My company (A) has a written agreement with another company (B) to share revenue for specific services whenever they are supplied to a third party. It has come to light that company B has invoiced a number of third parties without declaring this. The total owed is considerably in excess of the £5k limit for the small claims court.

As Company A has not yet raised any invoices to company B my thoughts are to raise an initial invoice for less than £5k (relating to services supplied to just 1 of the third party companies) so that if Company B refuses to pay I can pursue a claim for the initial invoice (less than £5k) through the small claims court which will be much quicker and cheaper than a higher court.

I would presume that a successful challenge on a single invoice in the small claims court will set a precedent for subsequent invoices which in itself should encourage company B to simply pay the subsequent invoices.

My concern is whether the small claims court might reject the case being heard on the grounds that there is a potential overall claim well in excess of the £5k limit even though I will not actually be claiming more than £5k in the particulars of claim.