Court Claim recieved from Optima/Default Judgment now Setting a side?

[Kate67]

Hi, Just before Christmas I recieved a Notice of service from Northampton Court regarding an account I put in dispute with Capone some time ago.

I got a little out of my depth a few years ago and despite trying to reason with Capone they started threating action against me at which point I sent them a CCA, they failed to comply properly and I so I sent them an Account in Dispute notice, over the time since they have placed it with various DCAs at one point they even doorstepped us however the chap went away with a flea in his ear.

This time the latest DCA (Optima) seem intent on taking this further, I recieved the notice and have responded stating I will contest it in full but now need advice on the statement I need to make, can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

[Ganymede]

Hi,

 

I'm assuming you mean you've been served a Claim Form? Could you please type up the Particulars of Claim (less any personal details) as it will help.

 

What is the date of service as stated on the Claim Form so we know how long you have to submit your Defence.

 

Thanks.

[Kate67]

Hi, Thanks for the quick response

Yes sorry about that, that's exactly what I meant. I will scan the claim form and get it on here, probably won't be able to do that until tomorrow though. The date of service on the claim form is 15th nov.

I realise this might seem that I am cutting things close but Northampton Bulk centre messed up and didn't send a password for money claim online and then couldn't open the file I sent via email so I had a set aside placed on the 18th dec, I will call the court tomorrow to ask when they expect my defence by.

One thing that has come to light as I am going back over the paperwork is that I put the CCA into Cap one in Sept 2007, I have gone back over my statements and it looks like my last payment to them was early Sept 2007 also.

[AndyOrch]

Thread title amended.

[Kate67]

Hi, sorry for the delay. Things have moved on since my last post, firstly after the e-mail on 18th December when the judgement was set aside I e-mailed back to ask when my defence was required. I didn't receive a response to this e-mail, and was unsure how long I had, whether 28 days or 19 from the 18th December. I sent my defence in on 7th January, but a judgement had been made on 2nd January (which I had not yet received). I appealed against the judgement, saying that I had not been given a timeline for a reponse and hadn't received a response to my e-mail querying the timeline. I received an e-mail today saying

"The original judgment on this claim was set aside on the 17th December 2013. On the same date your Acknowledgment of Service (AoS) was filed. By filing the AoS you have 28 days from the deemed date of service to file your defence.

The deemed date of service for this claim was 20th November 2013, and so your defence should have been filed by 18th December 2013.

The claimant did not obtain the second judgment until 2nd January 2013, and your claim response was not received until 7th January 2013.

In view of these circumstances then the judgement by default will stand. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused."

If this is correct my response would have been required on the same day as I received the e-mail setting the judgement aside, but the e-mail only mentioned 'sending a response ASAP'.

Do I have any recourse? If I appeal, how long do I have to send in the appeal?

Any and all help will be gratefully recieved.

[Ganymede]

Can you type up the order from 17th December 2013 in full please.

[Kate67]

Many thanks for your response.

I received a letter on the 18th saying "I am writing to you to inform you that we have set the judgement aside. We have now processed your Acknowledgement of Service and informed the Claimant of our actions." There was no other paperwork.

I also received an e-mail on the 18th saying "I can now confirm that the judgment has been set aside and your acknowledgement of service processed. If you intend to file a response to the claim (eg defence or partial admission) please submit this to the court ASAP. I have attached the forms, should you wish to use them. If you are filing a defence please use N9B only. If you are filing a part admission, you will need both forms. If you fully admit the debt, you should complete the N9A and send directly to the claimant."

[Ganymede]

Thanks.

 

Whilst I agree that they don't state the date to file your Defence the Courts do assume you know the relevant deadlines and procedures etc as they cannot give legal advice themselves.

[Ganymede]

I've read your thread again and the Court aren't making sense. What if you were served the Claim Form last July for example?

 

How did you ask the Court for a set aside? Did you send a proper Application Notice or just an email asking for a set aside?

[Kate67]

Hi, thanks for responding.

I spoke to the helpdesk on 6th December to say I had tried to submit my response, but the paperwork hadn't got a password so I had been unable to this electronically. I was informed that no judgement had been made and I would be able to submit the forms by e-mail. I sent the forms on the 8th and got a response on the 9th saying they had received, then later that day got a response saying "Thank you for your email. I am unable to print off this Acknowledgement of Service for processing, please find the above attachments for the response. You can send back via this email address". I then took the documents in to work where I could scan them and sent them back via e-mail on the 9th, I also hand delivered them to the court offices. I then received a judgement dated 6th December. I called the Helpdesk to ask why I had been told on the 6th that it was not too late to send an Acknowledgement, the first person I spoke to said that it had been too late on the 6th and I was misinformed. I asked to speak to a supervisor who said that it was too late and my Acknowledgement would have had to be in by 4 o'clock on the 8th to avoid the Judgement. I pointed out that my Acknowledgement had been sent in on the 7th and had been acknowledged by the Court on the 8th, but that they were unable to print it off, I then forwarded by two e-mails. She said she would look into it and call me back. The next I heard was on the 18th when they sent the e-mail saying the Judgement had been set aside and to respond ASAP.

[Kate67]

Hi, can you please advise what my next course of action should be. I have been sent documentation on applying for a judgement to be set aside - is this the same as appealing? How long do I have to respond?

 

Many thanks

[Kate67]

I have today been told that if I wish to appeal against the judgement I need to do this forthwith, is there a set time frame for the appeal process?

[Kate67]

Hi, sorry for not keeping up with this but here's a quick update and hopefully someone can give me some advice on how to deal with this. I did appeal against the judgement and had to go to a hearing at MK County Court last Monday.

 

A couple of days before the hearing Capquest requested an adjournment, to which I objected. At the hearing they again requested an adjournment to 20th April (even thought they have had the claim since 2009 when I wrote to them informing them that the account was in dispute due to non compliance and therefore could not be passed to them) in order to get the Notice of Assignment. The Magistrate was quite blunt with their representative asking why they had previously stated that they had these documents in their possession, their representative did not respond to his point. The Magistrate then set the judgement aside and said I have to send my defence into the court by 24th March. He said that the new hearing would be set for 28th April in order to give Capquest ample time to get their documents in order.

 

Could you please advise my next steps. What can I expect on the 28th, I know Capquest won't be able to produce the documents so will that be the end of it? Many thanks for any help you can give.