Please Advise me! Bailiff hand-delivered letter

Woodyrocks

Hi Guys,

I am hoping this is in the right place for speedy responses.

I came home today (15/6/09) to a (photocopied) letter with HMCS (Her Majesty's Court Service) heading it and the address on it is Croydon Country Court and there is also a court stamp on it. It also had today's date handwritten on.

It has my address on it but the WRONG name. I know it is meant for me though as the name on it is of the person that has started this !!!!. BUT as I said, it is not addressed to me. Could I use this to my benefit?

What should I do? Should I be worried? What is going to happen next? I REFUSE to pay the person a penny so I am not willing to enter into any settlement rubbish. I just want to know how to deal with this fallout.

TIA

The letter (in its entirety) says -

---

DO NOT IGNORE THIS ADVICE

Take notice that I hold a Document that requires your attention.
Please telephone me at the first opportunity so that we can arrange to deal with this document, Process number N** Claim number 90T2****

Failure to comply could lead to a committal warrant being issued

Bailiff Area 12
Mr R***

7.30 - 10am Direct line 020 84** ****
Mobile 07*** ******

GeorgeUK

My first thought would be to send a PM to Herbie21.
He's the bailiff expert here.

Hopefully 10past6 will pop in too.

Do you have a CCJ against you for this debt? If so i can't see how you can avoid paying it - did you defend yourself in court?

wannabe_sybil

This looks like an ongoing process. Is the other person pursing you to give a statement of your income and expenditure or to take money out of your wages?

If it is either of these, then failure to provide details to the court can mean that you can be sent to prison for contempt of court. You have to refuse to give the information required.

I am not sure of the background of your matter, and I am sure that someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly to give more useful advice, but you must not ignore it. Committal Warrant means going to prison is the next stage. This is not automatic or even common, but it is not something that can be safely ignored. It may be that the other person's name was put in due to human error.

I think it may be a good idea to get professional legal advice.

Woodyrocks

Thanks guys. I am hoping that by keeping this bumped that the named posters find it (not sure how to do direct PM's...)

This process has been going on for a few months and I was sent correspondence from the court at one point. No, i did not go to court to defend myself, it was all just random paperwork as far as I was concerned. Feeling slighlyly dopey now!

Prison is not an option (I have a child to think of) so no, I would not just ignore this now. Is this past me offering the court pennies a week??

I don't want to make contact with the Bailiff Mr Ryan unless I know what I am letting myself in for

Woodyrocks

Also regarding the CCJ (which I am assuming has already occured??) - I checked my credit record very very recently, as in Friday just gone, and there was nothing on my file about it. Does it take a while to show up or something or is it still possible to stop it being placed on my file?

Please someone help! The CAB are near useless whenever I go in and I just know that you guys can give much more informed answers at the best of times!

wannabe_sybil

I am trying to keep this bumped until someone more knowledgeable comes along.

Many years ago I worked in the County Court. Committal Warrants were issued for contempt of court, because someone had not completed a questionnaire about income or because someone had not given details of their work. Both of these instances are post CCJ. The procedure, a long time ago, was that you would always be given a chance to provide the information and this way avoid any sentance for contempt of court.

I think you really need to find the papers you have previously received. Try and get hold of herbie, or get some knowledgeable and up to date advice. My personal feeling is that it would be safe for you to call the Court staff to ask for information - but do not commit to anything. They are not like debt collectors but equally they are not legally trained and are not allowed to do anything except give impartial information about procedures. Also some of those I worked with were numpties.

Hopefully this can be sorted out swiftly for you.

Woodyrocks

Thanks for the bump.

Like an idiot, I threw all the paperwork away

I am gutted that I must now have a CCJ on my file as I have been working so hard to clean up my credit file

I don't have a problem with phoning the court and even going into the courts but I don't want to be communicating with no bailiff.

p.s is there anyway to get the CCj removed or is that going to happen by itself after 6yrs?

wannabe_sybil

Woodyrocks wrote: »

Thanks for the bump.

Like an idiot, I threw all the paperwork away

I am gutted that I must now have a CCJ on my file as I have been working so hard to clean up my credit file

I don't have a problem with phoning the court and even going into the courts but I don't want to be communicating with no bailiff.

It is quite a few years since I worked at the County Court. The bailiffs working for them were nothing like the ones that normally hit the threads here. More than once they helped Defendants fill in forms to suspend warrants (strictly off the record!). However if you are okay speaking to the Court staff they should at least tell you what is going on. The CCJ can sometimes take time to show, or it may have been omitted due to human error. It may not exist and I may have got it all wrong - I do hope so, but Committal Warrant bit is not good.

Also, regardless of official opening times you should still be able to get hold of someone between about 8.30 and 5.30 if you try and ring them, but core hours you are more likely to get someone sensible.

I am sure that the good people on here will help sort it out. Good luck.

10past6

I've either missed it, or you've not stated, anyway, what’s this claim for and how has it got to this stage for a bailiff being involved?

Woodyrocks

I had a childminder go loco on my child at which point I ceased taking my child to her. She said I had to pay her for 4wks as the contract was 4wks notice on both sides. I stated that as she had gone mental, I would have been on drugs to leave my child with her for 1more day let alone 4.

Admittedly, there have been correspondences from her lawyer (and one from the court) that I have not responded to. I realise how dopey that sounds but you have to believe me that this cow had me so miffed.

All that is said and done now and all I want to do is deal with this crappy fallout with the court & bailiff's etc.

10past6

OK, so do you admit or deny thew claim?