before action’ at the top
• your name and address
• a summary of the facts
• the basis of your claim – this includes the type of discrimination you think has happened and the sections of the Equality Act 2010 that apply  
• what you want to happen – if you’re asking for money, say how much you want and how you calculated that amount, if you’re asking for a reasonable adjustments, say what it is
• that they need to reply within  a certain time – this should give them a ‘reasonable period’ of time, say 14 days in a straightforward case
• that you’ll start court proceedings if they don’t reply

You must also send to the other side key documents which are relevant to the claim.

Keep a copy of the letter and copies of any documents that you’ve sent. Ask the Post Office for free proof of postage – you might need to prove when you sent your letter.

If you haven’t had a reply after 14 working days, you can start legal action by filling in the claim form.

If they reply but you don’t agree, you can start legal action but you’ll need to show the court you’ve done everything you can to avoid going to court. If the court thinks you’ve gone to court before you’ve followed these rules, you might have to pay the other side’s costs.

Reaching an agreement out of court

It’s a good idea to keep speaking to the other side once you’ve started legal action. You might be able to reach an agreement with them. The pre-action protocol encourages parties to try to settle their case if they can.

If you do, you can stop the legal process – this is called settling. The court might encourage you to try to settle.

You can negotiate even if you’ve tried to reach a settlement before you started legal action.

If you’ve already made your claim you could ask the other side to pay your legal costs and court fees as part of the settlement too.

You should always say what you’re suggesting is “without prejudice save as to costs”. This usually means the court can’t see these discussions when deciding the outcome of your case. They would still be able to see them later on to decide who pays the legal costs.

The court also has a formal process you can follow to try to get a settlement. This called a ‘Part 36’ settlement. You can use this before or after your case has been allocated to a court ‘track’ – unless it’s in the small claims track. Read more about court tracks.

To get a Part 36 settlement you need to write to your landlord giving your settlement offer and a time limit for them to accept or refuse it. You’d explain if it relates to the whole of the claim or part of it and whether you’re making a counterclaim. You’d also explain the costs and what would happen if they accept or refuse.

There are more rules you need to follow if you’re making a Part 36 offer – find out more about part 36 settlements on GOV.UK.

You don’t have to use the Part 36 process – you can make an offer to settle your case in whichever way you choose.

Keep copies of any letters or notes of conversations where you suggested settling the case or going to mediation. You can use these later if you do go to court. If you agree a settlement, get it in writing – you’ll then have a record.

Getting a settlement approved by the court

You should ask the court to approve the agreement you’ve reached. This means it makes an order on the terms that you have agreed and both sides need to stick to it. If one side doesn’t keep to the order, the other side can take action to enforce it.

You’ll need to:

• use form N244 to ask the court for a ‘consent order’

• agree with the other side what the order should say and send a draft to the court with your application

• pay a fee to the court – this is usually £100

• decide which party is going to make the application and pay the fee

You can ask the court to deal with your application without a hearing to save time and costs. If the court can’t deal with your application without a hearing you might be asked to go to court.

Try mediation

If you still can’t sort out your problem, you could ask a mediator to help. A mediator is someone who’s trained to help people resolve disagreements. They won’t take sides. Check if you have to pay for one or agree to share the cost with the other side so before you start.

In most cases mediation will be binding – this means you agree to comply with the decision so you won’t be able to go to court to try to get a different decision. You could start mediation before or after taking court action.

If you’ve already started court action, starting mediation could pause the action (the legal term for this is ‘stayed’). You’ll need to use form N244 to ask the court for this pause and pay a court fee.

The court could also order that you go to mediation and pause the court action in the meantime. If it does, you won’t need to pay a court fee.

If you ask the other side to consider mediation and they refuse, you should ask the judge to take this into account when deciding how to deal with the case and in particular who will pay the costs.

Mediation isn’t compulsory so you can’t be forced to do it but if the other side asks you to consider it and you refuse, you risk the court either ordering that you do or that you pay the other side’s costs even if you win your case. You don’t have to continue with mediation if it isn’t working.

Finding a mediator

Check your local council’s website to see if they can help you find a mediator – they might help even if you’re not a council tenant. You can find your local council on GOV.UK

If you still need help, you can look for a mediator on GOV.UK.

You need to send a ‘claim form’ to your local county court and pay a fee to start the process – get the N1 claim form and the notes on how to complete it on GOV.UK.

Send the claim form if you haven’t had a reply to your letter before action after 14 days (or whatever other period you specified) or if you haven’t managed to reach an agreement out of court.

If you didn’t send a letter before action because you’d have missed the deadline, you should explain this on the claim form.

Start by writing:

• your full name and address in the ‘claimant’ section of the form
• the name and address of the person or business you’re taking action against in the ‘defendant’ section of the form
• what your claim is about and what you want – do this in the ‘brief details of the claim’ section
• that you’re making a claim under ‘Part 4 of the Equality Act 2010’

Make sure you get the name of the defendant right – if you name the wrong person or serve it on the wrong person, the court might say your claim isn’t valid – this is known as ‘striking out’ your case.

If you need help, speak to an adviser at any time – the process can be complicated.

If you’re not sure what to put, you can see an example of a completed claim form [ 18 mb]. 

If you can’t view the example and you’re not sure what to put on your claim form you can contact us.

Complete the ‘value’ section

If you’re claiming money for discrimination, put the amount in the value section. If you’re not asking for money, you should leave this section blank.

You don’t have to give a specific amount – a range will do. Claims can follow 3 different routes depending mainly on how much money is being claimed. Each of these routes is called a ‘track’ and covers a certain amount. The limits of each track are:

• not more than £10,000 – small claims track

• not more than £25,000 – fast track
• over £25,000 – multi-track

Read more about how to work out how much you can claim. 

Complete the ‘particulars of claim’ section

Explain what happened and give the facts in the order they happened. You’ll need to use the evidence you’ve collected to prove these facts in court.

If you don’t have much time, you can send the form first and send the ‘particulars of claim’ up to 14 days later. On the claim form cross out the words ‘attached’ if you’re sending them later. You could use this time to put your particulars of claim together or to negotiate.

If you’re sending the particulars of claim with your claim form and you’ve typed them on separate sheets, you can just say ‘see attached sheets’ and attach them to the form.

If you’re planning to ask the court to issue the claim but want to send it to the defendant yourself, you don’t have to attach the particulars of claim at this point. Make sure you send them with the claim form within 4 months of issuing. Read more about when you might want to send the form yourself.

Make sure you mention:

• why you think you were discriminated against – you’ll need to give the protected characteristic

• the type of discrimination, for example direct discrimination – if there’s more than one that you want to raise, mention them all

• the comparator if it’s direct discrimination (you don’t have to do this but it’s a good idea) – work out who the comparator is

• the provision, criterion or practice which is discriminatory (if it’s indirect discrimination) and why it puts you and other people with your protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage compared to people who don’t share it

• that you’re being treated unfavourably because of something linked to your disability (if it’s discrimination arising from disability) and explain how

• the effect it’s had on you – this could be money you’ve lost or the emotional impact
• the provision, criterion or practice, feature of the property or lack of an auxiliary aid that puts you at a substantial disadvantage compared to someone who isn’t disabled (if it’s a failure to make a reasonable adjustment for your disability) and explain why they’re under a duty to make the adjustment

Describing the circumstances

You need to say which part of the law covers your circumstances – it might be more than one.

If you’re being discriminated against by someone who’s managing a property or tenancies, you should say the discrimination happened during the ‘management of premises’. This is the legal term that covers most things landlords do, like collecting rent and dealing with repairs. You need to say you’re bringing the claim under section 35 of the Equality Act 2010.

If your problem happened during the selling or renting of homes, you can say the discrimination happened during the ‘disposal of premises’. For example, if a landlord refused to show you a particular property because of your race or religion. You need to say you’re bringing the claim under section 33 of the Equality Act 2010.

Say the problem is about ‘permission for disposal of premises’ if the discrimination is by someone who needs to agree to the selling or renting of homes. For example, your landlord might have refused to let you sublet a room in your flat because of the tenant’s religion. You need to say you’re bringing the claim under section 34 of Equality At 2010.

If the problem is about reasonable adjustments, say who the ‘controller of the premises’ is. This could be the person who rents it out or manages it. You should also say that they failed to make reasonable adjustments under section 20 and 36 of the Equality Act 2010 and that you’re bringing the claim under section 21 of the Equality Act 2010.

You’ll then need to say what happened and why it was against the law.

Asking for what you want to happen

Make sure you ask for what you want to happen, like something to be changed. You should say this even if you’ve already asked for money in the ‘value’ section.

You can ask for the discrimination to stop by saying you want an ‘injunction’. This is a way of asking the court to order whoever is discriminating against you to either do something or stop doing something. This could be something like:

• a housing association changing a policy that discriminates against disabled people
• a landlord making a reasonable adjustment
• an estate agent stopping a way of working that discriminates against people of a certain religion

If you run out of space for the particulars of claim

You can write more on a separate page if you can’t fit all the details of the particulars of claim into the box. If you’re using a separate page, write in the box “see attached particulars of claim” or “see attached sheets” if you are just continuing to write on a separate page.

Write:

• ‘Particulars of claim’ at the top
• that you’re the ‘Claimant’ and the person or business you’re making a claim against is the ‘Defendant’
• the claim number if you have one
• the name of the court

Say on the claim form that you’ve attached the particulars of claim.

Write which part of the law covers your claim

You should also say that you’re claiming under ‘Part 4 of the Equality Act 2010’. 

Next write what type of discrimination happened:

Sign the ‘statement of truth’

Make sure you sign the ‘statement of truth’ at the bottom of the form. This means you agree that everything you’ve written is true.

If you used an extra sheet with the ‘particulars of the claim’ on, write another statement of truth there and sign it. Copy the wording from the main claim form.

If you’re not sure what to write, you can see an example of particulars of claim [ 64 kb]. If you can’t access the document you can see this version, but this doesn’t show the formatting the court uses. If you don’t use the format given in the court rules, your case could be affected negatively.

Check all the facts in the claim form are correct before you send it. You should also write a covering letter to go with it. The letter should include details of how you’re paying the fee or if you don’t have to because you’re on a low income.  

Make a copy or take a picture of the form and other documents you’ve included – you might need this later.

You usually need to send 3 copies of everything to the court – they’ll keep one, return one to you and send one to the defendant. If you want to send the form to the defendant yourself, you must say so in your covering letter. Otherwise, the court will send it to the defendant.

You should send the forms to the court or drop them off in person. Get free proof of postage if you post them. Find out which court to send it to on GOV.UK.  It’s usually the court which is closest to the defendant’s address.

If you’ve filled in your form correctly and paid the fee (if you have to), the court will stamp the form and give it a claim number. This is called ‘issuing the claim’.

If you haven’t filled it in properly or have to pay a fee and don’t, they won’t issue your claim. This means you might miss the deadline to make a claim.   

You should also write to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to say you’ve started the court process. Sometimes they can get involved in the case – the legal term for this is intervening.

Check if you should send the form to the defendant

Once the court has issued the claim, it will usually send the form directly to the defendant unless you tell them you’ll send it to them yourself. The legal term for sending the form to the defendant is ‘serving’ it on them.

You’ll still need to send 3 copies to the court – they’ll send 2 copies back so you can pass one to the defendant if you’re serving it on the defendant yourself.

You might want to send the form to the defendant to give yourself more time to either prepare your case or try to settle the case. The court will normally send the defendant the form straight away but if you serve the claim yourself you’ll get 4 months to do it.

You can use the extra time to negotiate with the other side to try to reach an agreement out of court. This is a good idea if you didn’t send a letter before action or if you’re still negotiating but need to issue the claim to meet the deadline. Trying to reach an agreement can help you avoid extra costs in court.

If you’re sending the form yourself, it must reach the defendant within 4 months of when the claim was issued by the court. The court won’t tell you this date, so check Civil Procedure Parts 6 and 7 and Rule7.5 on GOV.UK which will tell you how to work it out.

The rules on service are complicated and vary depending on how you’re going to send the form – electronically, by first class post or personally.

If you want to serve the form electronically, you must get the other side to agree to accept service this way first.

Check if the defendant has given an address for service of documents. If they’re a company, this might be on their headed paper.

If the defendant has given you details for their solicitors, check if they can accept service of the claim. If they can, then send it to their solicitors. If not, send it to the defendant.

If you don’t serve the defendant properly or in time, they could defend the case on the basis that it’s out of time and ask the court to strike out your case. This could mean that you’d lose your opportunity to raise a claim.

If you’re not sure about the deadline, don’t wait until the last few days in case you miss the date for service. Get help from an adviser immediately or check Civil Procedure Rule 6 on GOV.UK.

If you need to serve the claim on someone outside of the UK the rules are different and you should get advice about how to serve the claim. You can also check the rules in Part 6 and Rule 7.5 of the Civil Procedure Rules.

Pay the court fees

For the court to formally start the process, you must send or take your forms and copies to the court and pay a fee – this is called ‘issuing the claim’.

If you’re not asking for money, you need to pay £308 to issue the claim. If you’re asking for money, the cost depends on how much you’re asking for – check the costs on GOV.UK – look for the money claims section for a county court claim.

If you’re asking for money and something else – like an injunction to stop the unfair treatment – you might have to pay a fee for each.

If you’re on a low income, you might get the fees reduced or you might not have to pay any. Check if you can get help with your court costs on GOV.UK.

It’s best to try to pay the fee in person at the court. You can pay by cash, cheque, postal order, debit or credit card. If you don’t pay the correct court fee, the court won’t issue your claim – this could lead to you missing the deadline if you’re close to it.

You might be able to pay with a debit or credit card over the phone – check with your local court first. Find out your court’s contact details on GOV.UK.

After you’ve sent the claim form

If the other side wants to defend the claim, they’ll reply with a defence. This will explain their version of what happened – the court will send you a copy.

They should reply within 14 days of getting the particulars of claim, unless they send you ‘an acknowledgement of service’ – this gives them 28 days in total to send you their defence.

Check what they’ve said in the defence and make a note of anything you disagree with. Gather any evidence you have that proves them wrong – you can use this to defend yourself in court.

If the defendant doesn’t reply, you can apply for ‘default judgment’ – this means you win the case. Find out how to apply for default judgment.

You might still need to go to a hearing for the court to decide certain details. For example, they might want to decide the exact amount of money you’ll be awarded. The court will let you know the details.

If the defendant makes a claim against you

The defendant can take legal action against you if they think you owe them money or that they have another claim against you – this is called a ‘counterclaim’. Their claim might not be about discrimination but the claims usually have to be connected in some way. It will be up to the court whether they’ll allow the claims to be heard within the same case.

For example, you’re asking your landlord to compensate you for discriminating against you – but you owe them lots of rent. Your landlord could make a claim against you for the amount of rent you owe.

If you disagree with their claim, you should respond to their counterclaim with details of what you disagree with – this is called a ‘defence to counterclaim’.

You usually need to respond within 14 days of getting the counterclaim. You can also ask for more to time to send your defence by sending an ‘acknowledgement of service’ first. This will give you 28 days to respond with a defence. Fill in the N9 form on GOV.UK and send this to the court and the defendant.

You’ll need to be able to prove your side of the story, but you don’t need to include evidence with your defence to counterclaim.

You should include:

• your name and the name of the defendant

• details of your defence to the counterclaim and your version of events – you should say whether you admit or deny any claims they’ve made against you

• a signed statement of truth

• the name of the court

• the claim number

If the counterclaim is in numbered paragraphs, use the same structure for your defence – take each paragraph and respond to it. Say which parts of the paragraph you agree with and what parts you disagree with.

You’ll have to prepare a few things before you actually go to court. Make sure you complete everything at the right times so it won’t affect your chances of winning or having to pay extra costs.

The court will send you a ‘directions questionnaire’ to fill in – they’ll use this to decide how to deal with the case.

If you want a specialist to give evidence at court for you, you’ll need to make this clear in the directions questionnaire – this is known as ‘expert evidence’. For example, you might want to use expert evidence if you have a disability and the defendant thinks you don’t. This could be a doctor or other medical professional.

You should use the questionnaire to tell the court:

• any dates that you, your expert or your witnesses can’t go to court

• how many witnesses you have

When the court has decided what directions to give they’ll write to both sides with instructions on what they need to do – this is called a ‘directions order’.

Check which ‘track’ your case is on

The court will put your case on one of 3 routes (called ‘tracks’) based on how much it’s worth and how complicated it is – if it’s less complicated, the process will be less formal. The directions order will tell you which ‘track’ the case has to be placed on.

It’s important to know which track the case has been placed on because this affects what court rules you need to follow and what costs you might have to pay.

Your case could be put on the:

• small claims track – usually for cases that aren’t very complicated and are worth no more than £10,000 (but not harassment or unlawful eviction cases)
• fast track – usually for claims worth more than £10,000 and no more than £25,000 which can be dealt with in a day, although complex ones can go on the multi-track
• multi-track – usually for more complex cases which are worth more than £25,000 or which will take more than 1 day

If your case is on the small claims track, you won’t usually have to pay the defendant’s legal costs if you lose – and they won’t have to pay yours if you win. You might still be able to get the court fees back though. 

The rules on costs in the small claims track are in Civil Procedure Rules, rule 27.14.

It won’t be a small claim if you’ve claimed:

• harassment against your landlord or

• unlawful eviction

This is in Civil Procedure Rules, rule 26.7(4).

The small claims track is not the normal track for claims that include a claim for damages for personal injury if the value of that part of the claim is more than £1,000. This is in Civil Procedure Rules, rule 26.6(1)(a).

If your case is allocated to the fast track or multi-track, unlike in the small claims track, generally the party who loses is ordered to pay the winning party’s legal costs (not just the court fee they incurred). The full list of factors that the court takes into account when deciding to which track to allocate a case is in Civil Procedure Rules, rule 26.8.

Read more about the small claims track, fast track and the multi-track on GOV.UK.

The rules that you have to follow during your case depend on which track your case has been allocated to – there’s a ‘civil procedure rule’ and a ‘practice direction’ for each one. It’s a good idea to read them on GOV.UK so that you know what you’re expected to do:

• small claims track – Civil Procedure Rule 27
• fast-track – Civil Procedure Rule 28
• multi-track – Civil Procedure Rule 29

Asking for what you need if you have a directions hearing

Sometimes the ‘directions’ are dealt with at a court hearing instead. There’ll usually be a first hearing for this – the case itself might be dealt with in later hearings. You’ll still need to give information about your witnesses but can also ask for things like:

• enough time to get statements from your witnesses – say how many days you think it will take
• enough time to prepare for court after getting your landlord’s witness statements – give the number of days
• your landlord’s notes and records about you – this might help you to understand why they’re treating you unfairly
• any policies your landlord might have that are relevant to the situation, for example their policy on supporting disabled tenants
• a specialist to give evidence at court for you, for example a doctor to help you prove you’re disabled if your landlord thinks you’re not – this is known as ‘expert evidence’

The court will normally expect you to use ‘standard directions’. The rules about the directions depend on which track your case has been allocated to.

If your case is on the small claims track the rules on directions are in Practice Direction 27 and you should use the small claims track standard directions in Appendix B on GOV.UK.

If your case is on the fast-track the rules on directions are in Practice Direction 28 and you should use the fast track standard directions in the Appendix on GOV.UK.

If your case is allocated to the multi-track, you’ll be expected to send in draft directions to the court or agree them with the other side. You can find the rules on directions for multi track cases are in Practice Direction 29. You can find examples of ‘multi track standard directions’ on GOV.UK.

Follow the court’s instructions – ‘directions’

The court will send you instructions telling you when and how you need to send evidence. These instructions are called ‘directions’. They could ask you to go to a hearing to decide these instead.

When you get the directions order check the dates and make sure you meet any deadlines.

If you’re trying to reach a settlement, you can apply to the court to pause the legal process and to change the deadlines for your directions – this would give you extra time to negotiate. Both sides should agree to do this.

If you want to do this, fill in the N244 claim form from GOV.UK and send it back to the court as soon as you can. You’ll normally need to pay a fee of £255 to make the application. If you’re applying with the agreement of the other side (the legal term for this is ‘by consent’) the fee will be £100. If you are on a low income you might be able to get help with the fees. 

If your claim is on the small claims track, the court might pause the claim itself without you having to make an application (the legal term of this is ‘stay the claim’) to allow both sides to settle, or it could offer mediation if both sides agree.

Examples of directions

If you’re not sure what to write, you can see an example of directions [ 78 kb]. If you can’t access the document you can see this version, but this doesn’t show the formatting the court uses. If you don’t use the format given in the court rules, your case could be affected negatively.

This example deals with a claim by someone who says his landlord failed to make reasonable adjustments to his property and harassed him because of his disability. His landlord doesn’t agree that he has a disability and so the court has said there needs to be a single joint expert.

As it’s a small claims track case, the court has limited the fee for the expert. If you require more detailed advice and guidance, you can get more help.

If you’re acting as a client’s legal representative you should refer to them as ‘the Claimant’ in the claim form instead of using the first person.

Prepare a witness statement

You’ll need to provide a written witness statement for every person who will give evidence to the court, including yourself – the directions will tell you when you need to send these.

Writing your witness statement can take a long time so make sure you start it early.  

Before writing your statement, make sure you understand and focus on:

• what incidents you say were discrimination – there may be more than one
• what type of discrimination each was – like direct, indirect or a failure to make reasonable adjustments
• what needs to be proved for each type of discrimination
• which facts the other side admits and which they disagree with

You should include all of the facts of your case – include everything you put in your claim form and any added detail. It’s usually best to explain the facts in date order.  

If you have other claims as well as discrimination, you could deal with those separately. For example, explain how you were harassed and then explain how your landlord didn’t do the repairs they should have done within a reasonable time.  

You should attach any relevant documents to the statement too if you refer to them in your witness statement. If you don’t have copies, you need to explain why you don’t in your statement.

If you’re referring to documents in your witness statement, give each one a number – the legal term for this is an ‘exhibit’. Put your initials on the document. For example, if your name is Karen Church you could mark your first exhibit as ‘ KC1’ and then the next one as ‘KC2’. Use the initials and numbers when you refer to the documents in your witness statement.

Don’t be tempted to exaggerate the facts of your case or your claims – this won’t help your case and the court might not believe you. If you say something that’s not true in your witness statement you could be found in ‘contempt of court’ unless you honestly believed it was true.

Explain any big inconsistencies between your statement and that of the other side or your own witnesses. This means that you have an opportunity to put your version forward rather than waiting for the court or other side to highlight the inconsistencies.

Follow the guidance on completing a witness statement on GOV.UK.

Prepare your witnesses

If someone witnessed the discrimination or has information that supports your case, ask them to write a separate statement for you. They should follow the same guidance as you. They’ll need to sign the statement too.

Ask your witness to come to court to give evidence in person – make sure they know the court dates. If they don’t attend, the court won’t give as much weight to their evidence – it’s called ‘hearsay evidence’.

If you know that your witness can’t attend, you can use their statement as evidence but will need to serve a ‘hearsay notice’ when you send their statement saying why they can’t attend. If you don’t do this, their evidence will have even less weight attached to it. The rules about this are in Civil Procedure Rule 33 on GOV.UK.

Example of a witness statement

If you’re not sure what to write, you can see an example of a witness statement [ 100 kb]. If you can’t access the document you can see this version, but this doesn’t show the formatting the court uses. If you don’t use the format given in the court rules, your case could be affected negatively.

This is an example of a witness statement in a direct discrimination case. If you need more detailed advice and guidance, you can get more help. 

Check if you need expert medical evidence

If your landlord, property manager or controller disagrees with any of the parts of your case about your disability, the court might tell you that your own medical evidence is not enough.

You’ll need to go to an independent medical expert to get a ‘joint expert report’. You might need a joint expert report to:

• prove you’re disabled under the Equality Act 2010
• show how your disability affects you
• explain how a reasonable adjustment would stop you being disadvantaged by your disability
• show that because of your disability you’re at a disadvantage compared to non-disabled people
• the impact the discrimination has had on you
• suggest other ways your landlord could have dealt with the problem that would discriminate against you less

This is the strongest sort of evidence because it will be written by an independent specialist, but it can cost hundreds of pounds.

You’ll probably need to make an appointment to see the medical expert.

You’ll need to make sure you comply with any directions from the court about the kind of joint expert report they want you to get. The court might order you to:

• make sure the request for the report asks specific questions or covers specific issues, for example about the impact of your disability

• agree with your landlord on the wording of the letter to the expert and how you’ll ask any follow-up questions

• agree who will provide the report

• agree who will pay the fees, or how they will be shared – they’re usually shared equally unless the court says otherwise

• make sure the report is sent to the court by a particular date

• make sure that the report is sent to your landlord at the same time it’s sent to you

Make sure the expert is aware their report will be used as evidence in court. They’ll need to include a statement saying they understand their duty to the court and have complied with the court rules in Civil Procedure Rules Part 35 and Practice Direction 35. You should ask them to put this statement in the report and sign it:

You can read the rules on joint experts in Civil Procedure Rules Part 35 and Practice Direction 35 on GOV.UK.

If the claim is in the small claims track only some of the usual rules on experts apply. This is in Civil Procedure Rules, rule 27.2.

Show all the evidence you have

The court might tell you to show specific documents to the other side – this could include evidence that helps your case and evidence that doesn’t. The legal term for this is ‘disclosure’.

The court will normally tell you in its directions when you need to disclose them. 

You’ll need to tell the other side about the documents that exist or have ever existed.

A ‘document’ is any form of recorded information – not just something written on paper. It could be an email, a picture, a text message or a video.

You’ll be expected to search your records and disclose anything relevant to the case to the other side even if it doesn’t help your case. Read more about the documents you need to disclose on GOV.UK.

You don’t have to include certain documents. These are called ‘privileged’ and could include things like letters written by your solicitor giving you legal advice on the case. The directions will tell you what to do. Read more in Civil Procedure Rule 31

The rules on disclosure aren’t as strict if your case is on the small claims track. Read more in Civil Procedure Rule 27.

Make a ‘trial bundle’

You need to put together a ringbinder with all the documents relating to the case – this is called a ‘bundle’. Only put in documents which are relevant to your claim – like the relevant sections of the Equality Act 2010 rather than the whole Act.

You should include all of the documents that you’re relying on and and also those from the other side. If the defendant has solicitors acting for them, the court might order them to prepare the bundle.

Arrange the documents into sections – first your claim form, particulars of claim and the defence the court papers, then your witness statement and then any other documents like your letter before action and any other witness statements you have.

Put them in date order and write the page number at the top right hand corner of each page. Don’t put the numbers on until you’re sure your bundle is complete.

You should also write an index page to put at the front of the binder and write ‘Index’ at the top. Write the case name, the name of the court and the case number on the index page and then list all the documents in the binder and their page number.

Send a copy of the index and any documents you haven’t yet sent to the other side and ask them to agree to the bundle. Once they’ve agreed it, you need to send a copy of the trial bundle to the court and keep a copy for yourself. The directions will tell you when you need to do this.

If your case isn’t on the small claims track there are extra rules that you need to comply with when making your trial bundle – read more in Practice Direction 39 para 3.1 on GOV.UK

Example of a bundle index [ 52 kb]

If you can’t view the example and you’re not sure what to put on your bundle index you can contact us.

It’s best to get a lawyer to represent you if you can – for example a solicitor.

You might be able to find free or more affordable legal help before the hearing. If you can’t get legal aid or afford a solicitor, you can represent yourself in court.

The hearing will usually take place in the county court.

You can get a friend or adviser to come with you to the hearing for support. Find out more about going to court without a solicitor or barrister.

You can watch videos on what to expect at court from the Ministry of Justice.

What will happen at court

You might have to go to court more than once. The court might want to deal with some issues before the actual trial to help the case go smoothly. These are called ‘preliminary issues’. If there needs to be a hearing to decide those issues, the hearing is called a ‘preliminary hearing’.

Directions hearing

Usually the first time you go to court, it will be for a short hearing where the judge will decide what the best next steps are – this will include instructions like how and when you need to send evidence. These instructions are called ‘directions’. This hearing is called a ‘directions hearing’.

The directions will depend on things like:

• what type of case it is – including how complex it is

• what both parties are saying – which parts of the case you both agree on and which are in dispute

• what you’re asking the court for

• how long things will take to do

• how many witnesses you’re likely to have

If you missed the deadline for making a claim, the court will need to decide whether to let you make it. If the court decides not to let you make a late claim, it won’t need to make any directions for a full trial and the claim might end there.

Case management hearing and pre-trial review

You might also have to go to court again for the judge to see if the case is ready for the final hearing. At this hearing, the judge might make more directions – this type of hearing is called a ‘case management hearing’.

The judge might also appoint an assessor to consider your evidence and how much compensation you should get. They might also be asked to provide expert information to the court.

There might be another hearing called a ‘pre-trial review’. This hearing is to make sure that the parties and the court knows what issues are outstanding to allow it the case runs smoothly. The court might instead send you a ‘pre-trial checklist’ to complete to get the same information and prepare for the trial.

Getting a pre-trial checklist

You’ll normally be sent a pre-trial checklist (sometimes called a ‘listing questionnaire’) when you’ve finished with the directions. Your answers to the checklist will help the court decide what evidence is likely to be used at the trial so that they can make sure they’re ready.

You can download the pre-trial checklist (called Form N170) on the GOV.UK website or get one in person from the court.

If your case is on the multi-track you should attach a ‘timetable for trial’ to the checklist when you send it back to the court. This says how long each part of the trial should take, for example opening and closing speeches.

You need to follow all the instructions in the directions and the trial timetable. If you don’t the court could:

• count this against you when it makes its final decision

• decide not to hear your case

• refuse to let you use certain evidence or arguments

If you don’t follow the trial timetable and the trial gets delayed, the court could order you to pay the other side’s costs.

Final hearing

If you have to go to court for a full trial, the judge will begin by deciding anything that has a bearing on how the rest of the trial will go. For example, one side might have failed to follow the directions or rules they were supposed to follow before the trial.

The trial is the final hearing and will be when the court hears both sides’ evidence and makes a decision about your case. As you’re making the claim, the court will expect you or your representative to present your evidence first.

If you’re representing yourself you’ll need to be prepared to deal with both your and the other side’s witnesses.

Giving your evidence – ‘evidence in chief ‘

You and anyone who’s given a witness statement will have to give evidence in the witness box under oath.

If a witness can’t attend and you want to rely on their witness statement, you’ll need to ask the court to be allowed to rely on it (usually at least 7 days before the trial). This is called relying on ‘hearsay evidence’. The rules covering this are in Civil Procedure Rules Part 33 on GOV.UK.

You and any witness will be asked to confirm their name, their address, their signature and that they stand by the contents of their witness statement. This is called ‘evidence in chief’.

You’re not usually able to ask your own witnesses any questions because the court will consider that all the information should be in the witness statement, so it’s important to make sure your statements include all you need.

If there are any mistakes in the witness statements, you can ask the judge to let the witness clarify the point – like saying what the mistake is, why it was made and what the correct position is.

Cross-examination

After you or your witness has confirmed their witness statement, the other side or their representative will be able to question them. This is called ‘cross-examination’.

You or your representative will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the other side’s witnesses. Your aim is to support your own case, show any mistakes the other side might have made and show points of dispute.

Re-examination

You might get a chance to ask a few extra questions of your own witnesses if the court allows you to. This might be allowed in cases where you want the witness to address a point that came up during the cross-examination.

You can watch videos on what to expect at court from the Ministry of Justice.

Getting a decision from the court

You might get a decision on the same day, or another day if the court thinks they need more time to decide. The court will make their decision based on the evidence from both sides.

The court will tell you their decision about different aspects of your case, for example:

• if you have a protected characteristic

• if you were discriminated against

• if the other side has an effective defence – for indirect discrimination or discrimination arising from a disability this includes if the discrimination can be justified

The court will decide whether each part of your case is more likely to have happened or be true than not. For example, they might have to decide whether you are more likely than not to have a disability. This is called being proved ‘on the balance of probabilities’.

If you’re claiming money, the court will decide the amount – this could be different to what you asked for. They’ll tell you when and how you’ll be paid.

In cases based on indirect discrimination, if the defendant proves that they didn’t intend to treat you unfavourably then the court can’t look at giving you compensation until it’s considered the other solutions available to it – like injunctions. The rules covering this are in section 119 of the Equality Act 2010.

If the defendant doesn’t pay you, you’ll have to go to court to ask them to ‘enforce the judgment’. Find out more about ‘enforcing a judgment’ on GOV.UK.

If you’re claiming an injunction, the court will decide whether it should be made, what terms to include in it – like if it should say a landlord must make reasonable adjustments within 14 days. It will also decide how long it should last.

Costs

If your case is on the small claims track you won’t normally have to pay the other side’s legal costs even if you don’t win your case. If you win, you won’t be able to claim any legal costs but the court could order that the other side pays your out of pocket expenses – like the court fee or reasonable travel expenses. Read more in Civil Procedure Rule 27.14.

If your case has been allocated to either the fast track or multi-track different rules apply. The court will decide:

• whether one party has to pay the other’s costs
• the amount of the costs
• when they have to be paid

The general rule is that the losing party will be ordered to pay the costs of the winning party but the court can decide to make a different order.

When deciding what costs to order the court will consider:

• the conduct of the parties – including if they followed any pre-action protocol
• whether a party has succeeded on part of its case, even if they didn’t succeed on all of it
• any offer to settle made by a party which is drawn to the court’s attention and wasn’t made ‘without prejudice’

Conduct of the parties includes:

• how they behaved before and during the proceedings and if they followed the court rules
• if it was reasonable for a party to raise, pursue or dispute a particular allegation or issue
• how a party has pursued or defended its case or a particular allegation or issue
• if a claimant who has won all or part of their claim, exaggerated part of it

The court can also order that one party pays part of the other side’s costs or just the costs that relate to a particular part of the case.

The rules on costs are dealt with in Civil Procedure Rule 44.

If you’re not happy with the court’s decision

You might be able to appeal – you’ll need to do this within 21 days of the court’s decision. You’ll also have to pay a fee.

The appeal will only be considered if the judge made a legal mistake. You can’t usually introduce new evidence.

You need to ask the court’s permission to appeal. They’ll refuse if they don’t think you have a good chance of succeeding. The rules on appeals are in Civil Procedure Rule 52.

Get legal advice from a specialist if you want to appeal – it’s very complicated and you should ask a legal adviser if you have a good case.