Telephone Hearing to Set Aside CCJ at Country Court

Coupon-mad

Yes but the CCJ set aside hearing is tomorrow!

henrik777

Well at his late stage,

Cut it and chance it 

injectedmadness

I imagine the judge will not look at this favourably if I just sprung this up. Should I email a copy of this letter to both the judge and claimant?

injectedmadness

Just a quick update on today's hearing.
The Judge set aside the CCJ and ordered the claimant to pay back the court costs of GBP255.
I did submit the evidence this morning to both claimant and court.
Thank you all for the tremendous support that has been extended to me 🙏.
I'll be more than happy to answer questions about my experience today.

Coupon-mad

Brilliant - half the job done then.  A major step forward though as this wipes out the CCJ damage!

And you got the £255 back - nice!  You still have the claim if they proceed now.

What did the Judge say, which court, did he/she agree they were unreasonable and should pay the cost then?  And what did he/she say he will Order them to do - send you the particulars of claim, then you can defend within 14 days?  Or are you expected to just file a defence blind?

injectedmadness

Coupon-mad said:

What did the Judge say, which court, did he/she agree they were unreasonable and should pay the cost then?  And what did he/she say he will Order them to do - send you the particulars of claim, then you can defend within 14 days?  Or are you expected to just file a defence blind?

Really not sure why I didn't respond to this. The court was in Essex. The judge question the time lapse between finding out about the claim and applying to set aside the CCJ. She ordered the claimant to resubmit the claim in 4 weeks time. The evidence I submitted to show CPM had knowledge of my full address was basically what swayed the decision. That meant that the mandatory route could be used rather than relying on the fallback option.

The order was for the claimant to send me particulars of claims. I am expecting this to turn up anytime now.
If I understand correctly, after receiving the claim I will need to acknowledge service and then wait for the court to send me paper work?

Finally, I'm just very much in two minds about pursuing this. After nearly 2 years of ongoing issues with this I don't know if I want the stress of it all. Now that the CCJ has been removed, I am wondering what if the judge doesn't decide in my favour? Will there be a CCJ issued and registered against me? If that is the case, then I'm really not sure it is worth the hassle.

Coupon-mad

If I understand correctly, after receiving the claim I will need to acknowledge service and then wait for the court to send me paper work?

No, after a CCJ set aside it's more of a fasttrack situation because the local court already has the case, so it's not like starting from scratch with a claim from the CCBC. 

But DO NOT 'wait for the court to send me paperwork' - eek no!   If UKCPM have been ordered to send you the particulars, then you will then need to file and serve a defence and witness statement & evidence ready for the hearing about the PCN itself.  The court should have sent out an order following the hearing saying who has to do what and by when - for example have they paid the £255 to you?  If not, alert the Judge!

Have you sent an email to UKCPM to get a SAR so you can see their hand?  Do that now, if not.

You may as well see it through; there is now no CCJ risk and we beat UKCPM 99% of the time here (hundreds of cases).

Now that the CCJ has been removed, I am wondering what if the judge doesn't decide in my favour? Will there be a CCJ issued and registered against me? 

Nope.  1% of people here lose at a hearing; it's almost unheard of but you'd just pay about £175.  A fair bit less than the claim!  That's because the CCJ was exaggerated.

Fruitcake

As long as you don't take your eye off the ball you won't get a CCJ. Properly defended, you should win on primacy of contract and could get up to £95 in costs.
If you lose, it should cost you no more than about £175 - £200. As long as you pay up within 28 days of the court case, there will be no CCJ.

henrik777

The judge question the time lapse between finding out about the claim and applying to set aside the CCJ. She ordered the claimant to resubmit the claim in 4 weeks time. The evidence I submitted to show CPM had knowledge of my full address was basically what swayed the decision. That meant that the mandatory route could be used rather than relying on the fallback option.

It may be the case you'd have lost on a discretionary set aside if they were pushing the time point. However, as a mandatory set aside has no promptness requirement you won. I'd urge everyone to think like this and make sure they know the differences so they can emphasise the address issues where required and head off a judge who thinks promptness is require for mandatory set asides.

injectedmadness

henrik777 said:

It may be the case you'd have lost on a discretionary set aside if they were pushing the time point. However, as a mandatory set aside has no promptness requirement you won. I'd urge everyone to think like this and make sure they know the differences so they can emphasise the address issues where required and head off a judge who thinks promptness is require for mandatory set asides.

Indeed, that last minute advice by yourself and CM was basically what gave me the confidence to just "cut it and chance it". That basically meant the discretionary route the judge was going to take (and really what I had asked in my application) in deciding whether to set aside or not. The judges first question was why I didn't submit in time, to which I responded with a letter from a medical professional detailing my health issues. Although I was questioned about it the judge was satisfied that taking into account the medical professionals statement, I didn't cause unnecessary delay. The letters and community posts supported my claim of incorrect service but I felt that the judge was looking for the last straw to break the claimant's back. When I apologies and pointed out I had submitted new evidence, the judge acknowledged and said the evidence was accepted. The judge asked for a moment to review and immediately after reading the address line said we will use the discretionary route here and set aside the previous judgement because it is clear the claimant did have knowledge of your address.

The judge was very candid and advised me that she is very much aware of these parking cowboys. They did point out that the cowboys are becoming very smart and that the higher courts have deemed their practices legal as long as the correct procedures are followed. They, as a personal suggestion, said I should hire a solicitor and not just rely on 'the famous internet forum'.

In summary, tremendous amounts of gratitude for both Coupon-mad and yourself (henrik777) on insisting I look at both routes and pointing me in the direction of the posts on fallback options etc. 🙏