As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly make a small claim for an unpaid invoice.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the current GOV.UK guidance for making a court claim for money and record which UK jurisdiction, court route and defendant details apply to your case.
   2. Gather the signed contract or agreed terms, purchase order, invoice, delivery or completion evidence, account statement, payment history and all relevant correspondence.
   3. Create a fact sheet containing the claimant and defendant's legal names and addresses, invoice amount, due date, work or goods supplied, payments received and the reason the balance remains unpaid.
   4. Paste the fact sheet and documents into a chatbot with the supplied prompt, asking it to draft the chronology, letter before claim, particulars of claim and filing checklist.
   5. Compare every amount, date, name and factual assertion in the drafts against the original contract, invoice and correspondence, and remove anything the evidence does not support.
   6. Send the corrected pre-action letter using the current GOV.UK guidance, record the date and response deadline, then use GOV.UK's current filing instructions or ask a solicitor to check the claim before you issue it.

   Prompt

   I need help preparing a possible UK small claim for an unpaid business invoice. This is not professional advice. Do not decide facts, invent evidence, or present assumptions as facts.
   
   Jurisdiction and court location: [England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, plus the relevant location]
   Claimant: [business name and legal form]
   Defendant: [customer's legal name, trading name if different, address and company number if known]
   Invoice number and date: [details]
   Amount unpaid and currency: [amount]
   Due date and payment terms: [details]
   Contract, purchase order or agreed terms: [paste the relevant text]
   What was supplied and when: [plain factual summary]
   Evidence of delivery, acceptance or completion: [details and document names]
   Payments, credits or disputed amounts: [details]
   Correspondence and payment demands: [paste relevant messages with dates]
   Interest or compensation claimed: [details, or say unknown]
   
   First, identify the information that is missing and any facts that need checking. Then produce:
   1. A factual chronology.
   2. A table matching each part of the claim to the document that supports it.
   3. A draft letter before claim that does not threaten anything the court rules do not permit and does not state uncertain legal conclusions as facts.
   4. Draft particulars of claim in plain language, clearly separating facts, the amount claimed and any interest that needs confirmation.
   5. A filing checklist based on the current GOV.UK guidance for the stated UK jurisdiction, including the correct defendant details, evidence, deadlines, fees and service requirements. Do not guess any current fee, deadline or interest rate. Mark each item that I must confirm on GOV.UK or with a solicitor.
   6. A list of issues serious enough to take to a solicitor before sending or filing.
   
   Use only the information I provide and clearly label every uncertainty. Do not tell me that I have a valid claim unless the relevant legal and factual points have been checked by a qualified solicitor.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.