N211 Claim Form Part 20 Claims

If you are the Defendant in legal proceedings, you will very often want to make a claim against a third party (called an additional claim or subsidiary claim) which arises out of the same facts or events. For example, in a road traffic accident claim the Defendant may want to argue that the accident was actually caused by the driver of another car, or a Defendant who is being sued for selling faulty goods may want to make his own claim against the manufacturer of those goods.

Sometimes a Defendant will feel that he has a claim against the Claimant (called a counter-claim) which he wants to have dealt with at the same time as the main claim. For example, the defendant in a breach of contract case may want to argue that the Claimant also breached his contract, or a defendant who is accused of supplying goods which didn’t match their description may want to counter-claim against the Claimant because his cheque bounced.

The N211 Claim Form can be used to start an additional or subsidiary claim or a counterclaim. It is issued by the court in the same way as a normal claim, and the claim form then needs to be served on the additional Defendant in the manner set out in the Civil Procedure Rules.