Service of Letter before Action

JasonBat

Dear all,

Can anyone refer me to the Civil Procedure Rules rule that sets out that a letter before action needs to be served in the post (and not by e-mail) and that it needs to be served to a specific postal address if the other party has more than one business address.

From my experience this has not been the case.

Also, if the other party unreasonably avers that it needs 3 months to prepare a response (to prejudice my position in which to meet deadlines) is there nothing I can do about that?

Many thanks.

unholyangel

The clue is in the name, "letter" before action/claim. Perhaps in the future email will be considered adequate enough but at present, it is not.

If they have more than one business address then it should be addressed ideally to their registered office address.

If the case is quite complex, they may be allowed a maximum of 3 months/90 days in which to respond to your LBA.

bris

Serve the LBA to the last known address, send 2 from different post offices and keep proof of posting and the courts will consider them served.


After the time of the LBA runs out file the claim, only the courts can delay it after that. Regardless once the action starts it will get resolved one way or the other whether they successfully delay it or not.


Have you tried mediation? The courts like to see an attempt before it gets to court.

Crazy_Jamie

The following provisions do not strictly speaking apply to Letters Before Action, but it would certainly be best practice to adhere to them. If you send a Letter Before Action via e-mail I can't imagine a Judge being particularly impressed with the argument that you had acted in some way unreasonably by not serving the LBA by post. Still, it's best to follow the rules as best you can, and in that regard the ones that you're looking for are these:

CPR r.6.9 - Sets out where documents should be served where no address for service has been provided by the Defendant. Entry 6 in the table should be of some use to you.

CPR r.6.3 - Deals with methods of service, and refers to Practice Direction 6A for service by electronic means.

PD 6A Para 4.1 - Deals with service by electronic means. Essentially e-mail is only valid service where the party has indicated that they are willing to accept service by electronic means.

All sections above are clickable links so you can browse the relevant parts of the CPR yourself if you're so minded.