Judgement for Claim (in defalult) - PCM & Gladstones

MORB

Roger that!

Ok, so how does the below read to you all:

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Dear Sir/Madam,

As Gladstones will be aware,!my application!relating to claim xxxxxxxxx at a hearing on!6/4/18 for the!judgement to be set aside!was successful.

It was established during the hearing that Gladstones had submittted a letter to the court in lieu of sending a representative to attend the same. This letter was not served to me despite this being a clear breach of a protocol you are no doubt very familiar, and should have complied with.!

I am no longer at the my previous address (xxxxxxxxxx) and have now relocated to the xxxxxxxx. Please will you now send me the letter referred to by!Deputy District judge Lawrence!at the hearing on 6/4/18 as per your obligation?

My new address is:

xxxxxxxxxxx

Any further correspondence sent to my previous UK address cannot, and will not,!be considered served.

Please consider this missive!a letter before claim!Without Prejudice Save As To Costs!inviting you and your client!to discontinue on the basis that the claim has no merits.!

You have been aware for some time that the claim brought by your client is baseless and bound to fail. However, your client has nevertheless chosen to pursue the claim this far, forcing me to draft and file a full defence, witness evidence and documents upon which I rely. In comparison, all your client has done is to file a claim so brief that it verges on being incoherent. Your client has ignored the court's order to serve to me its witness and documentary evidence, which were due well before the hearing on 06/04/18 and it is therefore in contempt of court. As a litigant in person your client's conduct!caused!me significant prejudice and this was drawn to the judge's attention

Before you do write to me, I must make clear my position, as follows:
1. As this is a baseless claim, and you have known that for some months I will not accept anything other than a complete, unconditional withdrawal by your client;
2. Again as this is a baseless claim, your client has breached my rights under the Data Protection Act by requesting, processing, storing and continuing to store my data and this has caused me significant distress.!It must cease to do so immediately. My rights to bring a claim or a counterclaim are expressly reserved and I expect your client's proposals for settlement to include a sum of money in respect of damages, in return for which I will agree not to make any claim/counterclaim.
3. I have been forced to spend a considerable amount of time and effort defending this baseless claim, including incurring direct expenses on site visits, postage, stationery and so on. I have had to spend hours researching the law and drafting a full defence and witness statement, and gathering documentary evidence. As a litigant in person, this has caused me significant distress and inconvenience. In contrast,!your client has put very little effort into particularising and pursuing its claim, even ignoring the court's directions about service of evidence.!Any proposals must include a sum of money to reflect your client's conduct and the distress and trouble caused to me.

As a goodwill gesture, and on an entirely without prejudice basis, in order to achieve a settlement I suggest that your client makes an offer of no less than £255.00!in respect of 2 and 3 above.!

In the meantime, my rights under the Data Protection Act are expressly reserved.

Should settlement not be reached, I am entirely confident that my defence of the claim will succeed and I make it clear that, since the claim is clearly baseless and this has been clear to you all along, I will be seeking a punitive costs order pursuant to Rule 27.14(2)(g). This will include, but is not limited to the costs outlined below:!

Schedule of costs

Research and preparation of defence as litigant in person @£19!per hour,
7 hours. Total £133.00
Printing of 3 copies of witness statement.
Estimate £25.00.
Ticket cost of return trip to new address abroad to attend court on 06/04/18
£66.00!
Travel for Site visit and return 28/03/18
(6.6 miles * 2) 13.2 * 0.45 = £5.94
Travel via TFL!on day of hearing on 06/04/18
£2.80
Court fees for set aside application
£255.00

Total costs claimed £487.74

This offer is a genuine attempt to settle the matter, not merely a bargaining position. It has value to the Defendant insofar as it presents an opportunity to avoid additional court costs and expenses.

Please consider the above a!Letter Before Claim!giving you 14 days to pay the sum referred to as a goodwill gesture. Should your client wish!to continue with the claim they must send me their Particulars of Claim along with all evidence, signs, paperwork and photographs they will rely upon, in the interests of complying with the PAP for debt claims that they ignored, in the first instance. I will also!give your clients!14 days to provide that evidence and declare if they will be proceeding or conceding/discontinuing the claim.!

Yours faithfully,
xxxxxxxxx

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Thoughts?
TIA as ever.

[Deleted User]

You cannot avoid active proceedings by leaving the jurisdiction. You can nominate service addresses only within E&W in the CPR.

You are likely to end up with another default judgment if you're not careful. The PPC could agree to contact you by email, but the court will not. You'd be better off asking a friend to act as "post box."

Changes of address are commonly dealt with by serving a Notice of Change form with the new address.

System

You cannot avoid active proceedings by leaving the jurisdiction......The PPC could agree to contact you by email, but the court will not.

Just a heads up on this one for anyone outside the jurisdiction at the start.

They will attempt to serve papers outside the jurisdiction and encourage you to have the matter heard on "papers only". Clearly they want to exploit people's ignorance of the system and will play that advantage to the maximum.

Just say no.

[Deleted User]

They will attempt to serve papers outside the jurisdiction and encourage you to have the matter heard on "papers only".

Specific permission is generally needed to serve a claim outside the jurisdiction. That will often mean no MCOL. It is also why the PPCs try to interpret POFA as requiring an E&W service address (despite that not being a requirement).

Bear in mind that when an acknowledgement of service is completed by the defendant, that is acceptance of "good service"

MORB

Thanks for pointing out the issues around addresses outside jurisdiction. I'll go for the 'Post box' option for now.

Supposing the PPC do wish to pursue the matter would that be considered a new claim? And could I then request that papers are served at my new address outside the UK (which is within the EU if relevant)?

Other than the above, is the remainder of the body of the email appropriate to send ?

MORB

UPDATE: I have received the set aside order for the judgement providing I provide a "fully particularised defence by 'x' date.

I asked the judge whether I should just merge the 2 witness statement and send them, to which he said: "Yes. Send everything you wish to rely on in one document."

Is that a particular format I should use when writing this?

nosferatu1001

A WS isnt a defence, so I would send an actual defence.

Your email is poor - why are you sending it WP save as to costs? You WANT to show it to a judge...

MORB

Doh - Ok, so I will remove the without prejudice save as to costs.

I am also putting together the the defence and will post here once finished.

This email is simply to send to Gladstones so I can see what they submitted as per C-M's advice.

Could you perhaps be more constructive as to where it is poor other than the WP save as to cost given the purpose is as above?

nosferatu1001

Its about 3 times teh length it needs to be. It conflates different aspects, and is quite confusing.

MORB

I'd really appreciate a bit more direction if possible with regards those comments:

Where is it confusing ?
What should I edit out?
Where does it conflate different aspects?

FYI: The costs part is largely taken from LoC's post here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/73000370#Comment_73000370