Is this an official court document???

Boo1402

Hey all,, new to the group and need some advice. I received what looks like an official court document. It says "Judgment for Claimant". It has a claim No & states it is from Northampton County Court. The Claimant is Cabot Financial & name & address is Drydens fairfax Ltd. The debt is for £1,415.31... im not sure what the debt is for and it states I have not replied to a claim form. Im very wary of contacting these ppl due to harassment. Along side this I then received a letter from "Incontrol Debt Solutions", quoting the same claim No referring to it as a CCJ Ref,,,,, what is all this? Is any of it a legal court dealing or just scaremongering from a collection agency. Getting confused & worrying about every knock on my door 😔

fermi

Most consumer CCJs would go through Northampton as it is the bulk processing centre for claims.

Only way to check for sure is to call the court and confirm the CCJ.

Contact numbers --> http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/northampton-bulk-centre/county-court-bulk-centre

exoteric

Boo1402 wrote: »

Hey all,, new to the group and need some advice. I received what looks like an official court document. It says "Judgment for Claimant". It has a claim No & states it is from Northampton County Court. The Claimant is Cabot Financial & name & address is Drydens fairfax Ltd. The debt is for £1,415.31... im not sure what the debt is for and it states I have not replied to a claim form. Im very wary of contacting these ppl due to harassment. Along side this I then received a letter from "Incontrol Debt Solutions", quoting the same claim No referring to it as a CCJ Ref,,,,, what is all this? Is any of it a legal court dealing or just scaremongering from a collection agency. Getting confused & worrying about every knock on my door ��

Fermi is correct - most small claims go through Northampton County Court. From the sound of your description, it sounds like a legitimate Notice of Judgment. But as Fermi says, call the Court, give them the claim number and just get the details. Ask when it was issued and find out everything you can.

The problem you face is that the document you've received says that judgment has already been awarded against you - this would only happen if you had received a claim form and ignored it and the Claimant had then obtained a default judgment. If you did receive a claim form but ignored it and/or if you do owe the amount, there is very little you can do except pay the amount within 1 month so that the CCJ will be "satisfied" rather than "outstanding", which is a lot better for your credit record. You may be able to get the Claimant to agree for you to pay in instalments rather than all at once.

If you did not receive a claim form and if you genuinely do not believe that you owe the amount, you can apply for the judgment to be "set aside", which essentially means that you ask the Court to rule that you either a) did not receive the claim form and therefore did not have a chance to respond or b) have a good defence to the claim, i.e. that you don't in fact owe the money. If the CCJ is set aside you won't owe the money and it won't appear on your credit record.

The best thing you can do now is to go straight to a Citizens' Advice Bureau or Law Centre with all of the relevant documents and get someone to advise you and help you fill out the application notice to get the judgment set aside. But be warned: if you allege that you didn't receive the claim form and the Claimant has proof of delivery, or if you argue that you don't owe the debt and the Claimant can prove that you do, the application to set aside is unlikely to succeed.