Small claims court - what action to take next

boxer16

Hi there

I was wondering if somebody could give me some advice on the small claims process please? Unfortunately I am unable to call the court or MCOL for advice during office hours.

We (the claimants) had judgement granted as the defendant did not respond within the specified time frame. Once judgement was granted, the defendant asked for the judgement to be set aside. We attended the hearing on Wednesday and the request was dismissed as the judge said the defendant had no defence and as the documents were served to the right address, the excuse of not receiving the documents could not be used.

The defendant was not happy with the outcome and said he was going to appeal (although still couldn't tell the judge what his defence was!). The judge said he would refuse the defendant's request to appeal however said there was another way for him to go about it (unfortunately I missed what this is).
Could anyone tell me what the process is from now - does he need permission to appeal? Do we have to do anything, or do we wait and see if we hear anything from the court?

Many thanks

BJV

We took a company to the small claims and did everything on line it was very easy and quick. I do not know if this will help but I know it really helped me esp with the what to do next bits.
https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

boxer16

Thanks BJV.

I've had a look on there but it doesn't really say much about what happens after the request to set judgement aside is refused.

arcon5

Perhaps the judge was giving him the opportunity to a second hearing whereby he can submit a defense

baker85

The judge said something along the lines of, anything the defendant could bring forward wouldn't have any merits. Hence the reason he didn't allow the judgement to be set aside because there would be no point it going to court. He also said the case shouldn't have got this far and that the defendant should have just given us our money back in the first place.

vax2002

Is this a LTD company ?

mikey72

vax2002 wrote: »

Is this a LTD company ?

Again?
Do you have any idea what it costs to fold a ltd company and start a new one?

arcon5

mikey72 wrote: »

Again?
Do you have any idea what it costs to fold a ltd company and start a new one?

Setting up a new company can be done for less than a fiver.
Folding a company can be done various ways.. but you can have it struck off for a tenner (free if you fail to file accounts) or can bring in liquidators which is much more expensive but not always necessary. A good accountant will be able to sort out the transfer of assets efficiently.

So if you know how to work the system.... pretty much f'all.

boxer16

Not sure off the top of my head... will have to check court documentation.

Does the sort of company it is affect the process?

boxer16

It's a hotel so won't just be able to fold and start again....

arcon5

boxer16 wrote: »

Not sure off the top of my head... will have to check court documentation.

Does the sort of company it is affect the process?

Yes, the Ltd company system can be abused to evade debts so sometimes writing something off can be the more profitable outcome.

boxer16 wrote: »

It's a hotel so won't just be able to fold and start again....

Yes they can, it would just be much more complicated to deal with the companies affairs and costly depending on the size of the business. It's less likely they would pheonix the assets over a single claim though. But this is what effectively happened with La Senze amongst some other high street retailers who went under this year and sold as a package to a different company