County Court Claim Response Deadline: 14 Days, Deemed Service and How to Calculate Your Date

The deadline to respond to a county court money claim is not calculated from the day you opened the envelope. It runs from the "deemed service date" — a legal fiction that varies depending on how the claim was issued. Get the date wrong by even one day and the claimant can request an immediate default judgment against you.

How Deemed Service Works

The Civil Procedure Rules set three different deemed service calculations depending on the route the claim took:

Paper claims (Form N1 sent by post): Deemed served on the second business day after posting, under CPR 6.14. If the claimant posted the claim on a Thursday, deemed service falls on the following Monday (skipping Saturday and Sunday).

MCOL (Money Claim Online) claims: Deemed served on the fifth calendar day after the issue date printed on the claim form, under Practice Direction 7C. Calendar days include weekends — so a claim issued on Wednesday is deemed served the following Monday.

OCMC (Online Civil Money Claims): The digital dashboard shows an explicit "respond by" date. This aligns with 14 calendar days from deemed service of the particulars.

The critical point: the date you physically received or opened the papers is irrelevant. Courts will not accept "I didn't open it until day 10" as a reason for a late response.

The 14-Day and 28-Day Windows

Once you know your deemed service date, two response windows open:

14 days from deemed service: You must file either a full response (defence, admission, or payment) or an Acknowledgment of Service. Missing this date lets the claimant apply for default judgment — a CCJ entered against you without a hearing.

28 days from deemed service: If you file an Acknowledgment of Service within the first 14 days, your deadline to file a defence extends to 28 days total from deemed service. This is automatic — you do not need court permission. The acknowledgment itself is straightforward: it simply tells the court you intend to defend, buying you the extra two weeks to prepare your case.

Worked Example

A paper claim is posted on Thursday 5 February. Deemed service is Monday 9 February (second business day). The 14-day deadline falls on Monday 23 February. If you file an Acknowledgment of Service on or before 23 February, the defence deadline extends to Monday 9 March (28 days from deemed service).

If 9 March falls on a bank holiday, the deadline rolls to 4:00 PM on the next business day.

Extending Beyond 28 Days

Under CPR 15.5, you and the claimant can agree in writing to extend the defence deadline by up to an additional 28 days — creating a maximum of 56 days from deemed service. You must notify the court of this agreement in writing. Informal phone conversations or email exchanges without a clear written agreement carry no procedural weight.

Any extension beyond the CPR 15.5 ceiling requires a formal court application and a judge's order.

Weekend and Bank Holiday Rules

If your calculated deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or bank holiday, it automatically rolls forward to 4:00 PM on the next business day. Paper filings arriving at court after 4:00 PM are treated as filed the following business day. OCMC/MCOL digital submissions are timestamped on the day of receipt, but filings after 4:00 PM for court-actionable deadlines are treated as received the next working day.

Settlement discussions, pre-action correspondence, or mediation offers do not pause or extend your deadline. The clock keeps running unless formally extended under CPR 15.5 or by court order.

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

The claimant can request a default judgment — a County Court Judgment entered against you without any hearing. A CCJ stays on the Register of Judgments for six years, damaging your credit rating for mortgages, car finance, and business accounts.

You can apply to set aside a default judgment, but it requires a separate application on Form N244, a court fee (£321 on notice or £126 by consent), and you must show a real prospect of successfully defending the claim.

The simplest protection is filing an Acknowledgment of Service within 14 days. It takes a few minutes online or one page by post, and it doubles your preparation time.

If you have been served with a county court money claim and need a step-by-step system for calculating your deadline, filing your response, and preparing your defence, the England & Wales Money Claim Response Guide walks you through every stage from the moment the papers arrive.

See more England and Wales guides →