Need advice on dealing with Howard Cohen solicitors please

ferry

My wife has received a letter claim/ court action from them suggesting a CCJ application will take place. We are not disputing the debt just need more time to pay and she is seeking advice from StepChange. I have read many times these are a particularly unreasonable lot to deal with. We have contacted them to let them know this but have not had any return correspondance and now feel they will just press ahead with the CCJ.
So looking for advice please on how we should deal with this? We plan to return the paperwork confirming we are seeking relevant advice but will this be enough to legally stop the CCJ going through?

Thank you 

sourcrates

Is it a pre action letter, containing a questionnaire type document, with a 30 day return window ferry ?

Or just a "call us to arrange a payment plan", otherwise we might get legal kind of thing ?

ferry

Hi. Its the pre action letter with the forms I'm afraid

Thank you 

sourcrates

Tick the box to ask for evidence, it doesn't matter if you already acknowledge the debt or not, many claims are stopped at this point, either because they can`t get hold of any evidence from the original creditor, or they simply cannot be bothered to ask them for it, yes really.

This is especially so if the claim is of low to moderate value, you have to remember this is a numbers game, they must produce tens of thousands of pre-action letter`s a month, they just cannot ask for evidence on every single one, the system would grind to a halt.

So they concentrate on those who don`t ask for evidence, these are the people that make life easier for these DCA solicitors, by admitting the debt, it bypasses the defence stage, and that is exactly what they want you to do.

By ticking the evidence box, your account will go into automatic hold, until they decide what to do next, they may attempt to get it from the creditor, or you might never hear from them again, its anyone's guess.

ferry

Brilliant advice as always. 
Thank you 

ferry

Oh just one more question. If the agreement was signed online I think you literally tick a box to sugn. If they do have this do I accept this as evidence of an agreement? Or does it have to be an official hand signed copy?

fatbelly

It doesn't have to contain a signature, that is correct


The guidance sourcrates was referring to is illustrated nicely in this article

https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/

so the advice is to tick boxes C and I and ask for everything you can think of

If you get an actual court claim the guidance is here

https://legalbeagles.info/forums/forum/legal-forums/court-claims-and-issues/received-a-court-claim