Hi a company filed a claim against me and refused to enter into any form of mediation which the district judge advised. When I attended court the claimant did not turn up nor did they send any evidence to the court. The judge then struck out the case.

1.5 months later the claimant issued an identical claim with the same reference number and details as the first to get a second bite of the cherry. I sent in a new defense stating that I felt the claimant was abusing the court system and rules.

The court has now sent me an order stating that I and the claimant must send to the court and each other (limited to the issue of whether this new claim is an abuse of process).

I have a limited time of just two days to do this and any help would be very much appreciated.

Hello and welcome to CAG.

The legal guys should be along later, but I'll also keep an eye on your thread to make sure you get replies before your deadline.

My best, HB

Thank you! That is very much appreciated.

As you are a new user - Welcome to the forum.

I would aks though if you could please give us more info.

Who is the company taking you to court? What is it over?

Is it a debt owed to a collection agency?

Its a dispute with a claims management company.

They did not offer me a comprehensive service and I was forced to speak with the bank myself to demonstrate to them that I was miss-sold PPI.

The process was long and i was asked many questions which in every other case the claims company would have done for me.

Some weeks later the bank informed me that i was indeed miss sold PPI and they made me an offer.

The Claims company then tried to cash in stating that they had won my claim and wanted their cut of 30% + VAT of 20%.

I then threw up a dispute and they filed a claim for court.

The claimant stated in their particulars that they won the case for the miss-selling of PPI.

I disputed this as they did not send me a client questionnaire asking me all the relevant questions to assist them in proving to the bank that my PPI was in fact miss-sold.

It follows that I submitted a comprehensive defense and as stated earlier the district judge advised that mediation was the best option.

Its worth noting that mediation was an option before this stage but the claimant ticked the box for no mediation.

A date was set in court and the claimant never turned up.

The judge informed me that they failed to produce any evidence either and then struck out the claim.

1.5 months later the claimant made a new claim with identical details to the first with the intent, in my view, to circumvent the court rules.

retitled and moved to FLI

did you sign their contract?

name them please

dx

I did not sign a contract as its my understanding a contract has to be signed by both parties.

I did sign a terms of service which outlined their processes but i'm not sure if this constitutes a contract or agreement.

At this stage I am not sure if it is legal to name them on social media or social forums.

The court order is specific though in that at this stage,

the only process the court seems interested in is proving if an abuse of service has been committed.

Can you post up, verbatim, the current order.

Also the particulars of claim for both claims (redacting any personal details and the claimants details) : are the PofC's identical?

Yes the particulars are identical and no I don't want to post up any copies of either claims right now. The claims are absolutely identical even with the same reference numbers and particular of claim.

The judge has worded the order as follows.

1) The parties shall on or before 19th May 2017 send to the court and each other statements limited to the issue of whether this claim is an abuse of process

2) The case be listed for a preliminary hearing on the issue of abuse of process on (set date in july) at 12:00 noon...time estimate 1 hour

yes you can name them

we have several CMC PPI cases here already for fees

if you signed up, and you did by the sound of it

they have you sadly.

just because you feel you did 'all the running'

doesn't mean they are not entitled to their fees.

pitfalls of using these people when you could of done it yourself so easily for free.

I am not in a position to comment on the abuse issue, not my bag sadly.

dx

Look up Res Judicata ..heres a few links to get you going

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/res-judicata.html

http://nationalparalegal.edu/public_documents/courseware_asp_files/researchLitigation/PreTrialPractice/ResJudicata.asp

Andy

Can you post up, verbatim, the current order.

Also the particulars of claim for both claims (redacting any personal details and the claimants details) : are the PofC's identical?

Yes the particulars are identical and no I don't want to post up any copies of either claims right now. The claims are absolutely identical even with the same reference numbers and particular of claim.

In general terms, then, your statement is that the PofC's are identical, and they are attempting to re-litigate the case.

If you don't want to post up either the order or (redacted) PofC's (why would you not want to post them, suitably redacted of D's and C's details??), I'm not sure I can assist further.

Andyorch thank you for the link re Res Judicata.

I believe that helps my case.

Its clear to me that by not producing any evidence in the first case then it would be very difficult to have the claim reopened because that would require them to provide new evidence.

I'm of the opinion that in order to provide new evidence you have or should have in the first instance provided at least some evidence.

Your very welcome.....not really anything to do with evidence (disclosure) more of a case that has been adjudged already with the same identical particulars or cause of action.

Just be aware that the claimant may argue that the first claim was struck out and technically not adjudged..I have seen this argued before but not with great success....courts usually dismiss the new claim.

http://www.dq.im/news/court-confirms-law-on-res-judicata-and-abuse-of-process

Regards

Andy

You will need to serve upon the court and the claimant, copies of the order for strike out with the original claim and also a copy of the new claim to show that the case has already been adjudicated (res judicata) and this new claim is therefore an abuse of process and denied.

A short WS attached with the documents listed as exhibits should suffice.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?213664-Struck-out-claim-can-it-be-reinstated

This is a good read, including the links within it

Thank you this is what I am minded to do. I will work on this tomorrow with urgency and set about as you have stated. Once again I believe the court rules are put in place so that both those who are making the claim and the defendant are required to follow the rules. To not turn up and to not present evidence if you are the claimant especially if you run a company with a legal department is clearly irresponsible.

They will need to evidence a very good reason to get it past any sane judge!