Draft Defence Statement for checking please

Cottons_Girl

PLEASE READ THE BOTTOM OF THIS THREAD for my final draft defence based on all feedback received and reading the newest guidance and NEWBIES thread. Feedback welcome and thanks for everyone who has supported and responded so far

I've tried to delete my old comments to save confusion and left out the official format (defendant/claimant) just for copy and paste ease, so my details are not included.

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Traditionally a Defence is written in the third person.
I can see several instances of the word 'I' in there.

Redx

when I see the words DEFENCE STATEMENT at the top of any defence , it indicates to me that it is an old copy and paste and not a recent defence from 2019


the lack of abuse of process paragraphs that include Judges , Taylor , Grand , Giddins and Jones-Evans is also a good indicator too


my advice is find a 2019 CEL one that says DEFENCE under the claimant and defendant, adapt it and post it below

Cottons_Girl

Hi, thanks for replying. It was issued 23rd September. I’m just conscious I go on holiday soon for a week and didn’t want it hanging over my head.

Cottons_Girl

KeithP wrote: »

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Traditionally a Defence is written in the third person.
I can see several instances of the word 'I' in there.

Sorry not sure if I replied correctly, it was 23rd September. I have a holiday soon, so wanted to get ahead. I’ll also change to 3rd person. Do you have any feedback to some of my initial questions at the top?

KeithP

anon wrote: »

It was issued 23rd September.

The first thing to do is the Acknowledgment of Service.

Technically the Acknowledgment of Service is acknowledging the service of the Particulars of Claim. As your Claim Form says the POC will be provided within 14 days, might be a good idea to wait a few days before doing it.

Unfortunately the MCOL system isn't bright enough to cope with that, so you must do the AoS by the date shown in the next paragraph whether you have received the PoC or not.

With a Claim Issue Date of 23rd September, you have until Monday 14th October to do the Acknowledgement of Service, but as said above, maybe leave it a few days before doing the AoS. To do the AoS, follow the guidance offered in a Dropbox file linked from post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread. About ten minutes work - no thinking required.

Having done the AoS, you have until 4pm on Monday 28th October 2019 to file your Defence.

That's nearly four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.


When you are happy with the content, your Defence could be filed via email as suggested here:

Print your Defence.
1. Sign it and date it.
   
2. Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
   
3. Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk
   
4. Just put the claim number and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'Please find my Defence attached'.
   
5. Log into MCOL after a few days to see if the Claim is marked "defence received". If not chase the CCBC until it is.
   
6. Do not be surprised to receive an early copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire, they are just trying to keep you under pressure.
   
7. Wait for your DQ from the CCBC, or download one from the internet, and then re-read post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread to find out exactly what to do with it.

Coupon-mad

the particulars of claim state they will be sending more detailed particulars within 14 days. Should I await for these first (although I have a holiday very soon) or proceed anyway.

So they are playing that little game again, are they?

I would wait for 10 days or so, but make sure you set up a Govt Gateway Account right now if you do not have one, because the password and User ID needed are a right faff to repeat once you want to go back into the account, and not something to be doing on holiday!

Cottons_Girl

Yes sorry. I forgot to say I’ve submitted the AOS on the weekend so I’m aware I get 28 days in total to submit my defence. I wasn’t sure whether the statement in the particulars is just generic and a way of them wasting time as I don’t get why they wouldn’t send information straight away. I thought it was maybe a way of hoping that defendants miss deadlines waiting on them to post that.

Cottons_Girl

Coupon-mad wrote: »

So they are playing that little game again, are they?

I would wait for 10 days or so, but make sure you set up a Govt Gateway Account right now if you do not have one, because the password and User ID needed are a right faff to repeat once you want to go back into the account, and not something to be doing on holiday!

I thought that might be a tactic of there’s, hoping I miss deadlines. I’ve created an account on the gateway and saved the information because you’re right the details are silly to remember.

Do I need to do a SAR or request the change in court location in case it gets to that, as I missed all the appeal stages and initial steps on the Newbie post. Thanks

KeithP

anon wrote: »

I thought it was maybe a way of hoping that defendants miss deadlines waiting on them to post that.

That's exactly what it is, and if people do wait too long they find themselves with a Default Judgment to unravel.

KeithP

anon wrote: »

Do I need to do a SAR or request the change in court location in case it gets to that, as I missed all the appeal stages and initial steps on the Newbie post. Thanks

Yes, send a Subject Access Request to CEL's Data Protection Officer.

Court location gets adjusted to your local County Court later in the process - at Directions Questionnaire time.