Small claim and order for oral examination.

Brassedoff

unclebulgaria wrote: »

Can't use the sheriffs as the debt is below £600.
Just a quick question to anyone reading this thread, how many times should anyone allow toe rags like my debtor to escape court? I've lost count of the times I've been told not to bother chasing this debt. Its no wonder these people keep running up debts!

Not with their changes it will not.

unclebulgaria

The gentleman in question was served with his order for questioning on the 18/06/13 to appear in court 03/09/13.
Hopefully he'll turn up but if he doesn't he'll be ordered there by a judge. Lovely!

unclebulgaria

Just to let anyone thinking of taking a small claims court case to recover money that its not a walk in the park but its also not impossible to do. The company I'm chasing or the company director to be more specific have not fought any appearence in court and I've been told multiple times to just forget it. Its now got to the point where the officer of the company who was ordered into court didnt turn up for his order for questioning and now a circuit judge has ordered him there or be arrested and possibly charged with contempt of court. I may never get my money but he/the company wont have got away with it.

So anyone thinking of starting a case to recover money, go for it. Just make sure you've done your homework and have gone through the correct procedures before starting a case and make sure every correspondence is traceable, email/recorded letters etc.

Vectis

But how much time and effort has it cost you? You'd be better spending the time devising ways of not getting into this situation again. As has been said previously, charge up front or at least get 50% up front. If a potential client baulks at this, walk away. We're not in the same trade as you but have this in our T&C. Unless, of course, you want the same scenario next year, or the year after that, or the year after that?

unclebulgaria

Can I just clear up some misunderstanding here!
I've been self employed for 7 years, I've been taken for a large sum once by a toe rag builder which I eventually recovered after 18 months this after being self employed for 3 months. Since then 4 others have tried it on including YBM. One lost his court case and had to pay out quite a lot more than he owed me originally, 2 of the remaining 3 backed down and paid me when I threatened legal proceedings and that leaves the Lovely Mr Mead.
Now, I don't have any large sums of money outstanding for materials anymore because I get the customer to pay the materials and I also have a water tight contract . Now unfortunately I occasionally have to do emergency call outs, these call outs are by their very nature needed to be carried out quickly hence EMERGENCY.
I haven't met a plumber yet, not to say I wont, who insists on money up front to buy materials for an emergency call out to fix a boiler. Normal jobs yes, emergency no.

I have given up any hope of getting any money from the toe rag Mr Mead but what I have got is my day in court which he now has to attend under the direct order of a circuit Judge. He now has to get reems of paper together to supply all the information required by the court, he also has to supply a sworn statement detailing his reasons for not turning up to court. Failure to do the above will probably mean he is in contempt of court, if he doesn't turn up he'll be arrested. I haven't spent that much time that it hasn't been worth seeing the laughing Mr Mead in court. In my opinion his time spent having to appease MY requests for court time is worth double mine any day because now he's dancing to my tune and its costing him money to be there.
P.s. His company has 9 CCJ's ranging from £219 to £3800+ and that isn't all of the bad debts, if more people chased bad debts instead of giving in less of us would have to chase bad debts in the first place!