County claim form - received general directions order seriously help needed

[claretet]

I will try and keep this intial post brief as I have already received quite a lot of help from this site and I am quite down the line with my problem.

 

Basically about 4 years ago I signed a guarantee for a business loan for my husbands LTD company, stupidly didnt read the small print, trusted the woman from the bank who stated it was a Directors guarantee and I was signing in capacity as Director.

 

Resigned as Director 2 years ago, husbands business not been doing too well and loan not been repaid as it should. However the bank shut his business account without informing him, and the managers changed that much and the dealing with his account changed that many times he never knew who to speak too.

 

They really didnt give him much chance to repay the loan. Havent heard a thing until 3 months ago when INCASSO came chasing me due to guarantee. I requested information which they didnt give to me, I also did a N244 when their claim form arrived.

 

Again have heard nothing - the wording on the N244 came from this site -MANY THANKS, and I was basically requesting through CPR that they provide me with the relevant documentation, again I have heard nothing from either court or claimant. I have however received today a general directions order which says:

 

 

on 24.7.12 it is ordered that:

 

The application must be heard on notice to the defendant

The claim be transferred to the Defendants home court

There is a note at the bottom which says this order has been made without a hearing under the Courts case management powers contained in the Civil Procedure part 3. You may within 7 days of the service of this order, apply to the court to set aside or to vary the order under Part 23 rule 10. It then goes onto say how to do this

 

 

My question is this: do I need to do anything or is the above more related to the claimant. I would really appreciate some help in letting me know just where I am at with this. I really dont want to go cocking things up now and this site so far has been such a big help, but I cant seem to find anything on this that would help me. Just dont know where I am at - does this mean its going to go to hearing to hear my N244

 

Any advice would be a big help

Many thanks

Clare

Edited July 28, 2012 by citizenB
formatting for easier reading.

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome, Clare.

 

I've moved this thread to our Legal Issues Forum.

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[claretet]

Many thanks Scott - I did wonder whether it should have gone into legal - just wasnt sure how to do it so many thanks

Hope someone can help

Clare

[citizenB]

Hello, I dont quite understand what is happening.

 

You are being pursued for monies allegedly owed.

 

 

You have applied to the court by way of N244 application to force a company to provide you with information ?

It would appear that the court is going to hear your application and it will be dealt with in your local court.

 

It is usual for the order to state that if anyone wants to object to the order, submit a statement in support or rebuttal that they have to do so within a certain amount of time.

 

Could you tell us what CPR you are requesting information under.. is it CPR31.16 ?

 

Has there been a court claim issued by Incasso for the payment of the monies they claim is owed?

 

I will try and find someone to help you.

[claretet]

HI Citizen B

Thanks for the reply. I sent 3 letters to Incasso requesting information relating their claims, they are acting on behalf of Natwest who the original loan was with. The letters requesting proof of the alleged debt, ie loan agreement, and also copy of the alleged guarantee. They didnt send me anything. I then sent a CPR 31.14 request for the documents in the POC of the claim. Again they didnt send me anything back, so I sent in a N244 and my order was that unless within 14 days of the making of an order upon this application the Claimant complies with the request pursuant to CPR 31.14 etc that the claim should stand struck out. I again have not heard a thing from either the court or the Claimant, until today when the order arrived stating as above . I too am very confused as I do not know what the order is exactly saying - does it mean they are going to hear my application in the local court - or surely the fact the Claimant has not adhered to any of my requests it should be stuck out - or am I being a bit hasty?

I would appreciate advice as to whether I am supposed to be sending anything in the meantime. On reading more posts on here the process usually goes that both parties are sent AQ once a defence is sent, but like I said I have heard nothing - oh apart from a letter from the court stating I had paid too much for the N244 and they would send me a refund!!!! - which has yet to arrive I hasten to add

Many thanks for your help and hopefully someone can shed light on whats going on here

Clare

[steven4064]

Hi Clare

 

What this all means is this: you made an application to the court for an order forcing INCASSO to provide you with cerrtain information. The court has decided that they will only do this once they have had a hearing and that is what the order says. Either INCASSO or you(but why would you?) can object to this hearing.

 

You don't need to do anything at the moment except prepare for the hearing. You should prepare a draft order for the court to make (saves them the bother of working out how to word it and makes sure they don't forget anything) and a list of costs (in case you get awarded them). If INCASSO turn up at the hearing, you should give them a copy of both before you go in or should send them to them a few days beforehand.

 

Hope this helps.

[Mike_hawk]

Clare

 

Were there any other documents attached to the order?

 

Something seems amiss if this refers to your application

 

Phil

[steven4064]

Phil

 

I don't think so. The order is for a hearing about her application not about the application itself. The order for a hearing is made without a hearing, though.

[Mike_hawk]

Morning Steven

 

Maybe its the way I'm reading it but it appears more akin to a respondent notice?

 

Might be worth a brief chat with the court on Monday.

 

Phil

[claretet]

Thanks for your replies. The only documents attached to the general directions order were my N244 application plus all the annexe documents of my application. Like you Phil I am slightly confused. I was going to give the court a ring tomorrow just to try and get some clarification. Steven, could I just use the same order as I used in the N244 application? Not sure about costs - what sort of things I am supposed to put in there apart from the court fee and potentially a days pay?

Many thanks for your help - it still seems to be rather confusing that they have asked for a hearing when all I wanted by ways of CPR rules are the documents requested, which in turn gives me chance to form some sort of defence - I now feel like I am having to defend something when the documents havent been given to me.

Well hopefully someone else can shed some more light on this

Thanks again - dont know what the hell I would have done without this site!!!

Clare

[Mike_hawk]

Hi Clare

 

Should all be fine if its your app attached, on first reading your post I was concerned the other side may have countered with their own application.

 

Gets a little confusing sometimes as the court have a tendency to draft orders from a template notice - Defendant, Claimant, Respondent etc etc.... all terms that seem to get transposed and cause concern where there shouldn't be any.

 

CPR23.9 should assist if you need any explanation of the requirement for the notice itself

 

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part23

 

Phil