help suing the DCA...

[FormerMortgageBroker]

Hi all. Yesterday 6th of October, after years of being chased by the Halifax and its cronies, I have finally had the debt set aside and is now statute barred. It’s not the end of the tunnel but with the information and support from this website I feel I can now accomplish pretty much anything.

This case was set aside on simple grounds. The DCA Drydens had basically taken over the debt from 1 of the preceding debt collection firms (there had been about a dozen) and managed to get a CCJ on me October 27th 2007. I only became aware of it in July 2008 when I had a notice regarding an attachment of earnings. I filed an N244 and had the court case as above, yesterday. Grounds for setting aside were numerous but the magistrate stopped me on the first one. They had charged me interest over the full 12 years.

Now comes the interesting bit.

When I sent the N244, I included a letter setting out some of the history relating to the loss of my property in 1996 and the fact that I hadn’t received any information about the original CCJ plus a load of other stuff (not massively relevant here).

Drydens reply was to request an adjournment so they could request the files from their clients to answer some of the allegations. I didn’t let them adjourn and it was subsequently set aside. They never even turned up.

My question is this. Under the Data Protection Act, or any other act for that matter, are they liable for compensation considering they went ahead with a CCJ without any facts? They stated this much in writing when they tried to have the case adjourned to request the files from their clients. I may be confusing this with something else, I have read many, but not all of the posts on this site, but sometimes find it hard to find relevant information again afterwards. The CCJ was for in excess of £54,000 and I have some “real” debts I would like to pay off.

Any help advice, as always, greatly appreciated

[palomino]

My question is this. Under the Data Protection Act, or any other act for that matter, are they liable for compensation considering they went ahead with a CCJ without any facts? They stated this much in writing when they tried to have the case adjourned to request the files from their clients. I may be confusing this with something else, I have read many, but not all of the posts on this site, but sometimes find it hard to find relevant information again afterwards.

 

In short, no.

When they lodge a claim they don't provide the evidence at that point. If the case is not contested and judgment is awarded by default then the evidence is never presented at all. In such cases the court staff just rubber-stamp the claim and it never even reaches a judge.

If a claim is defended then the evidence (however good or bad) is presented. The defendant can challenge the claimant's evidence and present their own evidence.

Hence for evidence to get to court the case must be defended.

 

In your case the original claim wasn't defended for the reasons you give. In effect they can get away with blue murder - and frequently do.

[FormerMortgageBroker]

Thanks palamino, I was thinking more on the lines of data protection. Should they and the CRAs also be sure of the data before the act/process or publish?

[FormerMortgageBroker]

Sorry, let me just supplement that last question.............

Halifax- "can you county court Mr Smith for me"

Drydens - "sure why not? how much?"

Halifax "£54k"

drydens "ouch. ok"

 

where was my information checked before it was acted upon? Drydens as data controller should have had some sort of oversite on this surely?