Form N227 UK: Default Judgment for an Unspecified Sum

At a glance

• What N227 is for: requesting default judgment where your county court claim is for an amount of money "to be decided by the court" — an unspecified or unliquidated sum, such as damages — rather than a fixed figure. See Form N227 on GOV.UK.
• The legal basis: N227 is the practice form for a default judgment request under CPR 12.4(1)(b), which covers claims for "an amount of money to be decided by the court."
• N227 vs N225: N225 is for a specified, fixed sum (CPR 12.4(1)(a)); N227 is for an unspecified amount (CPR 12.4(1)(b)). Filing the wrong one is a common and avoidable mistake.
• When you can file: only once the defendant's time to file an acknowledgment of service or a defence has expired without either being filed — CPR 12.3.
• The deadlines that must expire first: 14 days after service of the particulars of claim for an acknowledgment of service (CPR 10.3); 14 days for a defence too, extending to 28 days if an acknowledgment of service was filed within that window (CPR 15.4).
• What judgment you actually get: judgment on liability for "an amount to be decided by the court" together with costs (CPR 12.5(3)) — the amount itself is worked out afterwards, usually at a disposal hearing, and the court gives directions and, if appropriate, allocates the case (CPR 12.8).
• Court fee for filing N227: filing a request for a default judgment does not itself attract a separate court fee under the current fees order — check GOV.UK for the current position before you rely on this.
• If it goes wrong: the defendant can apply to have the judgment set aside under CPR Part 13, usually using Form N244.

What Form N227 is for

Form N227 is the county court form used to request default judgment where the amount claimed is not a fixed sum and has to be decided by the court. It sits within Part 12 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, which governs default judgments across civil claims in England and Wales. If you haven't yet issued your claim, our guide to county court forms covers the paperwork that comes before N227 becomes relevant.

Under CPR 12.1, "default judgment" means judgment without trial where a defendant has either failed to file an acknowledgment of service, or has failed to file a defence (or any document intended to be a defence). N227 applies specifically where the original claim asked for an unspecified amount of money — for example damages for personal injury, loss caused by a breach of contract, or compensation where the final figure depends on evidence the court has to weigh up.

Filing N227 doesn't hand you a cheque. Under CPR 12.5(3), a default judgment obtained this way is for "an amount to be decided by the court together with costs" — meaning the court decides you've won on liability, then separately works out how much you're owed. It's a procedural mechanism for keeping the case moving when the defendant has chosen not to engage, not a shortcut to a final figure.

Form N227 vs Form N225: how to tell which one you need

CPR 12.4(1) sets out the practice forms for a default judgment request. Where the claim is for a specified amount of money, the relevant forms are N205A or N225. Where the claim is for an amount of money to be decided by the court, the relevant forms are N205B or N227.

| | Form N225 | Form N227 | |---|---|---| | Used for | A specified, fixed sum | An amount "to be decided by the court" | | Legal basis | CPR 12.4(1)(a) | CPR 12.4(1)(b) | | Typical claim wording | A stated total, e.g. an unpaid invoice for £4,200 | "Damages to be assessed" | | What you get on filing | Judgment for the stated amount (less payments made) and costs | Judgment on liability; amount fixed later | | Next step | Enforcement, if unpaid | Usually a disposal hearing to assess quantum |

The distinction turns entirely on how the claim was pleaded, not on how confident you are about the figure:

• Use N225 if your claim form asked for a specific, quantified sum — an unpaid invoice for £4,200, say, or a fixed contractual debt.
• Use N227 if your claim form asked for damages or compensation to be assessed by the court — the particulars of claim will typically say something like "damages to be assessed," rather than stating a final total.

If you're not sure which applies, go back to your original claim form and particulars of claim and check exactly how the sum was worded. Filing the wrong form is one of the most common reasons a default judgment request is rejected or later challenged.

Before you file: the conditions the court will check

CPR 12.3 sets out when a claimant is entitled to a default judgment. In default of an acknowledgment of service, you can request judgment only if the defendant hasn't filed an acknowledgment of service or a defence, and the relevant time for doing so has expired. In default of a defence, you can request judgment only if the defendant filed an acknowledgment of service but no defence, and that time has expired. If any of this terminology is unfamiliar, our county court glossary explains the key terms in plain English.

You cannot obtain a default judgment at all if any of the following apply: the defendant has an undecided application to strike out your case or for summary judgment; the defendant has already satisfied the whole claim, including costs; the defendant has admitted liability for the full amount and asked for time to pay; or notice has been given of an intention to apply for a declaration under section 6 of the Justice and Security Act 2013 in relation to the proceedings and that application hasn't been dealt with (CPR 12.3(3)). Separately, CPR 12.2 rules out default judgment altogether for certain claim types — including claims for delivery of goods under a regulated Consumer Credit Act 1974 agreement, and claims brought using the Part 8 alternative procedure.

The court will also want to see that the particulars of claim were properly served, typically evidenced by a certificate of service on the court file. Where the claim form was served by the claimant, a certificate of service must have been filed before default judgment can be obtained.

The response deadlines that must have expired

Two separate deadlines matter, and it's easy to mix them up:

• Acknowledgment of service: under CPR 10.3, the general rule is 14 days after service of the particulars of claim (or, in some cases, 14 days after service of the claim form itself).
• Defence: under CPR 15.4, the general rule is also 14 days after service of the particulars of claim — but if the defendant filed an acknowledgment of service within that initial 14 days, the deadline for the defence extends to 28 days after service of the particulars of claim. The parties can also agree in writing to extend the defence deadline by up to a further 28 days (CPR 15.5), so it's worth checking whether any such agreement exists before assuming the deadline has passed.

Filing N227 before the relevant deadline has genuinely expired means the conditions in CPR 12.3 weren't met — and under CPR 13.2, the court must set the judgment aside if it later turns out this was the case, regardless of the merits.

Other reasons you might not be able to use N227

A small number of claims can't be dealt with by filing a request at all, and instead require a formal application under Part 23 (CPR 12.11): claims against a child or a protected party, tort claims between spouses or civil partners, and claims where the defendant was served outside the jurisdiction, is domiciled in Scotland or Northern Ireland, is a State, or enjoys diplomatic or international-organisation immunity. Part 8 claims are excluded in a different way — they use their own acknowledgment process, described in our guide to Form N208C, and CPR 12.2 rules them out of the request procedure entirely. If your claim falls into one of these categories, N227 on its own won't be enough — you'll need to make an application instead.

How to complete and file Form N227

The form itself is short: it asks for the claim number, the parties' details, the defendant's date of birth if known (required for an individual defendant under CPR 12.4(2), but not for a company), and confirmation that the defendant hasn't filed an acknowledgment of service or a defence and that the time for doing so has expired. You sign and date it, and — where you're signing on behalf of a company or firm — state the position you hold.

Because the form doesn't ask you to justify the amount you're claiming, accuracy matters at the confirmation stage rather than at the figure stage: if the underlying conditions weren't actually met (for example the deadline hadn't really passed, or the claim had already been satisfied), the judgment is liable to be set aside under CPR 13.2 once the defendant finds out.

Once filed, the court enters judgment and refers the file to a judge, who gives directions for managing the case, including, if appropriate, its allocation. In the County Court, where the judgment includes an amount to be decided, the claim is sent to your preferred hearing centre for that next stage (CPR 12.6).

What judgment you actually get, and what happens next

Under CPR 12.5(3), the judgment you obtain is for "an amount to be decided by the court together with costs" — not the figure you may have estimated on your claim form. CPR 12.8 governs what happens next: once the court enters judgment, it gives any directions it considers appropriate and, if it considers it appropriate, allocates the case — which in practice usually leads to case management under Part 26, including allocation to a track.

The disposal hearing: proving what you're owed

In practice, this usually means the court lists a hearing — commonly called a disposal hearing or an assessment of damages — to decide how much the defendant must actually pay. This is the step people underestimate: default judgment establishes liability, not quantum. You still have to prove your loss with evidence — invoices, receipts, quotes, medical reports, correspondence, or witness statements — even though the defendant has taken no part in the case. The court will not simply award the figure on your claim form without evidence supporting it.

Interest

If your claim included interest, how it's dealt with depends on the type of claim. For a specified sum, interest to the date of judgment can sometimes be included automatically in the request if strict conditions are met (CPR 12.7(1)). Where the amount is unspecified — as with N227 — those conditions don't apply, so judgment will instead be for an amount of interest to be decided by the court alongside the main assessment, rather than calculated automatically at the request stage (CPR 12.7(2)).

Enforcing the judgment once quantum is fixed

Winning at the disposal hearing gives you a judgment for a fixed sum, but it doesn't collect the money automatically. If the defendant still doesn't pay voluntarily, you'll need a separate enforcement step — commonly a warrant or writ of control, a third-party debt order, or a charging order, depending on the sum involved and what the defendant owns. The mechanics of applying for a writ of control work the same way whatever the underlying judgment was for; our guides on enforcing a COT3 settlement with a writ of control and enforcing an unpaid COT3 settlement walk through how that process works in practice.

Court fees for Form N227 and what happens if the defendant fights back

Fee for the original claim vs the N227 request

Under the current civil court fees order, a request for a judgment on admission or in default does not itself count as an "application" for fee purposes — so filing N227 carries no separate court fee. This is different from the fee you already paid to issue the claim in the first place, which was calculated from the value you gave the claim on the claim form (or, if no value was identified, the top fee band applies). Court fees are set out in statutory instruments and are periodically uprated, so always check the current fee schedule on GOV.UK rather than relying on a figure quoted elsewhere.

If you're struggling to afford a court fee at any stage of your claim, you may be able to apply for help with fees depending on your income and savings.

If the defendant applies to set aside the judgment

Under CPR Part 13, a defendant has two routes to challenge a default judgment. The court must set the judgment aside if it was wrongly entered in the first place — for instance if the conditions in CPR 12.3 weren't actually satisfied, or the whole claim had already been paid before judgment was entered (CPR 13.2). In any other case, the court may set aside or vary the judgment if the defendant has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim, or there's some other good reason to do so — and the court must take into account how promptly the defendant applied (CPR 13.3). This is normally done using Form N244, which carries its own court fee separate from anything payable at the N227 stage; check the current fee schedule for the amount, as it varies depending on whether the application is made on notice or by consent.

If you had abandoned a claim for some other remedy in order to obtain default judgment by request, and that judgment is later set aside, the abandoned claim is automatically restored (CPR 13.6).

Don't let the claim go stale

If the defendant hasn't responded and you don't move to default judgment, the claim doesn't stay open indefinitely. Under CPR 15.11, a claim is automatically stayed once at least six months have passed since the deadline for filing a defence, provided no defendant has served or filed a defence, counterclaim or admission, no party has entered or applied for judgment under Part 12 (default judgment) or Part 24 (summary judgment), and no defendant has applied to strike out all or part of the claim. Getting a stay lifted means making a fresh application under Part 23 and explaining the delay — an entirely avoidable extra step if you act on the deadlines as they pass.

Worked example (fictional)

Priya runs a small landscaping business and sues a client for breach of contract after unfinished, defective work caused her to incur costs putting things right. Because the final cost of remedial work wasn't fully known when she issued the claim, her particulars of claim asked for "damages to be assessed" rather than a fixed sum — an unspecified claim.

The defendant is served, doesn't file an acknowledgment of service, and the 14-day deadline passes. Priya checks her service certificate is on the court file, confirms the conditions in CPR 12.3 are met, and files Form N227. The court enters judgment on liability and lists a disposal hearing. Before the hearing, Priya gathers invoices from the contractor who fixed the defective work, photographs of the original problem, and her own witness statement explaining the losses. At the hearing, the judge assesses the sum based on that evidence — not on the estimate Priya originally had in mind. The defendant still doesn't pay, so Priya applies for a warrant of control to enforce the judgment.

Practical checklist before you file

1. Confirm the claim is genuinely unspecified. Check your particulars of claim — if a fixed sum was pleaded, you need N225, not N227.
2. Check the deadline has actually expired. Fourteen days for an acknowledgment of service (CPR 10.3); fourteen or twenty-eight days for a defence depending on whether one was filed (CPR 15.4).
3. Check nothing rules out default judgment. No pending strike-out or summary judgment application, no admission with a time-to-pay request, and the claim type isn't excluded under CPR 12.2 or CPR 12.11.
4. Check service is properly evidenced. A certificate of service should be on the court file if you served the claim yourself.
5. File Form N227, confirming the position accurately — the conditions you're certifying are what CPR 13.2 will test if the defendant later challenges the judgment.
6. Prepare for the disposal hearing. Start gathering evidence of your loss as soon as judgment is entered — invoices, quotes, correspondence, medical evidence, or anything else that supports the sum you're asking the court to award.
7. Plan for enforcement. If the defendant doesn't pay once the amount is fixed, be ready to apply for a warrant or writ of control, a third-party debt order, or a charging order.

This guide provides general information about Form N227 and default judgment procedure in England and Wales. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice tailored to your specific circumstances — the right approach can depend heavily on how your particular claim was pleaded and served. The law described was accurate as at July 2026 and is subject to change; always check GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk for the current position before you rely on it.

Last reviewed: July 2026 by a non-practising solicitor · Next review due: July 2027 or on legislative change.