Directions Questionnaire, what say do I have?

JayJay_D

I'm at the stage where I've submitted my defence for a court claim and have received an email from a rep at Gladstone's saying that their client, PCM, want to continue the claim.

He attached the directions questionnaire and pointed out that they are asking for the case to be dealt with on the papers instead of going to a hearing.

Here is what the email says:

Please find enclosed a copy of our Client’s completed Directions Questionnaire, which will be filed with the court upon their request. You will note we intend to request a special direction that the case be dealt with on the papers and without the need for an oral hearing 　

　

This request is sought simply because the matter is in our Client’s opinion relatively straightforward and the costs incurred by both parties for attending an oral hearing would be disproportionate. We trust you agree. 　

　 　

You will note our Client has elected not to mediate. Its decision is not meant to be in any way obstructive and is based purely on experience, as mediation has rarely proven beneficial in these types of cases. Notwithstanding this, our Client would be happy to listen to any genuine payment proposals that you wish to put forward. 　

　

Yours sincerely
---
Litigation Assistant

My question is what is the best option for me to get the best chance of winning this case and if that is to appear before a court, can I request that it be near me as it's currently Northampton which is a two hour drive for me?

Thank you in advance for any help.

waamo

The Newbies thread at the top of this board has a dedicated section on the court process. It is in post 2 of that thread.

In short though the case will be allocated to your local court. Do not agree to a hearing on papers.

beamerguy

NO papers ........ don't lose control, let a judge deal with this

Redx

JayJay_D wrote: »

1) My question is what is the best option for me to get the best chance of winning this case

2) and if that is to appear before a court, can I request that it be near me as it's currently Northampton which is a two hour drive for me?

1) by reading post #2 of the NEWBIES sticky thread and pay particular attention to the advice by member BARGEPOLE, including the simple walkthrough he posted som 27 months ago and linked in there

do not use the DQ that Gladrags sent, you are opposing it and going for an oral hearing

2) The office in Northampton that sent you the paperwork is NOT a court, its a government office manned by civil servants who are the central point for dealing with this, like the DVLA in Swansea , so it could have just as easily been Belfast or Gateshead for example , so it wouldnt have meant thousands of people flying or sailing to Belfast or Newcastle

the actual County Court in Northampton is a different address and postcode, and they have nothing to do with this or you

so nobody will be "driving to Northampton"

YOU will be asking for YOUR local County Court to deal with this once you have completed the DQ with their details, so whichever is your nearest court that deals with civil claims, for YOUR own area , so if you are in Birmigham it will one of the nearest ones in Birmingham, if its Blackpoool its the Blackpool one, or let us say Preston if there wasnt one in Blackpool

you can easily google your nearest county court for civil claims

once it has been allocated, the Northampton office put it on their ALLOCATED & COMPLETED pile and move on, as its got nothing further to do with them, they are just a central processing Business Centre, they certainly are not a court, so the B.C. in C.C.B.C

Coupon-mad

Rather than typing out that template letter, you would have found out what to do within minutes if you simply searched the forum for a couple of words from a phrase in it - e.g. search for 'relatively straightforward'.

This is not only already in the NEWBIES thread, but on umpteen hundred other threads. Please follow the usual advice you find in any of those threads, or by reading the sticky thread 2nd post, in the section about DQ stage and this tedious template letter.