Cases are dealt with differently in Small Claims Court. It is supposed to be much simpler so that anyone can deal with their own case from start to finish without using a solicitor.

Ask your local County Court for a document known as a "Claims Form", you will need to complete this with details of what you are claiming and against whom.

You may also have to pay a court fee. This will depend upon how much you are claiming. You can claim this fee back from your opponent, if you win your case. (This is known as Fixed Costs).

If you start claim you will be called "Claimant" and your opponent will be called "Defendant".

The procedure starts with claimant filling out a standard form, which sets out details about claim and various parties. This is returned to Court office with appropriate fee.

A summons is then sent out to Defendant who may choose to pay up in full. However, they also have option to admit part of claim and pay that part or request to pay by instalments, or may also dispute claim in its entirety.

Cases are usually heard by a District Judge. However, if case is complex it can be referred to a higher judge known as a Circuit Judge.

If any part of claim is disputed, matter goes to a Court hearing where evidence is heard in informal surroundings, usually around table in judge's chambers.

Judges tend to be very patient with lay claimants, who will be nervous and unaccustomed to court procedures. However, interruptions, verbal abuse and unreasonable behaviour will be frowned upon.

You may freely reprint this article provided author's biography remains intact:

Step 3 - Annual Mileage If your annual mileage is, 5,000 miles or less, ask insurers if they offer discounts for agreed mileage restrictions.

Step 4 - Named Drivers Adding a named driver to your policy can increase or reduce your premiums depending upon named drivers age, sex and driving record. Adding a young driver will increase your premiums, particularly with a limited or poor driving record. However, adding a driver over 30 years old with a long and clean driving record can cut premiums, particularly if named driver is female!

Step 5 - Shop Around The biggest car insurance savings come from shopping around. This has been made much easier with explosion of internet. There can be massive differences between lowest and highest car insurance quotes for exactly same car and driver(s). Start off using good comparitive online car insurance quote sites like Moneysupermarket and Screentrade, take their best quotes and go direct to cheapest car insurance companies for more specific quotations.