Received court claim form

Lexxi

Hi,

I started receiving requests for payment for a MBNA account from a debt collection company.
I asked for a CCA as advised on here and I was told that they didn't need to provide me with one.

This was maybe 3 years ago. I have recently started receiving letters at my new address from a different company, I ignored them as I didn't think I needed to do anything but a county court claim form has now been sent naming this second company as the claimant but also with a solicitors details on too.

I really don't know what to do. The court address is in Northampton which is miles away from me.
The particulars of claim also say that a default has been recorded in 2013 and that there was a mutual agreement to assign the debt.

I was left in such a mess by my ex and I thought I had managed to get things under control. I started with about £12000 debt and have got it down to about £4000 now, I'm still on a payment plan though.

The company on the form is IDR Finance, the solicitors is Kearns. I can't remember who the first debt collection company were but I might still have some letters.

What should I do, can I go to the court nearer to here?
Thanks in advance

fatbelly

Northampton is the County Court Bulk Centre - most commercial claims go through them. Don't worry about the hearing at this stage. If there was one, it would be transferred to your local court but there are a lot of steps before that.

There are a few things that you will need to do now:

acknowledge service online
send another cca request to the claimant (unless it is exempt but if it's a loan or credit card it won't be)
send a cpr request to the solicitor

It's all laid out on this site, and they guys there will help you

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/forumdisplay.php?105-Received-a-Court-Claim

dancingfairy

When did you stop paying the debt? Was it more than 6 years ago? ( I know you said they've said the default date was 3 years ago but obviously that may or may not be correct, it has been known for creditors to make up payments or to record defaults long after the event). If there is a 6 year period then the debt would be statute barred and you can defend based on that.
If not, don't worry there are other options I'm sure.
Df

sourcrates

First of all, do everything as advised by Fatbelly, legal beagles have a step by step guide on how to defend a court claim.

Second, don't panic, even if it turns out you do owe the money, as long as you acknowledge all court correspondence promptly, the court will set an affordable figure of repayment, so you won't pay more than you can afford.

Usually you will not have to attend court, everything is done by post and email.

Don't delay as strict time scales apply here.