Electronic Transfers

The County Court Bulk Centre, under the name of Northampton County Court, processes 54% of all county court claims for money. On 5 June a pilot testing electronic transfer between the Centre and firms of solicitors, finance houses, banks, water companies and other claimants was introduced. Two firms of solicitors, Geoffrey Parker-Bourne of Stratford-upon-Avon and Thomas Higgins & Co, of Wallasey have volunteered to test the system which will allow requests for claims for money, judgments and warrants to be sent electronically to the Centre instead of tapes or floppy disks being sent by courier or post. Ken Fraser, the Centre Manager, said that electronic transfer will provide an improved service to a significant number of county court customers making it more attractive to claimants, freeing up local county court staff to focus on disputed claims. It is intended that the service should be available to all customers of the Centre from the autumn.