Message from Guildford County Court to CAG - **NEW** Directions Order

[PeterAnderson]

I have just returned from the court collecting some N1's and had a very long discussion with the Court Office Manager and several interesting things came out of the that discussion.

 

Firstly I have full permission from the Court Manager to post this and he knows exactly what I am going to post (he was glad that people were getting their money back by the way ).

 

1. Only about 4% of the bank cases every receive a court date and he was not aware of any defendants turning up at court

2. A few cases have been struck out - due to faulty paperwork.

3. Once a defence has been submitted they will try to set an early court date

3. If anyone here would like to sit-in on a hearing they are welcome.

4. A special court day has been set aside as they have put together 20 cases that they expect to be heard, they also listed 50+ cases as well and will add to this list - this will take place on 14th Sept in Court 7 starting at 1030am - CAG are welcome to sit-in.

 

IMPORTANT NEW DIRECTIONS

The manager told me that they are fed-up with the banks not turning up and as I understand it, once they have lodged their defence, this court gives them 7-days before the case will be struck-out in favour of the claimant.

 

They have only just started issuing these new Directions to the banks - he gave me a copy, and it reads as follows, in full:-

 

DIRECTIONS

 

1. The claim is allocated to the small claims track

 

2. The hearing will take place at a place, time and date which will be notified to the parties.

 

3. The Defendant shall no later than 4pm on 13 August 2007 serve on the Claimant and lodge at Court a document answering the following questions: (a) Is the case intended to be contested to and at trial. (b) Does the Dependent intend to apply to adduce expert evidence?

 

4. If the Defendant fails to lodge at Court a document in accordance with paragraph 3. above the defence shall be struck out and judgement will be entered for the Claimant for the amount claimed and costs comprising the issue fee and any allocation fee paid.

 

5. Each party shall serve on the other the witness statements of all witnesses (other than expert witnesses on whom they intend to rely.

 

6. No party may adduce expert evidence unless an application for permission to adduce such evidence has been made and granted.

 

7. No party may rely on the evidence of any witness whose statement has not been served in accordance with this order without further permission from the Court.

 

8. No more than seven nor less than three clear working days before the trial date the Claimant shall file at Court an indexed and paginated bundle of documents which complies with the requirements of Rule 39.5 of the Civil Procedure Rules and the practice direction thereto, and shall serve a copy of it on the Defendant. The Claimant shall endeavour to agree the contents of the bundle with the Defendant before it is filed. If the Claimant fails to file a trial bundle in accordance with this direction the claim shall be struck out and the action dismissed without further order.

 

9. Because this order has been made by the Court without considering representations from the parties, the parties have the right to apply to have the order set aside, varied or stayed. A party wishing to make an application must send or deliver the application to the Court (together with the appropriate fee) to arrive withen seven days of service of this order

 

Guildford County Court

[PeterAnderson]

Post 3 - Bump

[PeterAnderson]

Adam - Hi,

 

I think these directions are intended to speed up the process and force the banks into paying rather than wasting courts time. The other main change on these directions is that Guildford CC are only allowing 7 days rather than (I 'think' in other courts 28days - now that is a major change in our favour.

 

The court manager did say that they were getting very peeved off with the banks, I can see why the banks are doing it though - because they CAN

 

PS I ticked your scales

[PeterAnderson]

Well done,

 

The OFT test case is going to screw me - £18.6k - and just when I was picking the colour of my new Harley Davidson Ultra Electroglide -;(

[PeterAnderson]

I did see a thread on the General forum that Guildford are one of the courts that are not issuing blanket stays but are doing on a case by case basis

 

Best of luck on the 14th - please update us all