After years of having a centralized small claims process, the State of Connecticut will be decentralizing its Small Claims Courts. The small claims docket will be returned to the individual judicial districts and housing courts. The decentralization process will be fully implemented by October 16, 2017 with parties filing all new cases with the appropriate judicial district or housing session and not Centralized Small Claims.

The decentralization process is scheduled to begin in August this year. By September 1, 2017 attorneys and litigants will notice the first changes in court operation. All new cases filed as of this date will be assigned an answer dated on or after October 16, 2017. They will also be transferred from Centralized Small Claims to the appropriate judicial district or housing session. Additionally, all existing cases which require a hearing date after September 1, 2017 will also be transferred to the appropriate judicial district or housing session. No hearings will be scheduled by Centralized Small Claims after Friday September 1, 2017. A court notice containing a new docket number will be sent to all the parties and attorneys in each which has been transferred. Any new cases or documents which need to be filed on matters which were not transferred will continue to be filed either electronically or on paper through Centralized Small Claims up through and until 5 PM on October 13, 2017. This date represents the end of Centralized Small Claims filing. However, just keep the process a little confusing there is an exception to this rule.

Effective October 16, 2017 all new cases will be filed with the appropriate judicial district or housing session instead of through Centralized Small Claims. A party or counsel who needs to file on a matter which has not been transferred from Centralized Small Claims after this date should still file the appropriate documentation with the appropriate judicial district or housing session. The clerk will then have the file transferred from Centralized Small Claims to the appropriate judicial district. And here is the exception to the rule. Any e-filing of executions after this date on non-transferred cases should continue to be done through the Centralized Small Claims the filing system. Their filing will trigger the generation of a new docket number and the transferring of the file to the appropriate judicial district.

These changes represent a significant change in the civil process and workflow of the small claims court system in Connecticut. They also represent changes that will affect litigants for some time to come. Small claims judgments in Connecticut are enforceable for up to 10 years. Given that only pending cases are being transferred to the individual judicial districts litigants will necessarily face at least some minor delays in having executions processed while the files are transferred from storage at Centralized Small Claims for a clerk to review and process the execution upon filing. Additionally, it is expected that each courthouse will need some time to ramp up and iron out the procedures for adding the small claims docket into its routine. My understanding is that the staff from Centralized Small Claims will be redistributed throughout the court system to handle the increased work load at the individual court houses. However, the staff may not be doing the same job they traditionally performed at Centralize Small Claims.

I don't believe this is going to represent any decline in services being offered to the general litigant. However, this is a new process that is going to take some time for the system to adapt to. There's also potential for short-term significant delay in the processing time of new suits.

Our Blog

Connecticut Decentralizes Small Claims

A Wallingford Community Based Law Firm

Contact Us For a Complimentary Consultation

(203)678-4376﻿

(203)678-4376