New strategy for Allocation Questionnaires

[GaryH]

Craigten,

 

Personally, I'd just wait for the time being. Use the time to familiarise yourself with the documents you'll need to submit after you receive directions. I can't see how sending them a schedule would do anything whatsoever to speed up settlement.

 

I did'nt say it was'nt a good idea, I said it won't speed things up. By all means send them a schedule, but don't send it in with the misconception that it will "make/pursuade them to make an offer" - it won't.

[dickeggsy]

recieved today .

district judge hoffman has considered the statements of case and allocation questionnaires filed and allocated the claim to the small claims track.

IT IS ORDERED THAT

1. THE HEARING IS TO TAKE PLACE ON 16TH APRIL AT MY LOCAL COUNTY COURT AND SHOULD TAKE NO LONGER THAN 3 HOURS.

2.THE COURT MUST BE INFORMED IMMEDIATELY IF CASE IS SETTLED BY AGREEMENT BEFORE HEARING DATE.

3.DIRECTIONS ATTACHED.

 

ok bit of advice please.

the judge has returned the new draft order for directions so i presume the defendant will have recieved the directions.

so just to clarify within the next 14 days i have to get my court bundle into the court and also to the defendant or the case will be struck out.

also the defendant has to do the same.

is that correct.

any help really,really appreciated.

[GaryH]

Great news!

 

Yes, what you said is correct - you have to submit your documents within 14 days, then the defendent has another 14 days to submit theirs in response. You will now need to provide;

 

a) Your schedule;

 

b) Your statements showing the charges. Alternatively the list of charges which the bank provided under your S.A.R - (Subject Access Request);

 

c) A statement of evidence - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/53570-new-strategy-allocation-questionaires-3.html#post482194

 

d) All the statutues and decided cases on which your claim relies. Ie, UTCCR's, UCTA's, SOGA, case law, etc. For this, I'd just submit the whole of the Basic Court Bundle.

 

Send one copy of everything to the court, one to the other side, and keep one for yourself. Please ensure you get it submitted within the 14 days - faliure to do so will lead to your claim being struck out!

 

Which bank is it against?

[dickeggsy]

ok thank you very much for the reply.

the claim is against barclays,the bundle has been ready since i sent the AQ in on the 17th jan.

everything is in there i.e statements,schedule,statement of evidence,basic court bundle and a few other bits and bobs.

i'll take it into the court first thing monday and get a set off to barclays recorded delivery,i don't want to take any chances.

i would urge everyone to use the new draft order for directions because it really does speed things up.

once again thanks for the prompt reply gary.

cheers.

[GaryH]

When you send your documents in within 14 days, the bank have to submit theirs in response within another 14 days. They could then either -

 

settle, in which case you should write to the court and withdraw the claim;

 

submit documents (unlikely), in which case you would need to inspect them thoroughly. Seek advice straight away if this is the case;

 

default, in which case you need to inform the court straight away to request the defence is struck out. Don't give the bank any warning, just send a letter such as this to the court on the day of their deadline -

[you]

 

District Judge ******

C/O The Court Manager

****** County Court

Court Address

Postcode

 

[date]

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

[You] -v- The Bank Plc

Claim No:********

 

I, the Claimant, refer to the claim as detailed above and specifically the order made by district judge ***** dated [date]. Please find enclosed a copy of the order to which I refer.

 

I wish to inform the court that the Defendant has not complied with the order in that it has not served upon me its evidence, or any such documents, as was specifically directed.

 

I can confirm that my documents were both filed and served pursuant to the terms of the order on [date].

 

It is submitted that the Defendants non-compliance creates a significant imbalance between the parties in light of the forthcoming hearing, which I believe to be contrary to the overriding objective. This imbalance is particularly exacerbated by the fact that the Defendant is represented by specialist solicitors, whereas I am a litigant in person.

 

Accordingly, and in view of the terms of the honourable courts previous order, it is respectfully suggested that the court may be minded to make an order pursuant to Rule 3.4(2)© of the Civil Procedure Rules.

 

Yours faithfully

[chezt]

When you send your documents in within 14 days, the bank have to submit theirs in response within another 14 days. They could then either -

 

Hi Gary ...sorry to be a pest but can I just clarify this as I'm currently preparing my bundle ... do the bank have an 'extra' 14 days from when they receive your documents?

 

If so, does this also apply to an order where the draft order hasn't been ordered too (like mine )

[alimehmet]

Right, from the start....

 

In section G (J if N150) of the AQ, you get the opportunity to add any other information you think may help the judge manage the claim, or make a request for specific orders that you want the judge to consider making.

 

Untill now, we have always requested an order of standard disclosure in this section, as per the AQ guide notes in the templates library.

 

A standard disclosure order, if it were ordered by the judge, would oblige the bank to fully substantiate exactly how its charges are made up and provide costings and documentary evidence, etc.

 

Trouble is, standard disclosure is not routinely availible in small claims cases - it is only usually ordered in the fast and multi-track. Judges do have the power to order it in small claims cases if they wish, but up untill now they have been very reluctant to do so. In fact I'm only aware of a handful of cases in which it has been ordered dispite it being requested in hundreds of AQ's.

 

So now, instead of requesting an order of standard disclosure in the AQ, there is the option of requesting the directions as per the draft order on the previous page.

 

If ordered, this would still oblige the bank to produce all the important documentation that a standard disclosure order would - but, in a form that is far more likely to be agreed by the judge.

 

These directions are already being routinely ordered by some courts in small claims track cases, and it is fairly likely that if proposed most judges would agree to them. There is certainly no obvious reason why they would'nt, as is the case with standard disclosure.

 

So, if you want to request the directions on the previous page rather than standard disclosure, you need to attach the draft order (as per BF's post #2) to the other info section of the AQ. If you have a N150, attach it to the 'proposed directions' section and see my post on the previous page (post #15) for a suggestion of what to put in 'other info'.

 

The AQ will then go off to be looked at by the judge to consider the AQ's and allocate your claim - set the date, issue directions, etc.

 

You will then in a couple of weeks receive your notice of allocation from the court, which will contain the track, the date and the directions the judge has ordered.

 

If the judge has aceeded to your request and ordered the directions as proposed, you will THEN have to submit the claimants documents as per a), b), c) and d) of the order.

 

It is VERY IMPORTANT that you then know exactly what you need to provide and submit it to the court and the other side within the date specified on the order.

 

If you don't submit it, or don't submit it on time, your claim will then be struck out!!!

 

Once you've filed and served your documents, the bank will then have to submit theirs within their specified timescale. Going on past evidance, it is highly unlikely (although not inconcevable) that the bank will comply. They will probably either settle before the deadline, or default and have their defence struck out.

 

As discussed previously on this thread, the other big advantage of these directions is that the defendants documents have to be submitted within 28 days of the order. Therefore, the claims timescale would be considerably shortened as opposed to the standard small claims track directions, which don't require document exchange to take place untill 14 days before the hearing - which obviously in some cases could be months!

 

Hope this helps clarfy it a bit!

 

how relevant then is this procedure to a fast tracked AQ?

 

My claim is approx £12000, but i am still inclined to submit further documentation under Section F to support my claim. Do you think this is a good move, given that it is fast tracked already?

[dickeggsy]

ok thanks for that gary.

just one thing the date on the notice of allocation is friday 2nd of Feb,so does that give me till friday 16th to submit my court bundle and then the 2nd of March the last day they can submit their documents.

in that case do i send the letter on the friday , saturday or the monday.

sorry to be a pain but i want to get this dead on.

cheers.

[GaryH]

Hi Gary ...sorry to be a pest but can I just clarify this as I'm currently preparing my bundle ... do the bank have an 'extra' 14 days from when they receive your documents?

 

If so, does this also apply to an order where the draft order hasn't been ordered too (like mine )

 

Hi Chezt,

 

No, your directions are the bog standard ones. The date specified is the date by which both you and the other side have to submit documents by.

[GaryH]

how relevant then is this procedure to a fast tracked AQ?

 

My claim is approx £12000, but i am still inclined to submit further documentation under Section F to support my claim. Do you think this is a good move, given that it is fast tracked already?

 

Personally, yes I would propose the directions as per the draft order even though its fast tracked. Its likely that they'll be agreed as disclosure is availible in the fast track anyway, and you will also benefit from the strict timescales.

 

When you say add documents to support your claim, do you mean evidence? If so then no, don't submit any evidence at the AQ stage - only after the judge has ordered you to.

[chezt]

Hi Chezt,

 

No, your directions are the bog standard ones. The date specified is the date by which both you and the other side have to submit documents by.

 

OK thanks for that ...

[GaryH]

ok thanks for that gary.

just one thing the date on the notice of allocation is friday 2nd of Feb,so does that give me till friday 16th to submit my court bundle and then the 2nd of March the last day they can submit their documents.

in that case do i send the letter on the friday , saturday or the monday.

sorry to be a pain but i want to get this dead on.

cheers.

 

Send the letter so it arrives at the court on the Monday.

 

Which bank is it against?

[dickeggsy]

it's against barclays.i'm just trying to get everything spot on ,don't want to risk everything now,lol.

cheers mate.

[Guest willowb]

Just subscribing:)

 

Wxxx

[Guest bong]

Send the letter so it arrives at the court on the Monday.

 

Which bank is it against?

 

am I getting confused here? probably but just wanted to make absolutely certain for dickeggsy. If the docs have to be in by Fri 16th why would he send them to arrive on the Monday?

[GaryH]

He was asking when to send in the strike out request letter. His docs have to be submitted by Fri 16th Feb, and the banks by Fri 2nd March - so what I said was to slap in the strike out request on the following Monday, the 5th March, the next working day.

 

Sorry if I did'nt make it clear enough first of all

[Guest bong]

Gary while you're here would you mind having a look at a thread I have just posted here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/63285-statement-evidence-witness-statements.html#post537034

 

thanks!

[Guest bong]

He was asking when to send in the strike out request letter. His docs have to be submitted by Fri 16th Feb, and the banks by Fri 2nd March - so what I said was to slap in the strike out request on the following Monday, the 5th March, the next working day.

 

Sorry if I did'nt make it clear enough first of all

 

ok thanks, just wanted to make sure there were no wires crossed. didn't really think you would make a mistake like that:)

[dickeggsy]

hey i won't post it i'll take it into the court myself first on the monday morning as it's only about 2 miles down the road.lol.

could you just clarify something for me,do barclays have to send me any documents or do they just send them to the court.

the reason i am asking is because on the order for directions it states that i have to send documentation to the court and also to barclays but that they have to ,and i quote ''file and serve a response to the claimant's schedule,stating in respect of each item claimed''.

it doesn't actually tell them to send anything to me,or does it?

any replies and advice would be really helpful.

thank you.

[alimehmet]

Personally, yes I would propose the directions as per the draft order even though its fast tracked. Its likely that they'll be agreed as disclosure is availible in the fast track anyway, and you will also benefit from the strict timescales.

 

When you say add documents to support your claim, do you mean evidence? If so then no, don't submit any evidence at the AQ stage - only after the judge has ordered you to.

 

hi gary

 

i am referring to spreadsheet and previous letters sent to the bank. I also received a letter from cobbetts, enclosing their defence, requesting this information

[GaryH]

hey i won't post it i'll take it into the court myself first on the monday morning as it's only about 2 miles down the road.lol.

could you just clarify something for me,do barclays have to send me any documents or do they just send them to the court.

the reason i am asking is because on the order for directions it states that i have to send documentation to the court and also to barclays but that they have to ,and i quote ''file and serve a response to the claimant's schedule,stating in respect of each item claimed''.

it doesn't actually tell them to send anything to me,or does it?

any replies and advice would be really helpful.

thank you.

 

Yes, they have to send it to you as well. 'File' means to the court, and 'serve' means to the other side.

[GaryH]

hi gary

 

i am referring to spreadsheet and previous letters sent to the bank. I also received a letter from cobbetts, enclosing their defence, requesting this information

 

Yes, you can attach a spreadsheet to the AQ if you like.

[dickeggsy]

cheers gary thats my confusion cleared up.court bundles going into court and off to barclays first thing in the morning(well after i drop the kids off at school).

i bet i have to stand at the back of a big queue of pensioners at the post office but there you go,no pain no gain.

if i have any more panic attacks you can count on me being back lol.

thaanks for all your help.

[N#1N#2]

Dickeggsy/GaryH

 

I have recieved a e mail from the Northern rock referrence my judgment to set aside.

 

quote

 

Thank you for your email dated 4 February 2007, I am however, not in a position to comment on decisions made in relation to other banking institutions.

In relation to Northern Rock plc's application to set aside judgment in default, and having now had a chance to consider Northern Rock plc's draft defence, please advise as to whether you will provide your consent to default judgment being set aside prior to the hearing on Monday 12 February 2007.

I look forward to receiving your response.

Its been suggested that i reply along the lines 'I will agree to the set aside if they agree to my draft directions', but the only directions I read are the one's mentioned in this thread, i don't think they are appropriate, or is there a different slant on it or should i outline the directions as you quoted.

[Glenn UK]

bjberry

 

I suggest you don't monkey about, you can only ask the courts to consider your draft orders if you have asked them formally i.e. in writing preferably using the right forms.

 

Ive replied to this question in your other thread if that helps.

 

Glenn