I have recently had a Set-Aside Application granted. I now need to remove the CCJ from my credit file. I have been advised to either obtain a certificate of cancellation from the court to send to Equifax, Experian and Call Credit or Send the Order to Set-Aside the Judgment the aforementioned credit reference agencies, is this correct? Are these the only three agencies? It seems all to easy for a creditor to be granted a Default Judgment and subsequent CCJ and when it transpires that the incorrect address and amounts are used and the Judgment is Set-Asided, it seems impossible or extremely hard work to have the CCJ removed and your credit file, in essence indemnified. Is there a way to return the credit file to its former glory of 999 as simply as it was obtained?

I have been there to no avail. Every solicitor I contact says they do not do legal aid employment law.

Hello, I need to find a solicitor who who take on board my Employment Appeal Tribunal case under legal aid. Are there any solicitors out there who would do this, I cannot find any?

Yes, the counterclaim is for money only. What other types are there? The original claim falls within the £5,,000 claim track. The counterclaim falls within the £50,000 to £100,000 claim track. Why would the judge to need to see me for allocation when he has already been told in the counterclaim that the track (above) which I stated my counterclaim should fall in? How should a judgment by default me me requsted? At the allocation hearing which is upcoming, before or after? is there seperate form for this? Is there any Civil Procedure Rules whcih I can quote as those which I request the deafult judgment under, as judges would find it harder to disallow something with rules attached to them.

Hello, I have recently been the subject of a creditor claiming money he believes he is owed. I have since filed a defence and countecrclaim, all within the prescribed time limit. The last communication from the Judge stated that the Claimant has now to file s response to the defence and the counterclaim, for which no deadline was set. This was almost two months ago. To date, no response to the defence or counterclaim has been filed, they appear to be grossly past the 14 day time limit accoding to the law, however, the judge did not set a time limit, which I find odd. The original defence falls within a small claims track, however, the counterclaim falls within a much larger claims track. The judge did state that he wants a hearing to discuss allocation. Could this be the reasons that no time limit was set? If this was the case, can I ask for a default judgment as there is no reason that no response was filed, after all, the case does not need to be allocated to a claim track in order for the original creditor to dispute the defence and counterclaim. What are my option available here?

When was the deadline for the ET3? Due to the number of cases being submitted having doubled in the last 1-2 years, the ET system is extensively overloaded and it can take some time for ET1's and ET3's to work their way through the system. They could well have responded. Best bet would be to call up 4 or 5 days after the deadline, account for working days and ask if an ET3 or leave for an extension had been filed. I say 4 or 5 days because it can take some time for emails and post to work its way through to the pile. If you do receive a refault judgment, it then comes down to your schedule of loss as mentioned by 'elche' in an earlier post.

In my experience, it is a straight forward process, but the ET make it complicated. Are you the Claimant or Respondent?

No response from the ET as yet, they are waiting on other issues, but I do expect a response any day now. Will keep you posted. Who are the o.p. by the way

Che, Advice appreciated and understood. All, Thank-you for the input and responses so far. Lets see after the weekend.

Firstly, Che, Thank-you very much for the advice on the next steps. They were my next ports of call as I am reaching my limited knowledge. As mentioned in Ibruk's post, a non-response is not normal. You mention a default judgment on liability... as opposed to what? What are the alternatives? I would like to know if there is a list of orders or judgments at each stage of the ET process, which a solicitor may use. This would help a great deal with which process or order to follow. Maybe it is a student thing, in which case, the college of law would be best. As you rightly suggested, the quantum is unclear in the ET1, this was expected to particularised in the SoL, subsequent to the Witness Statements, Disclosure and Bundle Preparation, which seem to now be surplus to requirements in a default judgment. Seems a bit crazy to fail to submit an ET3 response and then be able to contest a Liability Hearing, very warped! F2F? If paying for legal advice for this stage and onwards, would it be reasonable to claim the costs back as the Respondent would be seen as displaying unreasonable behavior or is this something the court would not be expected to award under the circumstances of ignoring a court order. Ibruk, Agreed on the bank holiday waiting time. I have telephoned the ET today, the deadline being 12pm the day before and the emails from that night do not show any responses, so in answer to your question, the ET has not received any response. Waiting until after the bank holiday will certainly allow any responses to filter through the system, to be 100% sure of a failure to respond. I will keep all informed as to how an un-responded ET1 fairs at the ET's hands.

Thank-you for the explanation. Much appreciated. In terms of default judgments. How would the judge measure the award given if any? Would this solely be based upon the Statement of Loss? Would a judge be expected to jump upon this failure to respond rapidly or is this a slow turn of the wheel and just a waiting game?

Wait for what exactly? Could one expect that the ET to relax their rules and deadlines for the ET3 response? Is it the ET's prerogative from here in as to how to proceed or does a Claimant have any clout at this step in the process?

I have an issue with an Employment Tribunal which has been running only a short time now. The ET1 has been submitted. The deadline for the ET3 has very recently passed and no response has been received. No request for an extension has been received either. As I understand it, a Judge will now decide whether a default award is made. My questions are: 1. Is the default awarded at the maximum level? 2. Is the Vento scale used for this award? 3. If an award to made by default and it is quite low what can I do to increase the award? 4. Do I need to put an 'Unless Order' forward to push things along? 5. What options would a solicitor have other than an 'Unless Order'? 6. Is there any guidelines as to what process a solicitor would follow as I am reluctant to leave the decision in the ET's hands? 7. What other orders are there that I could use? 8. Do I still need to produce a 'Schedule of Loss', 'Witness Statements', 'Mitigation Documents', etc in order that I receive the best default award the Judge can offer? 9. Can I request a hearing to reinforce the default award? Any help would be appreciated as I do not know what a solicitor would do next. I am not asking for legal advice here, merely what options do I have and what may a solicitor do from this point onwards. Thank-you

I have been mis-sold a Commercial Lease Finance deal at 45% interest under the Consumer Credit Act. It seems that the finance company has created their own Heinz 57 of lease, consumer credit, Hire, HP and Lease purchase contract which is just plainly un-enforceable. I am a business. Sole Trader, so Consumer or business; debateable. I told my broker that I wanted a hire purchase agreement and I wanted to own the equipment, not rent it. At inception of this contract, my credit rating was 999 out of 1000. I have done some investigation recently and it seems that the contract is a hotch potch of the best bits which benefit the finance company from the Consumer Credit and Lease Hire side thus giving me all the rubbish left over. To elaborate. 1. Sold under the CCA label at the top of the contract, therefore misleading and mis-selling. 2. Amount was in excess of £15,000 under the heading of the CCA on the contract. 3. No APR stated under the CCA rules and regulations. 4, When the finance company were asked why no APR was stated on the contract, they advised me that it was based on affordability and interest was not calculated on a rate!! Recorded! 5. If the above rule is followed then, should the richest pay the most and the poorest pay the least? 6. No means test was undertaken in order that my "affordability" could be "calculated". 7. The finance company charged me insurance as a bolt on advising me that I might not be covered under the business insurance and that would be a breach of my contract. 8. Surely, when I hire a car, the hire car company pay the insurance or build it into my payments, as they own the vehicle and I am hiring it, so, why am I charged insurance for a vehicle I am paying for under a Hire Agreement? 9. If this is a hire agreement, why do I have the option to buy for a small fee at the end, is this not Hire Purchase? 10 Is the terminology different for consumer as opposed to business? 11. My original deposit £10K, went to the equipment manfacturer and the finance company still factored this into the overall finance, therefore all the figures are incorrect. 12. The contract states that this is a non-cancellable agreement? Under the CCA? I think not! 13. If I hired a car and it broke down at the side of the road, I could walk away as the hire car company would pay, why do I have to pay for maintanace for something I do not own under this hire agreement? From what I can understand, the overiding objective, which the finance company aim to achieve is to claim back the Tax Relief on their VAT payments. I, of course, can also do the same. So, if I claimed back my VAT and the agreement was not a Hire with the option to purchase at the end of the term, the finnace compnay could not claim back their TAX Relief, so they need to dress the finance deal in new clothes, hence the option to buy, that way the title does not pass back to me direclty and they can cliam their Tax Relief as it passes back to the original owner; the manufacturer (who received the payment from the finnace comnpany originally). Ordinary consumers do not cliam their tax back and so the finance is classed as a straight CCA contract and the finance company claims their tax back without a problem. It is all about Tax Relief and Title ownership. There are so many core issues with this one sided contract. So far as I can tell, the finance company has: 1. defrauded me of my £10K 2. bolted on interest for the extra £10K 3. cost by business as a direct result 4. mis-sold me a mis-represented contract which is not binding under neither CCA nor the Lease Finance laws, i.e. the contract fits into neither category, it falls between the cracks 5. charged me for insurace where not needed/required 6. forced me to pay for repair when under a hire agreement which this purports itself to be, but surely it is not mine to repair but the finance companies 7. sold me a contract under the CCA which does not meet CCA rules and regulations, if I knew I was not bound by the CCA I would certainly have queried it further. Bottom line is, this is a tax dodge or rather gain, on behalf of the finance company which is crippling small businesses. This contract is neither CCA nor Business Hire Agreement but a mixture of the two. How is this legal? If so, then surely by being neither one thing nor the other I can argue it is the opposite of what the finance company say it is and still be equally correct! Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I am about to embark upon a BLRI claim against Lloyds TSB for a missold policy just as you did 'ataction'. It seems that you were very successful very quickly. What routes did you use to resolve this? Formal complaint, then ombudsman or jst straight to legal? Any help would be appreciated on this one. J