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In the United Kingdom, the decision of which court will hear a complaint is made in part by information that is gathered from the people involved in the situation via a document called and allocation form.

After the claimant and defendant have filled out the allocation form, the personal claim will be assigned to a particular court.

Then, the injured party and the other person or persons will get instructions, also called 'directions,' that explain what information and preparations have to be done to move the injuries claim process forward in accordance with specific rules. If either party fails to follow the instructions, their personal claims case could be postponed and they could be forced to pay the costs of the action.

There are some standard instructions for certain kinds of claim for injuries. For example, each individual involved may be instructed to send documents regarding what they are claiming to each other at least fourteen days before the scheduled hearing. Or for cases that have claimed that the injuring was due to a faulty product, there are specific documents that the claimer must send to the defendant. Or if the personal injuries or other aspects of the evidence have been documented on video, the court has to be notified ahead of time to make sure that the officials have time to personalise the available equipment to your needs.

Once the date has been set to hear the injury claims case, the plaintiff may choose to request an alternate date. For instance, perhaps the actual travel to the court would possibly injure the individual further. Or it could be that the cost of travelling to the court date would be greater than the award that the hearing may produce. A written request can be made to postpone the hearing for a fee, and the request will be granted only if the court feels that the reasons for the request are valid. This request must be received no more than seven days before the scheduled date. Yet this is not the ideal course of action in all of the U.K. In Northern Ireland, missing a scheduled hearing is not a good idea, as it actually injures the individual's case.

However, the case may not actually be allocated to a track. Instead, the court may propose that the case is handled without a hearing. In this case, the judge would give the parties time to object to this idea and if no one responds, that will be considered as agreement. The judge could then make a decision based on the submitted papers only. Again, this is another reason why filling out the forms in the beginning as accurately as possible can prove to be even more important. Or, he could feel that a preliminary hearing is necessary in order to clarify or explain certain aspects of the case, especially if he is not sure that the plaintiff has a strong enough case to warrant a regular hearing. If a mediator is suggested, the parties don't have to refer to the personals in order to find a reputable third party. Instead, throughout Great Britain, the court or the local Citizen Advisory Bureaux can assist in locating someone to help.