CCJ help

memories203

Hi, absolutely mortified - any help would be appreciated
I received a claim form on the 3rd of December for £3100 from Lowells.

I did not know what the claim was for and sent of my acknowledgment of service along with my intention to defend.
My questions are:
1) I found out what the debt was for! Can I still submit a full admission even though I said I would defend it?
2) Can I offer a lump sum? of say £1300 - as I do not have any assets whatsoever and some of the money is being loaned by family.

Any help would be appreciated!

sourcrates

You are admitting the debt is yours then, is that how you intend to proceed ?

Have you asked for evidence of your liability ?

They may not have any.

You don’t have to pay the full amount at once if judgement is registered against you, you can apply to pay in instalments.

You can ask Lowell if they will take your offer, but it’s unlikely.

Wheniam64 may be able to offer more specific advice.

WhenIam64

Can I still submit a full admission even though I said I would defend it?

Yes but you do not need to involve the court. They are not interested.

The way the small claims process works is that they give plenty of time (5 - 6 months) before a case gets in front of a judge. During that time, the parties (Lowell and you) are supposed to work out if the money is due, how much and how it will be paid.

Can I offer a lump sum? of say £1300 - as I do not have any assets whatsoever and some of the money is being loaned by family.

Yes if you want to avoid a [documented] CCJ. But you can avoid a CCJ by letting it go the full 5 months, defending and see if you lose.

If you win (or if Lowell's mess it up and lose) then you will have nothing to pay.

If you lose and you pay the claim within 1 month, there is no CCJ on your credit file as the matter has been settled

If you lose and you don't have any money you can pay by installments depending on affordability but you will have a CCJ on your credit file.

So no need to borrow from family as you can play the court system in the same way that Lowells do. You just have to keep within the rules and not to miss dates/court paperwork.

memories203

WhenIam64 wrote: »

The way the small claims process works is that they give plenty of time (5 - 6 months) before a case gets in front of a judge. During that time, the parties (Lowell and you) are supposed to work out if the money is due, how much and how it will be paid.
Yes if you want to avoid a [documented] CCJ. But you can avoid a CCJ by letting it go the full 5 months, defending and see if you lose.

What about the 28 day time limit of filing a defence? Does that mean if I don't file anything - it will still take 5 - 6 months?

if that is the case, I may be able to save each month and pay it all within those 6 months.

WhenIam64

You just have to keep within the rules and not to miss dates/court paperwork.

Rules.

- 14 days for Acknowledgement**
- 28 days for defence**
- Then there is the Directions Questionnaire** soon after the defence goes in
- Then the Notice of Hearing about 1 month out (4 months in)
- The the Witness Statement 14 days out (4.5 month in)
- The hearing
- 1 month to pay the judgment

If you miss any of the stages marked ** e.g not filing a defence within 28 days, then you fall out of the system and the court awards for the claimant. Sometimes you can fall out of the system even when you put in a defence, if the defence is paper thin / time wasting.

So file a defence if you want it to go all the way or come to an agreement about paying. If you want to come to an agreement within the 28 days, and they do not accept a payment plan, you should try a defence and see if you can get the time to get them to compromise.

Lowells play a numbers game. They don't care if they win or lose an individual case. They only want to see how many get caught up in the court paperwork/court system. It's just a game to them.