Cabot Financial / Mortimer claim form - Fashion World

[Kirkstaller]

I've royally messed up. And I could cry.

When acknowledging the service and saying we are defending the claim, my wife has written her own defence - a single paragraph saying:

I believe that I cleared the balance with Fashion World and as I did not receive any statements from them I was not aware of any
outstanding balance due

What the heck do I do now. Is it possible to amend the defence? Can we put something in more formidable later on?

[dx100uk]

Sent already?
How?
Mcol
Letter?

[Kirkstaller]

I've logged into MCOL using her Gateway ID to lodge the defence.

At the foot of the page it says 'Response History', under which it says the Latest Document is 'Defence'. When I click on the claim number and 'View Defence' it takes me to the single paragraph my wife wrote when she was acknowledging the claim and saying we were going to defend it. The document status is 'Issued'. There is no option to edit/add to this.

Have I got this wrong? My wife says she had to put something in the defence box when acknowledging the claim and defending it.

[Andyorch]

Did you receive an acknowledgement that a defence had been submitted ?

[Kirkstaller]

We received the letter on post #7. We thought it was merely an acknowledgement of our position. My wife has been onto her lawyer friend this night, who has signposted us to a route which might allow us to amend our defence. We are emailing the defence tonight. It doesn't look great but the facts remain the same.

Thanks for your help. I'll keep you updated.

[Andyorch]

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/pr...es/part17#17.1

[dx100uk]

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

[Kirkstaller]

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.

[Andyorch]

What was your Solicitor friends thinking...?

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

Andy

[Kirkstaller]

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

[Andyorch]

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.

[Kirkstaller]

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

[Andyorch]

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

[Kirkstaller]

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

Thanks

[Andyorch]

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

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

[Kirkstaller]

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.

[Andyorch]

Well for the sake of £1