County Court Business Centre Claim Form via BW LEGAL

Umkomaas

is this usual?

I think unusual times demand unusual actions. You just have to go with whatever they ask. 

Le_Kirk

Umkomaas said:

is this usual?

I think unusual times demand unusual actions. You just have to go with whatever they ask. 

........... and I would start phoning WELL before the time they say as you could be in a queue and that time is so close to the end of day for the court!

nosferatu1001

I'm still concerned where your other claim has gone. You MUST actively chase this. Not optional. 
What does MCOL state? Transferred to local court? If so, RING THE LOCAL COURT and find out. 

J_J

earth_moon626 said:

PLEASE NOTE
This case is listed behind another case which means that it will not necessarily go ahead if the other case is effective. Please contact the County Court between 4 and 4.30pm the working day before the hearing to check if and when your case will proceed.

Is that referring to the other claim? i.e. have the court already cottoned on to the fact that there are two claims? (If yes then I must say that the wording is sub-optimal).

Coupon-mad

No, it's not about their other case.  This is standard wording.  Courts double book time.

earth_moon626

@nosferatu1001 yes I got a notice to say it had been transferred but after that, I only received correspondence about the claim which now has a hearing arranged. I have included the below para in my WS, but I could also ask them about the other claim when calling to see if my hearing will go ahead? 
 
4. I would like to bring the attention of the court to there being another claim issued by the Claimant, number E7DP7T7Y, against the Defendant with a contravention date nine days later than this claim on the 9th December 2015, and with substantially identical particulars, for the same cause of action. The issuing of two separate claims, by the same Claimant and for essentially the same cause of action, is an abuse of the civil litigation process. The long-established case law in Henderson -v- Henderson [1843] 67 ER 313, and more recent authorities, establishes the principle that when a matter becomes the subject of litigation, the parties are required to advance their whole case. The Court is invited to consolidate the two claims to be determined together and to apply appropriate sanctions against the Claimant.

thanks all! 

Coupon-mad

Also put that in the body of the covering email when you file and serve the WS & evidence, because having it in the WS isn't quite enough IMHO.

The court won't be able to tell for sure whether your hearing will take place until 24 hours before.

nosferatu1001

You need to find out, so use all means to do so. If you fail to do so, and fail to serve eg a WS for that claim, then you lose. No ifs or buts. Then you have the pain of a set aside. 
Be proactive
Your job is to find out what happened to the case once it transferred. Call the ourt. Covering email. Within the body. EVERYTHING you can to get an answer, and keep going UNTIL you get an answer. 

earth_moon626

Hi all, I have just had my telephone hearing.. well the start of it! 
The Judge started off by raising my first point that there are two practically identical claims made against the defendant 9 days apart and that this is seen as an abuse of process and she has seen this done before and was not best pleased. She said the effort to claim two lots of court fees and legal costs etc was wrong and couldn't be right under her watch. Why would the defendant need to pay twice (if the claimant was even successful she said) if the claims should have been put together in the first place? 
She wouldn't let the hearing go any further without sorting this and asked the legal representative (who ended up being a totally new one who I had had no correspondence with) if this was the case intentionally, the legal rep stuttered and spieled off what sounded like a quote from a book that she got her words mixed up on multiple times. The Judge just shrugged it off and said this wouldn't do and she has seen this done before, it was a total waste of court time. 
The claimant then butted in and argued that from a costs point of view this would be unsatisfactory for BW legal as their costs have already been spent on this hearing etc and they would want costs for the second hearing. The Judge just sounded miffed and asked me what I had to say. I said I came today to get this sorted, and if I had to then deal with the other claim separately it would take up more of my time too, I am a busy person and mother and I don't have time to keep spending on this after so many years. The Judge agreed with me and said that's it then. Her decision was made and she stopped the claimant from trying to argue her point again. 

It really did feel as though the Judge was just sick of this kind of behavior from the parking companies, and I got a trial run of a telephone hearing. So feeling pretty good even though I will have to set time aside for a second hearing soon. 

I wonder now if BW legal will end this before the second hearing or if they will go ahead.. 

Le_Kirk

Did the judge adjourn the hearing then?  Seems to be she was more than half-way ready to throw it out or find for you.  Can't see why she would adjourn it and have to go through the whole thing again, given that it was a total waste of court time.  Anyway, sounds like you are up for a win next time.