Dispute Resolution for the SQE

Dispute Resolution questions on SQE1 reward knowing where a claim is on its timeline and what starts each clock. This free PDF takes you through a civil claim in England and Wales in the order it runs: choosing between arbitration, mediation and litigation, limitation and the pre-action steps, issuing and serving the claim, the defence and default judgment, interim applications, case management, evidence and disclosure, costs and Part 36, trial, appeals and enforcement.

Updated November 2026 · checked against the SQE1 specification, the Civil Procedure Rules and practice directions, the Limitation Act 1980, the Arbitration Act 1996 and GOV.UK on 4 November 2026. General information, not legal advice.

Where Dispute Resolution sits in SQE1

Dispute Resolution is an FLK1 subject. From January 2027 it is in the first FLK1 session, with Business Law and Practice and Legal Services, and the blueprint gives it 14 to 20% of the paper. The specification has eight assessment areas, from the merits of a claim and the choice of forum to trial, post-trial steps and costs. The law examined is the law four calendar months before the window opens: 11 September 2026 for January 2027 and 12 March 2027 for July 2027.

The deadlines at a glance

What changed recently

Since 1 October 2024 the overriding objective includes promoting or using alternative dispute resolution, and the court may order the parties to engage in it (CPR 1.1 and 3.1). On 6 April 2025 Part 25 was rewritten: interim payments are now rules 25.20 to 25.25 and security for costs 25.26 to 25.29. On 1 October 2026 the Chancery Division became the Business and Property Division, with the Commercial Court moved into it: the old names are the law for January 2027 and the new ones for July 2027. Books printed before these dates cite the old numbers.

Rules the exam returns to

• Service: the 4 months is met by completing the step, such as posting, not by deemed service. A claim form is deemed served on the second business day after the step; other documents by post on the second day, if it is a business day.
• The defence: the 14 or 28 days run from service of the particulars of claim, not from filing the acknowledgment.
• Courts and tracks: a money claim may start in the High Court only if worth more than £100,000. The fast track goes to £25,000 and the intermediate track to £100,000.
• Summary judgment: no real prospect of success and no other compelling reason for a trial, with 14 days’ notice of the hearing.
• Hearsay: admissible in civil proceedings; failing to give notice affects weight and costs, not admissibility.
• Part 36: a claimant must do better than a defendant’s offer, but only match their own offer, to change the costs outcome.

What is inside the PDF

• How Dispute Resolution is examined, and every key deadline on one page
• Arbitration, mediation and litigation, the pre-action steps and limitation
• Starting the claim: the court, the claim form and service, with a worked 2027 timetable
• Responding: acknowledgment, defence, admissions and a default judgment decision tree
• Interim applications, case management, the four tracks, evidence and disclosure
• Costs and a worked Part 36 example, trial, appeals and enforcement
• Ten exam traps, a twelve-question self-test and a checklist

Frequently asked questions