ABSTRACT
Criminal court proceedings are often formally organized around the task of discovering an acceptable version of what happened in a disputed case. The civil courts are also influenced by this contest model: a debtor might deny that he owes the sum for which a summons was issued; he might argue that the plaintiff did not adhere to his contractual obligations; and he might meet the plaintiffs’ claim with a counterclaim. Complicated civil actions frequently involve skilled disputants who present conflicting versions of reality. Despite these elements of contest, solicitors are almost always the agents of a creditor when they appear in debt collection actions. The typical county court case is an undefended action. When a debtor defends himself, he usually does so alone and without legal aid or advice (cf. Abel-Smith and Stevens, 1967, and Marsden-Smedley, 1969). A survey of judgment summons hearings in a number of London county courts revealed, for instance, that the 169 cases were made up of 139 instances of a creditor being represented by a solicitor and only one instance of a debtor being represented. The solitary debtor had engaged a barrister to appear for him (Zander and Glasser, 1967, p. 815).
