Hi,

I'm self employed and live near Sheffield and I've carried out some work for a customer near Aberdeen.

They have made a part payment, but are holding back just short of £1000 as they believe I haven't fully completed the work.

I believe I have completed as much of the work as I can and have explained my reasons via emails and recorded letters.

I have also offered to go to a mediation provider, but the customer has made no response.

Should i consider issuing court proceedings? and if so, would I use the English or Scottish Courts?

Many thanks in advance.

Hi penneyman and welcome to Cag

The rules for service of legal proceedings outside the jurisdiction differ for companies and individuals located outside the jurisdiction. In some rare circumstances, the Court may dispense with service in the usual way, however the court would need to be satisfied that there are good grounds for doing so.

The rules governing service out of the jurisdiction can be divided into two parts those where permission of the court is required and where permission is not required.

Permission not required

Scotland and Northern Ireland

A claimant may serve a claim form out of the jurisdiction on a defendant in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and that service can be so carried out without permission of the Court. Thereafter, the Claimant may proceed to serve other court documents by the same method as used for serving documents in the jurisdiction, for instance by first-class post. This is an exception to the general rule that service must be affected in accordance with the law of the receiving country.

Regards

Andy

Andy, many thanks for your prompt response.

It looks likely I will use the Scottish system - I'm looking on line at - http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk and any instances here on CAG.

In your opinion are there any items I should look at in the first instance.

Regards

Penneyman

Main one being if they don't pay you will have to use the Scottish Courts to execute the judgment and of course you will have to attend any hearings in the defendants local county court.

Regards

Andy

Hi, if you are dealing with a consumer they can only be sued in their local jurisdiction under Art 16 Brussels Reguation 14/2001. You will need to sue them in Scotland.

But why haven't you completed the work? If you are contracted to provide some work and then can't do it, you have breached your contract and can't insist on full payment. The fact that you have a good reason for not completing the work is not really relevant, at the end of the day the customer hasn't got what they contracted for. It would be good to hear some more details if you want people's thoughts on this.

Update.

Managed to sort out the issue with the customer, eventually!

For the record I wasn't able to complete the job during my visit for two reasons:

another piece of equipment was needed, which was ordered, but didn't arrive during my visit. (the customer had previously ordered all the equipment and confirmed they had everything before I arrived)

there was also a fault with the equipment and a local engineer was called to do a repair, but it wasn't fixed while I was on site.

The equipment couldn't be commissioned without the missing part and while it was still faulty.

The customer wouldn't pay until the equipment was commissioned and insisted I do this myself (remember this would be an overnight stay and an 800 mile return journey) or pay for a local engineer.

We both agreed that I should talk the customer through the commissioning over the phone, which went smoothly.

Thanks

Thread title amended....pleased that you managed to resolve this penney.

Regards

Andy