As of 13 August 2026, AI cannot prepare a defence to a County Court claim.

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 gets you a draft, but you cannot verify it yourself. That is the catch.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the claim form, particulars of claim and every letter or order from the County Court, then save clear copies with unnecessary personal data removed where possible.
   2. Gather your contract, invoices, messages, payment records, photographs and other evidence, and write your account in date order without guessing at missing facts.
   3. Paste the papers and factual account into the prompt, keeping each document under a clear heading and stating which pages or paragraphs belong to which document.
   4. Ask the chatbot to produce the allegation table, evidence map, missing-information list and working draft in separate sections as specified in the prompt.
   5. Compare every proposed admission, denial, amount, date and factual statement against the original claim papers and your records, deleting anything unsupported or marked as invented.
   6. Send the claim papers, the checked working draft and the missing-information list to a solicitor, and use only the solicitor-approved version in accordance with the court's instructions.

   Prompt

   You are helping me prepare a working draft for a response to a County Court claim in England and Wales. This is not professional advice, and the draft must be checked by a solicitor before filing.
   
   Use only the information in the claim papers and my factual notes below. Do not invent facts, evidence, dates, amounts, legal authorities or procedural rules. If information is missing, write [MISSING INFORMATION] and list the exact question I need to answer. Do not decide that a fact is admitted, denied or disputed unless the supplied material supports that treatment.
   
   First, summarise the claimant's case in a table with the paragraph or page supporting each point. Then list the allegations that need a response, the facts that support my position, the evidence available for each fact, and the weaknesses or uncertainties in my account. Identify any apparent issues concerning jurisdiction, limitation, standing, contract formation, breach, loss, causation, payment, set-off or other relevant matters, but label each as an issue to ask a solicitor about rather than as a conclusion.
   
   Next, produce a cautious draft response in the same order as the particulars of claim. For each allegation, use only an appropriate admission, denial or statement that I cannot admit or deny based on the information supplied. Give a short factual reason for every denial or non-admission. Keep the draft separate from your commentary and do not include a statement of truth or signature for me to adopt.
   
   Finish with a checklist of missing documents, unanswered factual questions, filing or service instructions that must be confirmed from the court papers or GOV.UK, and questions for a solicitor. Flag anything that could require urgent action. Do not tell me to file the draft until a solicitor has checked it.
   
   Claim form and particulars of claim:
   [PASTE THE RELEVANT PAPERS HERE]
   
   Court correspondence and instructions:
   [PASTE THE RELEVANT PAPERS HERE]
   
   My factual account, in date order:
   [PASTE YOUR ACCOUNT HERE]
   
   Documents and evidence available:
   [LIST OR PASTE THEM HERE]

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