HM Courts Service - Money Claim Online

“This project is proving its worth. It shows that we can deliver a complex web application, leveraging our existing investment in systems in a matter of months. EzGov Europe played a vital role in that success.”

CASE IN POINT: Money Claim Online, Her Majesty’s Court Service

The Money Claim Online system, designed, developed and implemented by EzGov Europe, was considered to be one of the UK’s first true e-Government transactional applications. Money Claim Online has delivered outstanding business value; the same system has now been running for over 6 years, processing close to ten times the claims than was originally envisaged - and more cases per year than any other single court in Europe.

The system continues to attract positive comments from its users and recently was listed amongst many commercial/retail web services in a “100 most useful websites” feature in the UK press.

Overview of Money Claim Online

The Ministry of Justice (previously Department of Constitutional Affairs) is responsible for the administration of justice in England and Wales while Her Majesty’s Court Service, an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, administers Crown, county and magistrates’ courts. Her Majesty’s Court Service identified a need for a system that would allow any citizen or organisation (or their legal representatives) to pursue a fixed money claim via the Internet.

In response EzGov Europe designed, developed and implemented Money Claim Online in 2002. The system is comprised of two online applications. The first allows a user (citizen or company) to file:

• a ‘Claim’ (for a fixed amount of money up to £100,000) online;
• a ‘Judgment Request’ (which sets a payment schedule for the debt) online;
• a ‘Warrant Request’ (which allows a court bailiff to seize the defendant’s goods) online;
• View the status of a claim.

The target audience is comprised of claimants (citizens and businesses) and small solicitor offices that do not have a computerized case management system that can handle claims. The second application allows a defendant to respond to any claim that was filed against them regardless of the method of submission of the claim. The defendant can:

• file an ‘Acknowledgement of Service’ to confirm receipt of the claim and ask for more time to file a defence;
• file a ‘Defence’;
• file a ‘Partial Admission’ in response to the claim;
• view the status of their defence.

The system was designed to complement an existing bulk upload system which allows volume system users to generate claims electronically, ensuring that useful legacy systems were retained.

EzGov designed, built, and integrated the solution in four months. As with all of EzGov’s systems, it was delivered on time and to budget.

Solution Features

The features of the Money Claim Online system are now accepted best practice features for e-services of this nature, and include the following.

Usability

Money Claim Online was designed to make the claims process as simple and intuitive as possible for the end user, regardless of their level of technical sophistication. The system:

• creates a bespoke route through the claims form depending on their precise situation;
• automatically validates data entered;
• calculates and collects fees;
• provides comprehensive online help through the use of both general and context sensitive help text;
• pre-populates the subsequent Judgement and Warrant forms with claims and defence form data;
• guides the user through the various claim and defence options by interpreting the status of the claim or the status of the defence forms and providing advice tailored to the status in question;
• automatically validates addresses;
• save partially completed forms online and return to them (for example if data required by the form needed to be researched).

The focus on designing the system according to the user’s requirements has since become an accepted best-practice approach to systems interfacing with a large user base. EzGov were among the first companies to take this approach to public-sector systems, and have been refining it ever since.

Accessibility

Money Claim Online is accessible in a number of ways:

• according to WAI accessibility guidelines;
• for visually impaired users (colour-blindness and short-sightedness);
• for those with low connectivity (such as dial-up connections);
• in terms of compliance with the vast majority of browsers (throughout the system’s lifetime).

Security

All data is confidential and visible only to the claimant or defendant until submission takes place. All data is kept for future reference and is available online to the claimant and defendant for one year. Self-selected password access is provided for claimants and a system generated password is printed on claim documentation for defendants. Overall, the system provides a level of security on a par with online banking, and has never suffered a security breach.

Reliability under Load

At peak load, the system was processing more than 24,000 claims per month (when the original requirement was for it to process 30,000 per year). Despite this, the system has proved both reliable and responsive for users. www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/