The small claims court can only be used if the amount in dispute is under £5000. It is possible to make a claim under the small claims process without instructing a lawyer. There are some costs involved. You will have to pay a issue fee, an allocation fee (if the value of your claim is over £1500) and hearing fee. If you win you will abe able to recover these fees but not any legal fees that you incur. Equally if you lose the other party cannot normally recover their legal fees. The only exception is if the winning party can show that the other behaved unreasonably (which is a term defined by the court rules). There are time limits that apply to brining legal proceedings (called limitation periods) the limit for personal injury is 3 years either from the date of injury or from the date on which the claimant knew that their injury was caused by the defendant, and for breach of contract it is 5 years from the date of breach. In private sales, the Sales of Goods Act 1979 doesn't apply. The 1979 Act only applies where the seller sells the goods in the course of their business. But in actions against private sellers you would need to establish if there was an express warranty given or if the animal was misrepresented in some way. There are some factors for breach of contract and misrepresentation that you need to establish before being successful in your claim and it might be worth you having an initial meeting with a solicitor for them to advise you on this and whether they feel your case has some prospect of success.