Defended county claim as statute barred

Shabz2510

Hi guys,

defended my claim as statute barred, got letter from good old solicitors to say I made a payment in July 2009- so asked them to provide proof of payment and they have written back saying that they have received my two letters, one which was for proof of payment I.e payment details and the other was CPR request. They said they are in process of retrieving this information.
Also I written to the claimant(Hoist portfolio) for the CCA, none of which has been received..

today I receive a letter from county court regarding mediation, I presume that our dear old solicitors ( Howard Cohen), have not got this phantom info payment they are talking about..

what should I do should I go in the route of mediation or should asked for it to be strike out..

please can anybody help...

happy_bunny_2

Best posting this on the leaglebeagles forum.

Voyager2002

Depends on how confident you are that the debt really is statute-barred...

If there is any chance that really did make the 'phantom' payment then mediation could give you a better outcome than going to court. However, you should not agree to a mediated solution if you are confident that you could get the court claim struck out.

Marktheshark

There is much misconception about "mediation" on here.
The main one is that it shows you as "unreasonable" if you refuse.
Nothing of the sort, it is a service to negotiate how much you think you should pay of what you owe.
If that is nothing then, there is nothing to mediate.
The Famous parking firm reject mediation offers hundreds of times a month and not once has it ever changed any claim they bring to court.

What you should do is turn up at court, show your letters demanding proof of payment, make it clear they have refused to provide this to you and ask the judge order them to provide it under the rules of disclosure as it is evidence they "claim to hold" and refer to that is crucial to your defence.
You can pre-empt this by writing to the claimant requesting the evidence as "disclosure" .

Refusal to provide it will not look good.

Shabz2510

Marktheshark wrote: »

There is much misconception about "mediation" on here.
The main one is that it shows you as "unreasonable" if you refuse.
Nothing of the sort, it is a service to negotiate how much you think you should pay of what you owe.
If that is nothing then, there is nothing to mediate.
The Famous parking firm reject mediation offers hundreds of times a month and not once has it ever changed any claim they bring to court.

What you should do is turn up at court, show your letters demanding proof of payment, make it clear they have refused to provide this to you and ask the judge order them to provide it under the rules of disclosure as it is evidence they "claim to hold" and refer to that is crucial to your defence.

You can pre-empt this by writing to the claimant requesting the evidence as "disclosure" .

Refusal to provide it will not look good.

Hi Marktheshark,

Thank you for your advice, so I should not go into mediation, what if it comes to light that I did make that payment where do stand then if I do proceed to court hearing. Also I have already made clear to Howard Cohen, that I was wiling to negotiate if indeed I made that payment and if they can prove it, I have sent this letter by recorded delivery on earlier correspondence to them as they said I made a Spurios defence and they had payment date on their letter just a date and amount. No actual transaction details..

Thanks for your help..

bargainbetty

Advise them in writing that as soon as they have provided full evidence of the payment that they claim to have received, including details from their bank detailing the payment notes, you will arrange for mediation. Until such time as they prove that the debt is not statute barred, you would prefer not to enter mediation as you believe the debt to be unenforceable and therefore have nothing to mediate at this time.

Shabz2510

bargainbetty wrote: »

Advise them in writing that as soon as they have provided full evidence of the payment that they claim to have received, including details from their bank detailing the payment notes, you will arrange for mediation. Until such time as they prove that the debt is not statute barred, you would prefer not to enter mediation as you believe the debt to be unenforceable and therefore have nothing to mediate at this time.

Thanks Betty,

Should I write to the courts and not complete the questionnaire??

patman99

You still need to complete the questionaire that the Court sent you. Just make sure to state that your defense is that the debt is statute barred and that you dispute the fact that there has been a payment.

Shabz2510

patman99 wrote: »

You still need to complete the questionaire that the Court sent you. Just make sure to state that your defense is that the debt is statute barred and that you dispute the fact that there has been a payment.

Thanks Betty,

Your a life saver, one more thing what if they prove that I paid on a later date, I am not 100% sure if I did pay or not.. It was 6 years ago now, can't remember but to my knowledge I lost my job Jan 2009 and had not made any payments. Since then.
So if they do prove later on that I did make payment would that mean judge will enter judgement against even though they have not provided proof to me.

Sorry to be pain..

Thanks again..

fatbelly

Once the court process gets going evidence is ordered to filed (send to the court) and served (send to the other side) so you will get to see the evidence.