How we check

How the information in Be Small Claims Wise is prepared, checked and kept up to date.

Where the content comes from

The app and guides were prepared by a retired solicitor qualified in England and Wales (LLB, LLM). Every rule, form, fee and deadline was taken from a primary source read on 30 September 2026: the Civil Procedure Rules and Practice Directions on justice.gov.uk, the Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008 and other legislation on legislation.gov.uk, HM Courts & Tribunals Service and gov.uk guidance, the Ministry of Justice's Civil Justice Statistics, and court judgments on Find Case Law. The full list is on the Sources page and each guide lists the sources it relies on.

What we do when sources disagree

Guidance pages sometimes lag behind the law. Where that happened on 30 September 2026 (for example a gov.uk page still quoting the old 7-day bailiff notice period or the pre-July 2026 warrant fee) we followed the legislation and say so in the guide. Where a point could not be verified from a primary source, the guides either leave it out or say that it is unsettled.

What we do not do

We do not give legal advice, and nothing here is tailored to your case. The documents the app drafts are for you to check, complete and take responsibility for.
We do not help anyone avoid paying a debt they owe. ClaimsBot declines such requests and points to free debt advice.
We do not carry a named reviewer; the guides are checked against the sources listed, not against an individual's opinion.

Keeping it current

Court fees usually change in the spring or summer; enforcement agent fees changed on 1 May 2026; the small claims mediation pilot runs to 6 April 2027.

Since October 2026 the official pages behind the questions and answers are also checked automatically. Every night a small program re-reads a few of the 37 pages we rely on, on a rota: the pages most likely to change (court fees, Help with Fees, the late payment rate, the Bank Rate, GOV.UK money-claim guidance, bailiff rights, the CCJ register pages) about once a week, and the Civil Procedure Rules, Practice Directions, the Fees Order, the bailiff fee regulations, HMCTS statistics, Simple Procedure and the Northern Ireland guidance about once a month. If a page has changed in a way that affects an answer, a suggested rewrite is put in front of the editor. Nothing is published automatically: only wording the editor has approved appears on the site, marked “Updated” with the date. Answers with no fixed official page behind them (debt collection agencies, the glossary) are re-read by hand every 90 days. The full list of pages is on the Sources page.

We also re-check the sources when changes are announced and record what changed on the Recent changes page. If you spot an error, use the contact page.