county court judgement hearing missed!

jodenice

My partner has been having a long running dispute with HFC (he is on a debt management plan with CCCS but they want more money more quickly) and they applied for a CCJ which we were going to dispute.

On the original form it did say that a hearing was to be held in April but HFC requested a delay of over a month and we thought the date would be changed _ i was sure we would at least receive confirmation.

more fool me, we didnt. We've had a letter today for a general form of order for the whole lot - we've missed the hearing.

Is there anything I can do, if so - what? i have been asking for help on the CSA but not really received any lately so am begging for help on here, am really panicking.

Can we appeal and ask for the date to be set again? How will this affect his DMP? We had quite good reasons for going to court - they couldn't find all the loan agreement etc.

please help!!

10past6

Has judgement been entered against you?

What is this debt for?

Did you admit / deny / dispute the initial claim?

jodenice

yes the form says that judgement has been made for the claimant for the whole amount and that the defence struck out.

we appealed against the whole lot (we disputed)

Its a debt for an unsecured loan (he bought a buy now, pay later tv) and when he went onto the DMP it paid them far less than they wanted per month.

10past6

OK, you need to apply for a set aside using this form, if your exempt from court fees, also complete this form.

Just to confirm, when the claim arrived, you acknowledged the claim, then submitted a defense?

jodenice

yes we did acknowledge it, i did the defense against the claim all online and sent off anything that needed sending off.

I'm an idiot but i never thought that an appointment vaguely made in early january would be upheld in april without any confirmation after a series of requested delays from both parties.

10past6

Never trust a Creditor / DCA once litigation has commenced, what have the court stated why your defence is dismissed?

jodenice

because he was supposed to go to the county court for a hearing and he didn't turn up as he didn't realise it was being held on this date. The defence he'd sent in was quite vague really, a bit legalise and he was going to explain in more detail when he got there - although it was flimsy but he wanted the opportunity to show that he has been making regular payments with the CCCS etc.

so this form, is for you have missed a court hearing which you were due to attend? how much are the court fees?

10past6

You need to complete that form to have your case "set aside" on the grounds you had no knowledge of the court date.

The fee is £75.00, but if your exempt, complete the form within my previous post.

jodenice

i've just read the blurb about the n244 form, it says that costs may be made against you if your judgement does not succeed - i dont think they are going to set it aside - is this the only option? I'm worried as we did receive the initial form with the date of 22nd April on it - we just thought it would be confirmed or that it may have changed due to delays.

10past6

jodenice wrote: »

is this the only option?

Yes

Under the law, you're entilted to have YOUR side of the dispute heard, in order to comply with that, you need to apply for a set aside hearing.

jodenice

is there a time limit for this? apparently it was held on the 22nd april and the form has come today with the date of the 28th april.

Can i ask - what if this goes ahead. Does the fact that the CCJ has been entered due to non attendance make it any different to if he had admitted the debt in the first place? is there anyway of showing his DMP or income etc or is it now set in stone that he has to pay the whole amount? Will he receive any paperwork asking him how much he can afford? or should this have been done at an earlier stage?