Yes thats the one......so your wifes defence is what you will be fighting this claim on...yes you can amend a defence.....you requires the courts and the claimants permission and you have to submit an application notice..the fee is £100....without hearing.

Amendments to statements of case

17.1

(1) A party may amend his statement of case at any time before it has been served on any other party.

(2) If his statement of case has been served, a party may amend it only –

(a) with the written consent of all the other parties; or

(b) with the permission of the court.

(3) If a statement of case has been served, an application to amend it by removing, adding or substituting a party must be made in accordance with rule 19.4.

(Part 22 requires amendments to a statement of case to be verified by a statement of truth unless the court orders otherwise)

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part17#17.1

sorry about the confusion earlier regarding the letters in post 7 you attached

many jpg's uploaded do not allow you to zoom easily or zoom at all on android devices which is why we recommend using PDF.

what I say on my phone was the cabot logos on both but couldn't clearly read the text, other than seeing 31:14 which I assumed was their std response but can see now both mention defence was filed...and as you haven't mentioned she'd got an acknowledgement of filing defence letter from the court , I mistook both as their usual stuff.

my comment above removed for clarity for future readers

Thanks.

Is amending the statement of case the best way forward now? I don't imagine the defence we've filed will be of any use.

What happens if Cabot can't produce a copy of the agreement and default notice?

What a mess this now is.

What was your Solicitor friends thinking...?

I have an alternative idea lets see if its similar thinking.

Andy

Hi

They havent come back with a full answer yet but advised to email MCOL informing them of the error and with the correct defense failing that might be an application notice

Thanks

There is no error your wife submitted a defence instead of just acknowledging service and exiting.....you have a further 14 days to submit the defence after AoS.

Hence the acknowledgement of defence in post#7...the court has accepted what she submitted.

Is the only way forward to submit an application notice? Or do we have to continue with defence she submitted?

Well Im still waiting to hear what your Sol friend idea was..... and if similar to mine ?

Her advice was to submit an application notice. Can I ask what your idea is?

Thanks

Well I have already covered that and the consequences in post # 26.

No that wasn't my idea..that was my response to what I assumed your Sol friend idea would be:wink:

My idea would be to let the defence stand as is...given that MCOL have accepted it as CPR compliant...and then particularise when you get to submitting a witness statement stage...if it proceeds that far.....saves you £100 application fee.

Also in future check with each other before submitting anything further

Thanks for your advice, I think we will do as you suggest. We've only fought one claim before and that was in 2014 (not through MCOL), so my wife thought she had to fill in the box before the system would accept AoS. Needless to say, it won't happen again! We went on to win that claim in court.

What do we do about the postal order Cabot are claiming we didn't enclose? Should we respond to their correspondence and send another PO?

Mortimer have acknowledged the CPR 31.14 but have not responded with the requested information. We're hoping they are unable to locate it (as I've seen in other threads). We never received a default notice so I'd be interested to see what they come back with.

I'll let you know how we get on. Until then, I'm reading up.

Well for the sake of £1

My wife called the court yesterday to ask if the claim has been stayed (nothing back from Cabot or Mortimer in response to our requests). The confirmed over the phone that it had. My wife asked if they would be confirming this to her in writing and they said no - this seems odd to me, is this standard practice?

Would you recommend any further action now the claim has been stayed? I know this is not 'the end' of the matter - although it's good news for now and a spot of luck after messing up the defence. What happens if they don't supply the requested paperwork?

Thanks again. 

Yes standard practice....it  tells you what will happen after you submit your defence on the courts acknowledgment of your defence.There is no further action a defendant can take...its up to the claimant if and when they wish to proceed.

Andy

Cheers mate. From other threads it looks like they might still try to get us to pay the alleged debt, needless to say we won't be.

Absolutely there will be numerous letters offering you a last chance to withdraw your defence or reach a settlement....thats because as the claim is stayed, it will cost £255 for their application to proceed.