Default Judgement

ednoni

Hi,

I have been referred to this forum for some help.

I was wondering if anyone out there could give me a bit of advice.

I took Creation Financial Services to court for PPI payments and the claim was made 14/8/2008 and was acknowledged by them on 1/9/08.

They did not provide a defence and therefore a default judgment was made 17/9/2008.

They did not pay up so a warrant was issued on 15/10/2008. The bailiffs have been unable to recover the monies.

Yesterday, over 3 months after the warramt was issued, I received notification that the defendant wanted to set aside the judgement.

Are they able to do this. I thought that once a judgement had been made it was final as a defence had not been made.

It seems pretty bad to me that I go through the whole small claims system and do everything by the book and then the defendant decides 4 months after the judgement that they wnt to set it aside.

dalip

Bat's your man for this one. Maybe he will be along soon or you can PM him. blind-as-a-bat is his user name and boy is he hot on this sort of thing:D

fermi

A judgement can be set aside, but there must be "reasonable" grounds for this.

How to set aside a judgment in the county court

When must the court set aside the judgment?

The court must set aside the default judgment if you:

• have paid the whole amount owed (including any interest and costs) before the date the creditor entered judgment;
• sent back the acknowledgment of service form within the time limit;
• put in a defence within the time limit; or
• sent in the reply form within the time limit asking for more time to pay.

The court must set aside the judgment in these circumstances, even if you do not have a defence.
There is no time limit for making an application on these grounds.

When is it up to the court to decide?

The court may agree to set aside the default judgment even if you did not send in a reply form within the time limit if:

• the court thinks you have a real chance of a successful defence to the claim ; or
• the court thinks there is some other good reason why the judgment should be set aside.

There is no time limit for making an application on these grounds but the court will look at whether you made the application 'promptly'.

Do you know what "grounds" they are claiming?

ednoni

Not sure of their grounds yet.

Feel a bit confused by this all now.

I just thought that a judgement had been made so that was it.

Thank you very much for your help

blind-as-a-bat_2

dalip wrote: »

Bat's your man for this one. Maybe he will be along soon or you can PM him. blind-as-a-bat is his user name and boy is he hot on this sort of thing:D

fermi has said all i could, without knowing the grounds it would be hard to comment, but after such a long period of time they would need a good reason for a set aside to be considered by the court.

It could be a stalling tactic, depends how air tight your case was, they may be hoping you just give up:rolleyes:

follow the link in fermi's last post, you will certainly get better advice there, but be prepared it is a 'slower' board than this, so you may have to be patiant for a reply

ednoni

Thanks very much all for your help. If I get any further info I will post it here.

Here is hoping!

ednoni

Just to let you know I received the details for why Creation want to set aside.

They have basically said they believe they have a proper and viable defence.

Surely they should have submitted this defence within the 28 days after the claim was issued not 4 months later!

The hearing has been set for next Friday. They have given me 1 week notice for a 10 minute hearing which takes place 100 miles from where I live.

Does anyone know whether I have to attend or not?

Thanks again for your help.

blind-as-a-bat_2

So they have given no explanation of what this viable defnce is based on?

I have not had to go through a set aside, but i believe this stage is for the judge to hear there reason and to decide wether to allow it, if so they will then have to make there case,

If you have no clue what there reason is, its hard to know what to do to counter it, i am not sure you have to at this stage

You can ring the court and question the proscess, they can not give advice on what you should do, but you can ask if they have abused proscess by leaving it so late, and what the prosces is, and check if anything has been sent to you that you have not recieved

You really need to post on the link fermi gave, there are many poeple there that have been through this sort of thing, so you should get some better answers there