Thanks for the replies, appreciate it. I did get papers this morning from Nottingham County Court. The solicitor (for my former employer) has confirmed in them that I can be served in Ireland under the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgements Act, 1982. I had a look at this, but can't make sense of it. A friend suggested to me that they may be relying on the agreement they entered with me when hiring me and a clause of it that says that English Courts have jurisdiction. I have only kept part of this agreement and so can't see if that clause is there. If that is the case, am I better to defend it, rather than to challenge jurisdiction does anyone know? I will try to ring the Court in the morning to see what advice they might give me. I tried calling the solicitor for my former company (listed on the papers), but she doesn't seem to want to take my calls. It seems unfair (i) that they did not show any of my correspondence refutting their claim to the Court and (ii) that someone who like me can't afford to get there is being sued in UK by a big company and won't get a proper chance to go into Court to explain myself.

Hi - I came across this website and there is some great advice being given, so I was wondering if someone could assist me. I worked for 10+ years as a sales agent/fitter for/with a large UK provider in Ireland. My contract made it clear that I am a contractor, rather than employee. I have always lived in Ireland and all work I did for this company was in Ireland. They recently terminated my contract, as they indicated that I owed them €3,000 in amounts collected which i had not paid up. Five others also had their contracts terminated for the same reason. I was happy to stop working with them as they were quite unprofessional in many ways, but I contested that I owed this amount, as they had agreed to pay me a higher level of commission and also agreed to pay me for a training session I gave. I may however, owe them €500. I wrote to them explaining this and providing evidence of my claim and asked for an agreement on installments for the €500, but received no response. (The €500 I owed, was used by me to pay the expenses (travel etc) involved in doing my job and would have been taken out of my next pay packet, this was standard practice). Today I received a letter informing me that the matter is before an English Court. The company is seeking €3000 and I have 7 days to respond. Can I contest this jurisdiction from Ireland. If so, how does one go about doing this. I do not have the money to pay for a solicitor in the UK, or for flights to the UK. It seems very unfair that I can be sued in a country that I do not live in and did not work in, just because the company I worked for have their principal office there. Alternatively, should I just begin paying by installments the €500 I owe, but contest that I owe the rest in writting to the Court? Any help and/or advice would be appreciated.