Law firms are delaying the processing of thousands of claims at the new centralised facility in Salford by stopping cheques and sending duplicate documents, the centre has complained.

In the six months to 7 September, firms stopped 872 cheques, worth £167,140, that they had sent to the County Court Money Claims Centre, requiring the cheques to be reissued and wasting more time while they cleared.

The centre says firms are also delaying proceedings by sending the same documents twice. More than 1,000 duplicates were sent to Salford in the week beginning 3 September, all of which needed to be matched with the original file. National business centres cluster manager Jonathan Wood maintained the facility is making ‘real progress’, but that ‘efficiencies could be further improved’ if firms avoided basic errors. ‘Stopped cheques cause real difficulties,’ he said.

Some cheques are automatically stopped if they are not cleared in three or four days, while others are cancelled because the firm believes Salford has not received them, Wood said. Others are stopped because the case has settled. ‘But no matter the reason, it is always faster and simpler to apply for a refund,’ Wood added.

In the case of duplicate documents, firms typically email a document and then send a copy by post. Wood said: ‘Salford receives some 1,800 claims every day, which we are currently turning around in five days. Our target is three days, but we won’t achieve this if we continue to receive 1,000 duplicate documents a week.

‘For every duplicate, it takes, say, 30 seconds to open the envelope and 30 seconds to locate the appropriate file. That’s 1,000 minutes or around 16 and half hours every week that could have been better spent.’