I had understood that the CPR changed the law and entitled a claimant to liquidate general damages and make a specified claim which could lead to a default judgment for the specified sum rather than for an amount to be decided by the court. However, on several occasions deputies dealing with online money claims have without notice set aside judgments for specified sums which have included a general damages element on the ground that these were strictly unspecified claims and should not have been issued online. They have also struck out the claims and this I regard as way over the top. If they are right then I fancy that 75% of claims made on line should not have been so made. Am I wrong?
No. The received view when the CPR came into force was that the introduction of the specified claim enabled a claimant to claim, say, a fixed sum of £10,000 for damages for personal injury if he chose to do so and that enabled them to enter a default judgment for the specified sum (but distinguish a claim limited to £10,000).
