Record county court claims mean more work for solicitors — if they can get through the door

Record county court claims mean more work for solicitors — if they can get through the door

Civil justice statistics show 571,250 claims lodged in Q2 2026, the highest since quarterly records began. We look at what the surge means for litigation solicitors, default judgments and court timetables.

The headline numbers

The Ministry of Justice has published its latest civil justice statistics for April to June 2026, and the headline is hard to miss: 571,250 new claims were lodged at the county court, an 11% jump on the same quarter last year and the highest figure since the MoJ began publishing quarterly data in 2009.

Judgments are also at a record level. The courts issued 368,000 judgments in the same three months, up 26% year on year. Of those, 94% were default judgments — orders made because the defendant did not respond or defend the claim.

For litigation solicitors, the numbers are not just a news story. They are a workload signal.

What is driving the surge?

Money and damages claims accounted for 91% of all new claims. The MoJ says the increase was “likely driven by a rise in claims to recover monies in relation to parking on private land”. Claims valued under £500 rose 21% year on year to 245,000.

There was also a small rise in non-money claims, which the MoJ attributes to “an increase in claims for return of goods”. Together, these trends suggest a growing volume of low-value, high-volume disputes working their way through the county court system.

What it means for litigation solicitors

More claims ought to mean more instructions, but the reality is more nuanced. The bulk of the increase is in small claims and other low-value tracks where legal representation is often uneconomic. Solicitors will need to think carefully about which instructions are viable and how to price them.

For firms with a commercial or debt recovery practice, the surge in parking and money claims is an obvious opportunity — especially for clients managing portfolios of claims. But it also brings operational pressure: bulk claims require efficient systems, clear client communication and tight case management.

The data also underlines the importance of early advice. Many of the record judgments are defaults, suggesting defendants either ignored the claim or did not understand the process. There is room for solicitors to offer fixed-fee review services, settlement negotiations or defence work before a judgment is entered.

Court delays are still there

The median wait from issue to trial for fast, intermediate and multi-track claims was 55.9 weeks, 6.1 weeks faster than a year ago. Small claims took a median of 41 weeks, 0.7 weeks longer.

That is progress on higher-value cases, but the mean figures tell a less cheerful story. The average wait for small claims was 48.5 weeks and for other claims 69.1 weeks. Both are still around nine weeks slower than the pre-Covid baseline of Q4 2019.

For solicitors, the message is clear: even with more claims coming in, the timetable to trial remains stretched. Case strategy, disclosure and settlement discussions need to assume continued pressure on court lists.

Judicial review is back

Away from the county court, judicial review applications also jumped. There were 1,328 received in the quarter, up 42% on the previous year and the highest level since the end of 2012. Of those, 890 were “other civil” applications, the highest since quarterly reporting began in 2007.

That is a separate workload stream, but it points in the same direction: more people and organisations are turning to the courts to resolve disputes, and the legal sector needs the capacity to respond.

Our view

The record number of county court claims is not automatically good news for litigation solicitors. Much of the growth is in low-value, often unrepresented claims that do not fit traditional hourly-rate models.

But the data does reveal clear opportunities: bulk debt recovery, pre-action advice, default judgment set-asides, and fixed-fee services for defendants who receive a claim and do not know what to do next.

The firms that benefit will be the ones that adapt their pricing, processes and intake to a busier, more digital county court. The rest risk watching the work go past their door.