Small Claims Court guide

Aylesbury_Duck

The police involvement in the harassment element is separate, so let that bit work itself out.

You need to provide some more information for people to be able to help you. It's a bit of a jumble at the moment.

Have you considered getting legal advice? I think I would in your circumstances.

waamo

The harassment element is going to get you nowhere. A successful claim has been lodged against you and someone has served the papers on you. They are entitled to do this.

The big issue is that you now have a ccj. You need to act quickly and apply for a set aside. This costs £255. Alternatively you may chose to pay it.

A set aside should be successful if the initial paperwork was indeed delivered to the wrong address.

custardy

MrsMollylou89 wrote: »

Last week whilst my husband was at work a guy walked up to him and asked him his first name then said you are served (flipped open his wallet and showed him a star badge), put an envelope in his hand and walked off. My husband, his colleagues and customers were a bit shocked to say the least, he thought it was a wind up. He opened the envelope with his and my name and home address on (the envelope looked like it had been through a hedge), inside was a court paper saying that we had been taken to small claims court and the person had won as we had not attended. No other details. My husband rang the local court office to see if this was genuine, he was told it was, he asked if they had sent someone to 'serve' this paper they hadn't, they said they had sent out one letter before the hearing and one after, we received neither of them because the address was wrong, the only advice they could give was to read some leaflets. What can we do as the court hearing was over eight weeks ago and we certainly contest it. The police are involved as the person who 'served' him the letter was bogus and a friend of the claimant they have classed it as harassment (employer was not happy that this person turned up at my husbands work in full view of customers and are willing to give police a copy of the cctv showing what happened). My husband used to be a sole trader (hasn't been for over a year), he used a business name to trade under, the court paper received is in both our names. He has evidence to dispute the claim, he would have loved to have gone to court but he didn't get the chance due to them giving the wrong address even though they knew the correct one, they even came to our home address on one occasion. Like I asked we just don't know where to go from here. Advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

using a business name as a sole trader doesn't absolve you of responsibility.

Doc_N

MrsMollylou89 wrote: »

Last week whilst my husband was at work a guy walked up to him and asked him his first name then said you are served (flipped open his wallet and showed him a star badge), put an envelope in his hand and walked off. My husband, his colleagues and customers were a bit shocked to say the least, he thought it was a wind up. He opened the envelope with his and my name and home address on (the envelope looked like it had been through a hedge), inside was a court paper saying that we had been taken to small claims court and the person had won as we had not attended. No other details. My husband rang the local court office to see if this was genuine, he was told it was, he asked if they had sent someone to 'serve' this paper they hadn't, they said they had sent out one letter before the hearing and one after, we received neither of them because the address was wrong, the only advice they could give was to read some leaflets. What can we do as the court hearing was over eight weeks ago and we certainly contest it. The police are involved as the person who 'served' him the letter was bogus and a friend of the claimant they have classed it as harassment (employer was not happy that this person turned up at my husbands work in full view of customers and are willing to give police a copy of the cctv showing what happened). My husband used to be a sole trader (hasn't been for over a year), he used a business name to trade under, the court paper received is in both our names. He has evidence to dispute the claim, he would have loved to have gone to court but he didn't get the chance due to them giving the wrong address even though they knew the correct one, they even came to our home address on one occasion. Like I asked we just don't know where to go from here. Advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

Sorry - very little time, and the lack of paragraphs caused me to move on to something else.

Presentation is everything.

MrsMollylou89

Hi

Apologies, I didn't explain it correctly. From the piece of paper my husband received she has included me on the court papers. My husband was the sole trader not me so I cannot understand why my name was on it.

Thanks for your reply

MrsMollylou89

Hi Doc N

I am sorry about the long (war & peace) write up, I am just so angry that someone can do this, You don't even have chance to defend yourself and now my husband will have to pay out the money to set aside the order. He has evidence of conversations,letters, compensation by the manufacturers, the disgusting messages sent joking about my father dying. This lady purposely gave the wrong address and sent a bogus 'court official' to my husbands work to serve a piece of paper that doesn't really explain anything properly except that a court hearing took place weeks ago.. sorry, waffling again!

waamo

If you can show the plaintiff acted unreasonably you may get the court fees back if you win. Examples of acting unreasonably would be something like deliberately issuing papers to an address they knew to be incorrect. If they served papers on your last known address that is not unreasonable.

MrsMollylou89

Hi Waamo
Thank you for replying. I do think she purposely gave the court the wrong address as she had previously visited my husband (our home address) on a few occasions. We have never moved house and the address on the 'served' order had the correct address on.

My husband is going to seek legal advice about the whole episode.

Thank you

waamo

MrsMollylou89 wrote: »

Hi Waamo
Thank you for replying. I do think she purposely gave the court the wrong address as she had previously visited my husband (our home address) on a few occasions. We have never moved house and the address on the 'served' order had the correct address on.

My husband is going to seek legal advice about the whole episode.

Thank you

If the address on the court paperwork is correct you may struggle. Whatever you do you need to act swiftly. A set aside must be applied for promptly.

There is no legal definition of promptly but it is generally taken as within a month of discovering you have a ccj. Any longer than that and you risk having your application rejected out of hand due to not acting in an appropriate time scale.

Mike7649

I want to take a Scottish registered company through the Small Claims process but live in the South of England. The claim is £100 so I can't justify attending a Scottish court to present my case. What are my options?