CCBC system testing

Hints and tips

This guide had been written in order to speed up the testing process.
If you have any questions, please contact the County Court Bulk Centre (CCBC) who will assist you.

Before testing commences

You will have been provided with a Customer code, Claim & Warrant range.

• The customer code will be four digits long, for example 1234
• The Claim (N1) range is allocated based on how many Claims you estimate to be issued;
  Claim numbers consist of two letters and five numbers. E.g. RX12001
• The Warrant (N323) range is allocated providing you with enough Warrant numbers for one year's issue.
  Warrant numbers consist of one letter and five numbers. E.g. J14567
• Each year there is a different identifier at the beginning of both Claim and Warrant numbers
• For 2011 the year identifier prefix for Claims is 1 and for Warrants Z
• The final numbers are therefore 1RX12001 and ZJ14567 respectively

Connection

If you have the IT capability to transfer data files via the internet, then the Claim Production
Centre (CPC) will obtain a TESTING username and password in order for you to log on to the server.
This will be provided to you via email.

Once you have the above you are then ready to format the data to submit the first TEST file.

Data format requirements

Currently the data format requirements are contained in the following CCBC documents:-

• Claims – Electronic Transfer and Code of Practice
• Judgments - Rules of Membership
• Judgments with defendant’s date of birth – Rules of Membership
• Warrants- Rules of Membership
• Warrants with extra information - Rules of Membership
• Paid Notifications - Rules of Membership

Limit the test to a maximum of 10 claims per file.
Start files with 001 and increment by 1 as each new file is submitted.

Test results

The result of the tests will either be a Pass, Fail or partial Pass on skeleton data.

1. With a pass you can go on to test for the next data format
2. With a fail you will be notified of the reason and then once this has been amended you will
   be required to submit a new test to the centre
3. A partial fail is when the data has failed on validation (skeleton data).
   This means that the data formatting has been successful however the actual data is incorrect.
   For example – the defendant's name is missing or the claimant's name is missing.
   You will be required to test again for this stage of the process

Note

When a file fails you are to move on to the next sequence number as the testing
environment recognises that the sequence has run and will not allow the test to proceed.

Remember

The TEST data should be compiled as if it was in the live environment.
Data should be continuous throughout the tests meaning that a claim is issued, and then a
Judgment is entered against that claim.
A Warrant is issued against the Judgment, and the same case is marked as paid.

For example:-

1. Claim 8SS00001 to 8SS00051 are requested and have passed the Claims TEST
2. Judgment can then be requested on all or some of these Claims, these then pass
3. Warrants and Paid notifications can then be requested on these Judgments

CCBC Flowchart

Common Test Failure Reasons

• Incorrect amount of characters in request
  • Note that each type of file format is goverened by a specific number of characters
  • Claims- 1991 characters
  • Judgments – 960 characters
  • Judgments with defendant’s date of birth – 968 characters
  • Warrants – 371 characters
  • Warrants with extra information – 491 characters
  • Paid notifications – 20 characters
• No header or footer in claim file
  • Remember that the data file must have the header and footer present.
    The data formatting for these can be found in the Code of Practice.
• Incorrect Court code used
  • The court code for CCBC is 335
  • Hint - If you are an existing customer who is changing from just using the Claim Production
    Centre (CPC) to the CCBC, remember to change all the defendants’ home court codes to 335
  • Note that court codes for issue of warrants of execution should be the defendant’s local court
• File labelled incorrectly
  • The files should be labelled as stated in the packs
  • Claim files - (customer code)+'ss.001'
  • Judgment files- (customer code)+'jg.001'
  • Judgment with defendant’s date of birth – (customer code)+'je.001'
  • Warrants files – (customer code)+'wt.001'
  • Warrants with extra information files – (customer code)+'we.001'
  • Paid notifications – (customer code)+'pd.001'
  • For Example – '1234ss.001'
  • Hint - As advised above, data should be continuous in each data file – meaning that the file name
    should be consistent throughout
• Incorrect court fees used
  • The Claim Production Centre give a discount on issue fees compared to the County Courts
    please see the tables, below:-

  • HMCS County Court Fees 4th April 2011 (latest update)

    
    

    COMMENCEMENT - Claim N1/N1CPC

    Bands	Court	CCBC	Saving
    does not exceed £300	£35	£15	£20
    exceeds £300 but not £500	£50	£30	£20
    exceeds £500 but not £1000	£70	£55	£15
    exceeds £1000 but not £1500	£80	£65	£15
    exceeds £1500 but not £3000	£95	£75	£20
    exceeds £3000 but not £5000	£120	£85	£35
    exceeds £5000 but not £15000	£245	£190	£55
    exceeds £15000 but not £50000	£395	£310	£85
    exceeds £50000 but not £100000	£685	£550	£135
    exceeds £100000 but not £150000	£885	£N/A
    exceeds £150000 but not £200000	£1080	£N/A
    exceeds £200000 but not £250000	£1275	£N/A
    exceeds £250000 but not £300000	£1475	£N/A
    exceeds £300000 or not limited	£1670	£N/A

  
  

  ENFORCEMENT - N323/N445

  Issue type	Court	CCBC	Saving
  Warrant of Execution	£100	£70	£30
  Reissue warrant	£30	£FREE	£30

  
  

  Frequently Asked Questions

  Q. How long do we have to TEST?
  
  A. Test data is held on the CCBC system for one month from pass date.
  You will have to submit the next TEST file within this month in order for the data to be continuous.
  If the month period is fast approaching and you are not going to be able to send a test before,
  please contact the Centre and they will request that the data is held longer.
  
  Q. When will we be notified of a TEST result?
  
  A. The IT supplier the CCBC use has a 3 day turnaround, so you should receive a phone call or an email
  within four days to tell you the result to your test.
  
  Q. How long does it take to pass testing and become a LIVE customer?
  
  A. This is dependant on how quickly you can compile your data files and whether or not they pass
  successfully first time round. If you have a deadline, please advise the Bulk Centre and they will assist
  where possible in order for you to meet this.
  Once you have compiled your file, you will need to either send the data file via the server or by
  DX/post (if using the floppy disk).
  
  Remember - The Advice Note should be headed with the word TEST and either sent via fax, email or in
  the post if sending the data by floppy disk.
  Hint - The Advice Note can be found in the Rules of Membership and the text should be in Arial 12.
  Hint - The data provided on the advice note should match that of the data files.
  
  The address in which to post the floppy disk is:
  2nd floor
  CPC
  St Katharine’s House
  21-27 St Katharine’s Street
  Northampton
  NN1 2LH
  DX 702885 Northampton 2
  
  Once you have passed testing, you will have to agree a go live date with the centre.
  Before going live you must advise the court of how you will be making payments for the issue fees.
  You can either be an arrears customer or deposit.
  Arrears customers must pay on the day of issue. Deposit customers send an amount of money to put them
  into credit, the finance clerk will then use this and notify you when the funds are running low.
  Once this has been completed you will be ready to go live. You will receive a new customer information sheet
  giving details of who to contact within the bulk centre and procedural information.