Claim made against a county Court over an issue of breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 - Crown says it's incorrectly served?

[Ganymede]

I think you may be in trouble as CPR 6.10 is clear about serving proceedings against the Crown on the Government Legal Department.

 

You need to speak to the GLD and find out what their intentions are if you serve the papers again. If you're lucky they won't take issue with it.

 

I don't think it'll wash with a Judge that you're a LiP and didn't know the rules as you're supposed to check these things or take legal advice beforehand.

 

You might have some sympathy from the Court though as the Defendant hasn't really been prejudiced.

 

How much is your claim for?

[Ganymede]

That's because your other reasons aren't very good. CPR 6.10 isn't ambiguous. It's very clear unfortunately.

 

How much more than £300 do you think your claim is worth?

[Ganymede]

£300 to £9000 is quite some difference.

 

What is your complaint and why do you think you are entitled to £9000 compensation?

 

It's important because if your claim is only worth a few hundred pounds then an application to extend service will cost you more than the claim is worth, even if you are successful.

[Ganymede]

Not sure that 7.6 applies as you've already served the Claim Form now.

 

Can you be more specific about the DPA breaches?

[Ganymede]

Well you seem to know all the answers already, why are you on here then?

 

And the nature of the DPA breaches are relevant. You somehow think you're claim is worth £9000 (it's probably not) and asked if you should abandon your claim as you've made a mistake in not serving it correctly within limitation. The financial value of your claim is directly related to that.

[Ganymede]

It is the main issue.

 

If you're claim is worth £300 then it might not be financially viable to continue as the costs of the application will very likely exceed the amount claimed. If this is the case you might be best to abandon the claim.

 

However, if your claim is worth £9000 then it might be worth the costs of making an application if you're still going to get £8000 for example.

[Ganymede]

In the Notice of Issue which was sent to me by the County Court Money Claims Centre along with my claim form it is stated that I have to serve the defendant within 4 months of the date of issue. However it is not stated that I have to serve the claim form on the representative of the defendant. Hence I would like to know if I can use this as evidence to get permission from the court to serve my claim on the representative of the defendant after the four months deadline because I have followed the instructions which were stated in the Notice of Issue when I served the claim form on the defendant and not on its representative

 

No, that's not a good enough reason for failing to serve correctly in my opinion.

 

The terms Defendant and Defendant's Solicitor are interchangeable. When it says serve on the Defendant (Crown) then you must serve on their Solicitor (Government Legal Department).

 

Was your claim issued via Money Claim Online?

[Ganymede]

The Court cannot and will not give you legal advice on this like how to correctly serve proceedings and on whom. You are supposed to know this prior to issuing/serving so I don't think this argument is a good one.

 

Please scan and post the Notice of Issue so we can check, but I suspect that it is just the standard pro forma notice.

[Ganymede]

Good luck with that, the standard Notice of Issue is used thousands of times a year and so you'll have to convince the Court they are wrong and misleading.

 

You can easily redact any personal information before posting the Notice of Issue.

[Ganymede]

The claim forms were sent back to me by the court so that I served them myself because I asked this in my claim form. However if I would not have asked this the court would have served the claim forms itself.

 

Therefore there is another issue which puzzles me which that in the claim form it is asked the address the defendant but not the address of its representative so the issue is how the staff of the court when they received my claim form would have known to which address to send the claim form to the defendant's representative if I would not have asked that the claim form are sent back to me so that I served them myself? Unless there is something that we have not understood in this story

 

 

The address for service is clearly requested in the bottom left box on the front page of the N1 Claim Form.

 

You're really reaching for excuses now.

[Ganymede]

You're making it very difficult to help. If you already know all of the answers why are you here?

 

To clarify, the Court will only serve at the address you put in that bottom left box on the Claim Form regardless. It is for YOU to put the correct service address and comply with the CPR, not for the Court staff to check it and do it for you.

 

For example, you should have put in that box:

 

Ministry of Justice

C/O Government Legal Department

One Kemble Street

London

WC2B 4TS

[Ganymede]

For what it's worth I think the GLD are giving you an opportunity to correctly serve the proceedings so as they aren't seen to be taking advantage of a Litigant in Person's procedural error...

 

I told the OP on the first page to contact the Government Legal Department and ask that very thing.

 

In fact it was in my very first reply.

[Ganymede]

You are wrong, sorry.

 

To comply with CPR 6.10 you should have put the name and address of the MoJ care of the GLD exactly how I wrote it a few posts ago.

 

I really don't know why you are trying to argue these meaningless points and not simply calling the GLD.

[Ganymede]

I served my claim form within the four months deadline but I served it on the defendant instead of serving it on its representative because CPR 6.10 says that for claims against the Crown we have to serve the claim form on the defendant's representative. This is a stupid technicality it is judicial bureaucracy which wastes time and money because the defendant's representative has received my claim form as evidenced by his last email and could respond to it if he wishes. As a consequence if now I have to serve again my claim form this time on the defendant's representative I will be now outside the four months deadline.

 

I had to go through the several steps of the MOJ's complaint procedure and this has taken a long time. Moreover I had also other commitments. I made my first claim within the six years deadline but if I have to make another claim this time it will be slightly outside the six years limitation period

 

There's part of your grounds for the application.

 

It's a minor error and easy for a LiP to make and the Defendant has not suffered any prejudice as the GLD was passed a copy of the pleadings by the MoJ.