JLA "Stopping" Charge

Router66

Thanks @Johnersh and @Fruitcake

My proposed Draft Order to the Court...

Dear Sir/Madam,

                          I ask that my below Draft Order be put in front of the appropriate Judge such that they are aware of the claimant’s breaches of court orders laid down by Deputy District Judge Blakeborough on the 25th July 2022.

At the hearing on 25th July 2022 it was found by DDJ Blakeborough that the claimant had filed their bundle late and the bundle was not paginated. Both these findings were breaches of paragraph 6 of the order of 18th May 2022.

The claimant’s case was saved from being struck, out but a court order was imposed by way of the claimant being ordered to pay the defendant’s earnings and travel costs by 8th August 2022. 

 I hereby bring it to the court’s attention that the claimant has now breached the 25th July 2022 court order of DDJ Blakeborough, as the deadline specified for payment of costs has now passed.

The claimant has now failed to comply with three separate court orders and therefore ignored the warnings given in form N157 that: the terms imposed must be complied with otherwise the case is liable to be struck out.

I therefore ask the court to follow through on the warnings given and strike out the entire case for non-compliance with court orders.

Fruitcake

You need to add somewhere the court case number as a reference. You haven't included the amount of the costs in the original court order, nor asked for costs for unreasonable behaviour of £X to be included as per CPR N.N.
If the three court orders you mention each have a unique reference number then you should include them, or at least give the date of each order and the case number.

In my un-expert opinion, I still think you should send the warning shot to VCS today as a separate issue, and include the interest charge as suggested by Johnersh, calculated from the date the payment should have been made.

Router66

Hi @Fruitcake thanks for your helpful comments. I should have mentioned that the version posted was redacted. The same case number applies to all three court orders and this is included in the header of the version I intended to send. The cost breakdown was omitted however, and is now included in the final version.
I wasn't aware I could claim costs for unreasonable behaviour unless you are referring to the interest of £0.02 per day mentioned in the post from @Johnersh ?
I could mention that having to attend court again is a major inconvenience since the defendant has no holidays left in 2022 and has had to shorten time already booked off over the Christmas period.
Would the court give any consideration to this when deciding whether or not to support my draft order?

Fruitcake

The court should take into account costs incurred for loss of earnings or loss of holiday pay/entitlement.

Costs for unreasonable behaviour are covered by the CPR, I'm not sure which section, and are separate to costs actually incurred for loss of income etcetera. Unreasonable behaviour is a high bar to achieve, but I think it is worth claiming anyway. The worst thing that can happen I believe is that the court won't agree to it.

Again, this is entirely separate to the costs already awarded, and the interest suggested by Johnersh.

One is a claim for monies due as already awarded by the court. Again, I think you should be firing this off today to get the clock ticking.
The other is a claim for monies you believe are due as a result of the claimant's actions and breach of existing court orders.

Router66

The court should take into account costs incurred for loss of earnings or loss of holiday pay/entitlement.

Thanks for the explanation @Fruitcake... The court has done the above through the court order that VCS have not complied to.
I will look for the CPR reference for unreasonable behaviour and argue that a Christmas holiday has had to be curtailed due to the loss of a day's holiday in order to attend court in November. By striking out the claim now the holiday will be restored to the planned duration. A separate email will be sent to VCS giving them seven days to pay the awarded costs (as suggested in your earlier post). If the case is struck out by the court then I will pursue VCS for the costs. If the Courts do not strike out and VCS discontinue before the hearing I will pursue unreasonable behaviour. If it goes to court and VCS lose I will also pursue unreasonable behaviour. Hopefully the forum will help me through this minefield in the days to come, as I need my immediate focus on serving the Draft Order and complaining to VCS, which I hope to do before the end of the day.

Jenni_D

27.14(2)(g)

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part27#27.14

Router66

Thanks @Jenni_D - just what I needed!

Router66

Quick One...do I need to copy the claimant on the draft order?

Router66

Final proposed Draft Order (redacted claim ref. and defendants identity). Do I copy the claimant?
Would appreciate green light or suggested changes for court submission this evening.

Dear Sir/Madam,
                          I ask that my below Draft Order be put in front of the appropriate Judge such that they are aware of the claimant’s breaches of court orders laid down by Deputy District Judge Blakeborough on the 25th July 2022.

At the hearing on 25th July 2022 it was found by DDJ Blakeborough that the claimant had filed their bundle late and the bundle was not paginated. Both these findings were breaches of paragraph 6 of the order of 18th May 2022.

The claimant’s case was saved from being struck out but a court order was imposed by way of the claimant being ordered to pay the defendant’s earnings and travel costs of £94.50 by 8th August 2022.

 I hereby bring it to the court’s attention that the claimant has now breached the 25th July 2022 court order of DDJ Blakeborough, as the deadline specified for payment of costs has now passed.

The claimant has now failed to comply with three separate court orders and therefore ignored the warnings given in form N157 that: the terms imposed must be complied with, otherwise the case is liable to be struck out.

I therefore ask the court to:

1. Consider the breaches of court orders as unreasonable behaviour as per CPR 27.14(2)(g) . It is fact that defendant is significantly inconvenienced through having to attend a further court hearing. The defendant has used up all their holiday entitlement for 2022 and must now curtail a planned vacation in December in order to attend court in December.
Furthermore the Defendant now has to pursue the claimant through the courts to recover the payment awarded by DJJ Blakeborough.

2. Follow through on the N157 warnings given to the claimant and strike out the entire case for non-compliance with the three court orders.

Yours sincerely

Umkomaas

Do I copy the claimant?

Anything you send to the court should be copied to the Claimant (their solicitor if one is representing them) rather than to the PPC themselves. But for the sake of an extra email address in the address bar, send it to the PPC too - gives them something extra to deal with!