CEL Court date confirmed - a little advice on defence statement please

confusedin2014

Marktheshark wrote: »

Then Ashley Cohen is the claimant not who's name is on top as he is not able IMO to sign court papers on behalf of a company.
There is only two options, claimant or solicitor as he is neither, why is he making a claim.
I would play this in a added defence, you have no contract with Ashley Cohen and he can not litigate in the name of others due to the legal services act.

I'm going to send a letter to the court to see if I can get it thrown out on the basis of never receiving their DQ letter.
Should I also add that the fact that I have no contract with Ashley Cohen and he can not litigate in the name of others due to the legal services act?

jojo01

Yeah, it all got a bit confusing! In answer to my request for the court to strike out the claim as CEL hadn't provided me with a copy of their DQs, I received a General Form or Judgement or Order from them, it asked CEL to provide me with a copy by a certain date & time, and failure to do so would result in the case being struck out.

The stated date & time passed with nothing from CEL. I followed up with a letter to the court stating this, but said that until I received notification from them that the case had been struck out (or otherwise) I would continue on the assumption that the hearing would go ahead.

Heard nothing else so submitted my documents in time, and turned up at court.

CEL didn't show so I asked for costs. Then the Judge saw the General Form of Judgement or Order and said that she couldn't award me costs as according to that document and CEL's non-compliance, the case was struck out! However, I'd received no notifiction (she phoned up and asked why nothing had been sent out and court time vacated but the person on the other end of the phone didn't know!).

Marktheshark

confusedin2014 wrote: »

I'm going to send a letter to the court to see if I can get it thrown out on the basis of never receiving their DQ letter.
Should I also add that the fact that I have no contract with Ashley Cohen and he can not litigate in the name of others due to the legal services act?

You could raise the point that the court papers appear to have been signed by a person and not a solicitor and question what right an individual has to litigate in the name of an actual company.
Might not do any good, but raising it with the judge might raise a few eyebrows.
The reason papers have to be signed by either a litigant in person or a solicitor is to prove that one or the other actually exists.
How would you know, not as if they invent people is it.
I would also forward this to the SRA stating this Ashley Cohen is conducting litigation on behalf of a registered company and he is not a solicitor.
It is not only offence to pretend to be a solicitor but it is also an offence to act as one.

jojo01

He's not acting as a solicitor though. He's acting as a Manager of CEL (as stated on the claim form).

This is the first time I've seen this suggested as something to mention to the court. If it is indeed the case, I'm surprised that this hasn't been mentioned before (and repeated on the numerous threads on MSE and Pepipoo).

confusedin2014

Does anyone else think that will be a good idea? I am going to draft a letter to the court in the next couple of days.
If there is anything else that might help get the claim thrown out will be fab.

confusedin2014

UPDATE: Cel cancelled the claim two days before it was due to go to court.

Thanks for all your help x

Marktheshark

confusedin2014 wrote: »

UPDATE: Cel cancelled the claim two days before it was due to go to court.

Thanks for all your help x

They would do, the twit that signed the court papers could have been sent to jail under the legal services act as he was not the company solicitor.


Can you contact the SRA and start a complaint about the company filing court claims and not adhering to the legal services act and not using a solicitor to sign litigation papers.
I think they might want a word with "Ashley. "
But you have to make a complaint first.

confusedin2014

Marktheshark - I would be happy to contact SRA to make the complaint, I think it is an utter disgrace that they are able to abuse our legal system.