Default Judgment Letter Re CEL Parking

KEV_B

Help Please
having received a couple of fines over the years and just ignoring them i told my wife to do the same with one she received for taking business colleagues to the hote they were staying at.
Today she received a judgment in default from County Court Business Centre in Northampton.
She is freaking out, as she works in the finance industry and needs a clear credit rating and is intending to pay the £351!!!!
I must say the letter looks fake but i've checked the phone number for the court on gov website and its correct. The court stamp is printed not a stamp?
There is a claim number but no where any details as to what the judgment is for..although we know what it is for.
So do we phone the court? Pay the fine?
Looking at the newbies post it suggests i start i thread urgently from what i can make out.
I have tried to look at moneyclaim.gov but as my wife is already on the government gateway for her work i don't seem to be able to find anything to do with court as it all relates to her business.This is probably user error i am sure as i am not used to legal matters like this.
Urgent help greatly appreciated

[Deleted User]

Call the court, give the claim number and find out. That'll soon confirm if it's genuine (which it probably is).

It's old advice to ignore parking notices absolutely. What is surprising is that you have received notice of judgment now, but do not report receiving

1. any correspondence from solicitors
2. Any prior documents from the court, which is a prerequisite before judgment.

Have you moved recently?

Payment of the CCJ must be made promptly if that is the plan to avoid the judgment merely being left on the system for 6 yrs but endorsed as "satisfied."

A consent order - paying it and getting the other side to agree to a setting aside if the judgment will be quick and clean it all up fast.

An application to set aside will take time and effort, but many are successful.

The_Deep

MPs are on your side wrt these unprincipled default judgements by these scammers. However this is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences.

Parking Eye, Smart and a smaller company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They nearly always lose) and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P.

The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the HofC recently.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind most of these companies may well be put out of business by Christmas.

The_Deep

Are you sure that you have a CCJ and not just a money claim? If the latter it is just a normal PPC scam. Even if you lost in court the judge is unlikely to award the claimant more than £200.

If you have a CC you may be able to get it set aside, there is plenty of information on how to do this on the internet and various help forums.

nosferatu1001

If the words judgement are on there, the deep, it certainly doesnt sound like the normal MCOL claim form

Quentin

Now that she has received notification of the CCJ if her employment is jeopardised by a ccj on the register then she needs to be aware it will already be on the register so may need to inform her HR/Manager that this is being dealt with.


Simply paying it off within the month since it was issued doesn't automatically remove it - it is up to the claimant to inform the court.


She can do belt and braces and get a dated receipt of payment from the claimant to send in to the court herself


If she is going down the set aside route, then the CCJ will be removed if it is granted (though will be showing on the register until then)

KEV_B

yes i am sure this is not a normal claim letter
it does have the words
judgment for claimant (in default)

we have not moved recently, we have definitely not received any court correspondence previous to this.
we have received various letters from all sorts but chose to ignore them without even reading them which i now know was a mistake.

i have just spoken to the court who confirm it is real and that we do indeed have a judgment already.
they are emailing a form to me to dispute it and which apparently sends it to local court?
the court confirmed that we would have received court paperwork before this but we 100% did not.

What now?????

Coupon-mad

Read the NEWBIES thread about set asides. The second post of the sticky tells you all about it:

NEWBIES PLEASE READ THESE FAQS FIRST

and read the second post, and look for the bit about SET ASIDES

Umkomaas

we have not moved recently, we have definitely not received any court correspondence previous to this.
we have received various letters from all sorts but chose to ignore them without even reading them which i now know was a mistake.

A set-aside won't be easy if you've ignored court papers. I know you say you've 'not received any court correspondence'. Proving that to satisfy the court that a set-aside should be granted is going to be tough, and it's going to cost you £255 to find out.

How long ago since your last house move? It has helped others in the past getting a set-aside, if post has gone to a former address (V5C not updated), but if you've been receiving correspondence about this particular parking charge to your current address, this may not be a 'runner' for you.

KEV_B

we havent moved for years
looks like we are going to have to pay it as we don't have the time to go to court and as you say ignoring all correspondence is not really a defence. However we 100% have not received any previous court letters as we definitely would have looked into this more if we had received from courts.

Umkomaas

looks like we are going to have to pay it

I presume you are within the timeframe given by the judgment to pay this off in order for it not to affect your wife's credit rating?