Mercantile Courts were established during the 1990s. Their purpose is to provide a modern accessible and efficient specialist court service around the country to citizens, businesses and companies involved in commercial transactions and disputes.

They are regional courts of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court with specialist judges sitting in main city centres. They deal with all kinds of business disputes in a broad sense that would benefit from the expertise of a mercantile judge.

Mercantile Court guide (PDF 0.33mb)

Mercantile Courts are now established in the following cities:

• Birmingham
• Bristol
• Cardiff
• Chester
• Leeds
• Liverpool
• London
• Manchester
• Mold
• Newcastle

The Mercantile Court Guide sets out the procedures that apply in all Mercantile Courts.  It explains on a step by step basis how to conduct cases in those courts and identifies the distinctive features of litigation in the Mercantile Courts.
 
The Guide also includes:

• useful specimen forms
• court information
• cross references to relevant provisions of the Civil Procedure Rules, Practice Directions and the Admiralty and Commercial Court Guide.
  

Whilst the guide has been designed to make is simpler to conduct cases in the Mercantile Courts users should be aware that claims before these specialist courts are often very complex and therefore potentially very expensive in terms of legal costs. Therefore users may wish to seek legal advice before taking a case (whether as a claimant or as a defendant) to the Mercantile Courts and then deciding how to proceed (with or without lawyers).