Default judgement made against me??????

Cottom888

After sending my defence pack off 3 weeks ago, i have been waiting for the standard letter saying they have recieved defence etc etc.

Ive just got a letter through dated Tuesday 21st stating that i never replied to the claim form and are now ordered to pay Horizons parking fine £500, interest £32.58 and legal fees £155


What the f*** do i do now????!!!!! I sent it off, what do i do?? Like seriously i cannoy afford £700 especially on my salary, with rent, food, help to buy, car payments etc.

Is there anyway to dispute this??

Lamilad

Yes! Calm down.

Have you Rung the court to ask if they have received your defence?
Do you have proof that you posted on emailed your defence.
If you sent it via MCOL then that's definitely proof.

Here's a comment from Coupon-Mad copied and pasted from another thread:

Threads galore like this:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5612773

But there are loads more, including one found when you search for 'Ash' or 'saggi' who both recently got set asides. YOU CAN TOO.

catfunt

Did you have an actual court date?

Or was this defence pack sent in response to recieving a court claim, you had acknowledged service in time and the defence pack you mention was sent within the 28 days or so from service?

I think it was the latter, in which case you need to do as Lamilad suggested, and start learning about set-asides.

Cottom888

Yes small court claims pack sent, i replied with my defence 2 days after recieved. I recieved letter today sent on tuesday that it was judged against me...

I am going to apply for a set aside form n244 and go from there, i need to work on a defence though and will talk to the court tomorrow.

Redx

the court wont be open tomorrow, ring them monday

did you get proof of posting ? or send it recorded ?

the proper thing to have done was to phone and check they had received it a few days after sending it , not just assume it was received and everything was hunkey dorey

there is no need to "work on a defence" if you had already written one and sent it off

Lamilad

Once the set aside is granted you go back to day 1 as if the court papers have just been issued. When you get there post your defence on here for critique and advice. Did you have any help writing it? With forum help the vast majority of court cases are won.

Cottom888

Letter was sent in a red letter box first class, no reciept as nearest post office is a long way away...

You have to pay £255 to request a judgement to be set aside also, it would have been cheaper to pay the initial £100 fine. Is this a final fee and thats that, no getting it back?

What would my defence for "judgement is entered wrongly be? Would "i posted the letter 23rd feb and i never recieved a response" be suitable?

I have the N244 form here, i've read stories about people getting it set aside, but 255 to get it set back to the start and then i might not even get it set aside on top of that and then i may lose the case etc. Thats pushing 1000 then.

Coupon-mad

You have to pay £255 to request a judgement to be set aside also, it would have been cheaper to pay the initial £100 fine. Is this a final fee and thats that, no getting it back?

No, not a final fee. You can claim it back from the nasty parking firm, if you successfully defend.

But as a first step:

Have you Rung the court to ask if they have received your defence?

Maybe they've muddled it up and are sitting on it or the Council PCN section have it by mistake. You should NOT have to pay a fee to sort out an error by the court. This happened to onearmbandit and they bombarded the court till the error was sorted:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/72308751#Comment_72308751

Do that first, you should NOT have to pay to set aside a case you defended and the court might have mislaid.

Lamilad

Before even looking at the N244 you need to do, as advised, and ring the court to find out what's happened to your defence. CCBC are so inundated with claims they're making mistakes left, right and centre. Tell them you sent your defence off in time and so you cannot understand why a judgement has been made against you.

You are requesting a full investigation into this. With any luck, it will be like some cases where your paperwork has ended up in the wrong dept. If it is their fault the judgement will be set aside without a fee and the case will continue from them receiving your defence.

Someone else will have to confirm this, but I understand it's possible to get the existing judgement 'stayed' whilst CCBC investigate your case. But I don't know how you would go about doing this.

Cottom888

I phoned them up, i told them the details. The woman on the other end of the phone had no idea, she had to put me on hold to ask her colleague what to do when i said i had sent the form and it had not been recieved.

She said it hasn't been recieved because it would be logged on her computer screen as defence filed and the judgement wouldnt have be made against me.

I asked if their was any way she could have this looked into, investigated whether it was sent to a different department by mistake or filed away and lost and she said no i just have to apply to have it set aside.

DoaM

Ring again and ask to speak to whoever is in charge? DEMAND that this is investigated ... you have been let down by the court system and should NOT have to pay £255 just for them to correct their error.

(This assumes that your defence actually arrived of course. Why would you send it "in a red letter box first class, no receipt as nearest post office is a long way away"? Why do that with something so important? How did you know you even had the correct postage applied? Did you think Royal Mail were infallible?)