Getting taken to court by Civil Enforcement

Loadsofchildren123

At least CEL discontinue when they see a valid defence being argued. Other PPCs just carry on regardless and treat the cases that go to court as loss leaders (even the ones they win cost them more to pursue than the amount they win).


When a Claimant discontinues, the issue of costs remains live. So you could write to the court and seek costs for their unreasonable conduct pursuant to rule 27.14(2)(g), and provide a schedule of those costs (see newbies thread and Sassii's thread for precedents). If you do this make sure you send a copy to CEL and tell the court you've done that. Ask the court to make an order on the papers rather than requiring a hearing.


You may of course decide that life is too short and you just want to leave it all behind.

Loadsofchildren123

The arguments showing unreasonable conduct are the failure to comply with the pre-action obligations (by which they should have explained the claim in full and provided documents upon which they would rely), which robbed you of the chance to provide a full response. You would argue that the fact that they have withdrawn having seen your defence clearly illustrates that, had these procedures been followed, they would have discontinued much earlier (ie they'd never have actually got as far as issuing a claim). The failure to comply with the pre-action obligations meant that they issued a claim to which there was a clear defence, and they should be punished on costs for their conduct.

Ttsqre

I might just do that. Will research on here and see if it is likely to be worth my while (in £ and satisfaction)

bluetoffee1878

Ttsqre wrote: »

I might just do that. Will research on here and see if it is likely to be worth my while (in £ and satisfaction)

Its definitely worth the little extra time and a stamp to write to the court citing their unreasonable behaviour.

I did a couple of years ago with this PPC after a very late discontinuance and got a little over £200

There is some info in the newbie thread post #2 about half way down which should help you.

Oh and well done too :T

Coupon-mad

Well done, and thanks for the update after all these months, to show other CEL victims that it really is true that CEL will likely discontinue, when they see a well-defended case.

Claiming your costs is simply a letter, and the worst that can happen is the Judge says no, or requires you to spend money filing a formal application. Try the letter first.