Glossary · UK
What is Money Claim Online (MCOL)?
An HM Courts and Tribunals Service website that lets people and businesses issue a simple money claim against a debtor over the internet, without needing to attend a court building.
Full Definition
Money Claim Online (MCOL) is a service run by HM Courts and Tribunals Service that allows a claimant to issue a claim for a fixed amount of money -- for example an unpaid invoice, a loan that has not been repaid, or a small business debt -- against a defendant in England or Wales entirely online, without needing to complete paper court forms or attend a court building in person to start the process. The claimant registers an account, enters the defendant's details and the amount and basis of the claim, and pays a court fee (which scales with the size of the claim) online; the claim is then served on the defendant, who has a set period to respond, admit, defend, or ignore it. If the defendant does not respond within the deadline, the claimant can normally request a default judgment, which becomes a County Court Judgment (CCJ) recorded against the defendant, and if the claim is defended, it is typically transferred out of the online system to a local County Court and allocated to the appropriate track -- most commonly the small claims track for lower-value disputes -- for the dispute to be resolved in the usual way. MCOL is popular for straightforward, undisputed or lightly disputed debt claims precisely because it avoids much of the paperwork, cost and formality of starting a claim through a traditional paper-based county court process.