Hi, I have been helping my partner with a claim that has come through from Moriarty Law.

The circumstances of this is a county claim form came and was defended.

Defence being that she was unaware of the debt or even the contract.

Her ex-husband was controlling and dealt with all of the services to the house.

She left the property 01/01/2012 and moved away and everything was dealt with by a solicitor.

She has spoken with Moriarty Law a number of occasions asking for a copy of the agreement and when this was signed as she had no knowledge of it.

A formal request was sent as the defence was submitted with no reply.

Allocation questionnaire has been filled in and returned, Moriarty law have now sent a copy of their defence.

Hearing is scheduled for 8th Dec

In order for us to help you we require the following information:-

Name of the Claimant JC International Acquisition

Date of issue – 15th June 2017

What is the claim for –

1.The claimants claim is for the balance due under an agreement with talk talk limited dated 06/2011 which was assigned to the claimant on 03/2014 and notice of which was given to the defendant on the 03/2014 and which is now all due and payable:

2.the defendant agreed to pay monthly instalments under account number XXXX but has failed to do so and the claimant claims the sum of £160.

3.The claim also claims interest thereon pursuant to S.69 county court act 1984 limited to one year to the date hearof at the rate of 8% per annum amouinting to £20

What is the value of the claim? £250

Is the claim for - Landline and Broadband

When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? after

Has the claim been issued by the original creditor or was the account assigned and it is the Debt purchaser who has issued the claim. - assigned

Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? No

Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? No

Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? No

Why did you cease payments? Was not aware of the account, split up 01/01/2012 and didn't even realise the phone account was under my name.

What was the date of your last payment? unsure

Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? Wasn't aware of the debt.

Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor

and make any attempt to enter into a debt management planicon? No communication with Talk Talk

What you need to do now: would like some assistance in preparing defence and also witness statement ready for court

they haven't sent you their defence

they've sent their witness statement

I have removed all the scans you've sent

you need to scan it all up to ONE multipage PDF

read UPLOAD.

you need to do your witness statement and send it by 14 days prior to the hearing

there are lots of JC/moriarty talk talk claim threads here

many already have witness statements you can base yours on.

Hi dx

Thanks for the assistance. I have now uploaded all the files into a single PDF.

I have been looking at other witness statements, most of the threads I have found up till now have not actually gone this far....

Will do a bit more reading and look at drafting something up.

I do have a current question, which is relating to proof of her living elsewhere for a year before this debt was accrued. Will this add to the defence or will it simply muddy the argument that the agreement was simply not known about?

Witness statement ML.pdf

you've already filed your defence

no harm in adding it to the WS

and the fraud bit too

8. Subject to the above, should the alleged amount claimed include an early termination charge(s) amounting to the total balance of the remaining contract, OFCOM guidance clearly states that any Early Termination Charge, that is made up of the entire balance of the remaining contract, is unlikely to be fair, as it fails to take into account the fact that the provider no longer has to provide and pay for their service.

Hi,

Please find enclosed a draft WS. any advice or input would be greatly received.

In the

Claim No.....

BETWEEN

JC International Acquisition LLC

-and-

(Defendant)

--------------------------------------------------------

WITNESS STATEMENT OF (Defendant)

---------------------------------------------------------

1. I make this statement in support of my defence to the claim above and include relevant evidence and exhibits.

2. This claim is in respect to termination fees under a contract to supply Land and Mobile Line Telephone Services to (Address)

3. The witness statement supplied by the claimant advises the contract was entered into on 13th June 2011 and was terminated on the 24th January 2013 with a balance of £166.75

4. I do not recognise any of the account details and have no knowledge of this account.

5. I do not recall having received a Notice of Assignment, as stated by the Claimant and despite my request for a copy of said document, under CPR 31.14, the Claimant has failed to provide me with such to date.

Therefore the Claimant is to provide strict proof to:

(a) show how the Defendant has entered into a Agreement/ Contract; and

(b) show how the Defendant has reached the amount claimed for; and

© show how the Claimant has the legal right, either under statute or equity to issue a claim;

6. While I resided at (the address) I was married, and it was my husband at the time that dealt with all services and bills.

7. I left the matrimonial home on the 01/01/2012 and was unable to access anything after this time

8. Without the original agreement I cannot advise if this agreement has been taken out fraudulently.

9. Pages 1 – 6 showing recreated monthly bills, the bills dated 20/12/2012 and 20/01/2013 appear to show the exact same itemised call lists but with different dates which would be incredibly unlikely and these may have been generated with no relevance to the actual account.

10 Subject to the above, should the alleged amount claimed include an early termination charge(s) amounting to the total balance of the remaining contract, OFCOM guidance clearly states that any Early Termination Charge, that is made up of the entire balance of the remaining contract, is unlikely to be fair, as it fails to take into account the fact that the provider no longer has to provide and pay for their service.

11 By reason of the facts and matters set out above, it is denied that the Claimant is entitled to the relief claimed, or any relief.

Witness statement has now been submitted, along with a copy of the original CPR request.

Going to now start to prepare for the court date.

One question, am I allowed to attend with my partner who is the defendant? would it be possible to help represent her or would she lead? Witnesses was put down as 1 on the directions questionnaire?

Is it a case of speak when spoken to?

Thanks!

You can attend and support...but cant speak directly to the Judge.

Andy

Thanks Andy,

Yes some googling has brought up the 'Mckenzie friend'. How do we inform the court I would also like to attend? Should it have been something that would have been part of the witness statement?

Your attending informally...you dont need permission..your not acting as a Mckenzie friend

ok excellent, Many thanks will update you if there is any further developments.

If you wish to act either as a Mckenzie friend or Lay Person you will have to seek the courts approval.

Hi Guys,

I wanted to update you guys with the following:

Attended court this morning, the Judge looked through the information and asked about the bills that had been submitted and offered the following judgement (I will try and remember most of it)

He believed there was a contract in place and that a contract was entered into

He believed the debt was correctly assigned to the company, and that the company was able to bring about the action.

He believed the assignment letters and pre-action letters had been sent and received by the defendant.

The claimant relied on terms of contract, the contract has not been provided so therefore it was fatal to the claim.

The 3 months bills that had been submitted did not show how the debt had been incurred,

he would have needed to see a full statement of account for him to rule if it was correct or not and the claimant had not provided enough information.

He dismissed the OFCOM termination statement as he couldn't see any termination fees on any of the documents provided.

Pretty much dismissed everything else in the witness statement.

Dismissed claim with costs awarded to us.

So would like to thank you guys for your help

and also the information provided previously from the threads I had read while submitting the defence.

I will certainly be donating and hope it helps other people.

Excellent result...well done u6cah.....

Thread title amended to reflect the out come

Regards

Andy

Great news, which court was this?

Hi Sorry for the delay in updating the thread. It was Stafford.

So the claimant was told to pay the costs within 14 days, this hasn't happened. I have read on another thread that we would need to request a General Order pursuant to CPR 44.3.1 & 2a

How would you go about doing this?

Thanks in advance, I have yet to figure it out?

Have you sent the Solicitor a bill of costs ?

Hi Andy,

Sorry snow got in the way so didn't get chance to reply till now...

No haven't sent the solicitor a bill of costs, would it be to the solicitor or claimant? Is this simply a letter outlining what the costs are for along with a copy of the order?

The only bills of costs I have seen have been claimant ones that are very detailed and used for cost negotiation?

Thanks

Well until you request your costs amount ....how can they pay you ?

So would a simple letter with the breakdown and details of where to send the payment, with a copy of the judges decision be enough as a starting point?

Yes...informal initial approach ...test the water...to the Solicitor.

Thanks Andy, will let you know if and when they respond..