CCJ Set Aside Guidance

jaycee31

Coupon-mad said:

Either work.  But the other day someone got a set aside within a week by applying directly to Manchester, their local court.  Same was seen last year by applying to Southampton directly.

The worst that can happen is the local court pings it to the CCBC to go round the houses, if they aren't up for handling these quickly like Manchester & Southampton courts.

I sent mine straight to Oxford CC, who then sent it to CCBC, who promptly sent it straight back to Oxford!!

rbceurope

I have been trying to find how to send the N244/Draft Order/WS/Evidences to Croydon CC (not sure they do CCJ set asides) by email haven't found so far.

I have paid the N244 fee today (£275) and trying to send the documents to both ccbcaq@justice.gov.uk & ccbcfees@justice.gov.uk and also CC CEL mail id's Legal3@ce-service.co.uk; office@ce-service.co.uk; dataprotectionofficer@ce-service.co.uk

1. Is CCing CEL a good idea or I should send it only to CCBC??
2. Also can some one point me to any mail template that I can use to send these documents to CCBC mail ids if you have one??

rbceurope

This my mail 

===
To : ccbcaq@justice.gov.uk; ccbcfees@justice.gov.uk
Cc: Legal3@ce-service.co.uk; office@ce-service.co.uk; dataprotectionofficer@ce-service.co.uk

Hi,

Please find the attached N244 form requesting set aside for the case reference XxxxxxN.

Claimant - “CIVIL ENFORCEMENT LTD”

Defendant - “XXXXXX”

Judgment Date – xx/xx/20xx

I am here by attaching the

1. N244 form requesting set aside
2. Draft Order
3. Witness Statement
4. Exhibits – Detailing the evidences attached
5. Evidences are in the zip file.

Yours Sincerely,
xxxx

Attachments : xxxx, xxxx, xxxxx ......
===

Coupon-mad

Don't send it to the CCBC.  Even if the local court ping it to the CCBC who then allocate it back to the local court(!) that will be quicker than the stupid CCBC delaying tactics we are experiencing.

jaycee31

As a thought, make sure you have proof of payment if your payment has gone to one place and your application to the other…

rbceurope

@Coupon-mad, 

We sent the mail before you responded. 

==========

Hi All,

Just want to give an update. We payed for CCJ set aside £275 on 22/03/20xx and we submitted all our documents via mail. Please note we sent the mail to these address

To :
1. enquiries.croydon.countycourt@justice.gov.uk;
2. ccbcaq@justice.gov.uk;
3. ccbcfees@justice.gov.uk

Cc:
1. Legal3@ce-service.co.uk
2. office@ce-service.co.uk
3. dataprotectionofficer@ce-service.co.uk

CCBC mail max size is 25MB we had in total 39MB as per the CCBC helpdesk they advised us to split this into 2 parts and have the subject line as "Application N244 (set aside) - <<Case Number>>  - Part X". 

Also there was a recommendation in this forum to send the mail between 09:00 and 17:00 which is absolutely right and you will get an acknowledgement mail from CCBC that they have received your mail. This acknowledgement mail didn't come when sent out of those hours or the mail size exceeded 25MB. 

We sent the N244 (PDF), Draft Order (Word), Witness Statement (PDF)  & Exhibit List (PDF) in one mail as Part 1. Sent all our evidence zipped in a single file which was sent as Part 2. 

Today is the 4th day after submission and there wasn't any mail from CCBC, so called today morning to enquire whether they have received my Part 1 & 2 mails. I was said they have received both Parts and the request has been processed manually by them on 24/03/20xx, it has been forwarded to my local county court in Croydon. Further communication will be from Croydon which will mostly be hearing date and how the hearing will happen.

Once again many thanks to this forum and the support we have got. 

Will keep updating on our progress. 

rbceurope

Its been almost 3 weeks and the below things have happened

1. Our case got transferred to our local county court
2. County Court has sent the N244 pack to CEL
3. CEL has come back with the details they have for our request to SAR
1. It looks like we have appealed on-line and CEL knows our mail id and mobile number since 2018. They have responded to our appeal by post to our old address in 2018 and we moved and didn't receive that appeal response. 
   
2. As per the PCN appeal response the ticket was issued for "exceeding the parking time paid for"
3. They have been sending chaser mail to the same old address until 2022 that's when the default judgement was done.
4. Civil Enforcement has sent a letter for "set aside CCJ with consent"
1. The content of their letter is as below
XXXX
<<New Address>>
WITHOUT PREJUDICE SAVE AS TO COSTS
XX/04/20XX
Re: Civil Enforcement Limited v <<Full Name>>
Claim No: XXXXXX
PCN: YYYYYY
We refer to your application to set aside Judgment which has been forwarded to us by the County Court Business Centre.
We note your grounds for setting aside Judgment, which state that you had moved address before the violation occurred. We were provided with your registered address by the DVLA following the date of violation. As you may be aware, it is an offence (punishable with a fine up to £1000) to fail to promptly notify the DVLA of a change of address. 
As you do not deny being the registered keeper at the time of the violation and because you have not shown any grounds in your application that you have any reasonable prospects of defending the claim, it is our position that your application to set aside judgment will be refused. Even if the application is granted, it is our intention to proceed with the claim against you.
However, bearing in mind this process can take time and will incur unnecessary costs for both parties, we will consent to setting aside judgment (to support your application) and to discontinue the claim against you, if you agree to pay the original £60.00 parking charge plus the administration costs and fees we have incurred in trying to recover payment of the PCN, limited to £35.00, making a total of £95.00. Each party will bear its own costs of this application. Upon receiving payment, we will provide you with a draft Order confirming the above, to file with the Court in support of your application.
Payment can be made via our website; www.ce-service.co.uk, or alternatively via our automated payment line (0115 822 5020). Please be advised that if this offer is not accepted within 14 days of the date of this letter, we reserve the right to show this letter to the judge on the issue of who should pay the costs of your application.
Yours faithfully
Legal Team
For and behalf of
Civil Enforcement Limited
2. 
   

what are my options. I need to go back to CEL by 25/04 as this came via mail on 12/04 and was in my Trash and fished it out only on 19/04, so any support is welcome.

From their response I can only understand one thing that they haven't even read my Witness statement fully and have misunderstood for e.g "We note your grounds for setting aside Judgment, which state that you had moved address before the violation occurred. We were provided with your registered address by the DVLA following the date of violation." this is wrong we were still in our old address when the violation occurred and Witness statement clearly says 

1)    I would submit that an address obtained on or around XXX 2018 is not reasonable knowledge after a significant time later (XX months) when Default Judgment was obtained.

2)    I may also state that all my records were updated promptly by the time of the claim and it would have been a matter of a phone call or an email or a letter in post or a simple search with any credit bureau agencies such as Experian etc or simple check on Electoral register to confirm the correct address.

3)    I believe the Claimant has behaved unreasonably in pursuing a claim against me without confirming the Defendant’s correct contact details at the time of the claim. They had also failed to explore an ‘alternative place or method’ to inform/enquire the Defendant.

4)    On that basis, I believe the Claimant has not adhered to rule CPR 6.9 (3) and CPR 6.9 (4) where they had failed to show due diligence by using an address that the Defendant no longer resided. The claimant did not take reasonable steps to ascertain the correct address of my residence despite having some XX months to conduct it. This has resulted in the claim being incorrectly served to an old address and an irregular Judgment. This leads to no service; they were not entitled to Judgment and the Court must set aside the claim as per CPR 13.2.

Coupon-mad

what are my options. I need to go back to CEL by 25/04.

No you don't.

You've paid £275 and you want your hearing and you want the court to order that sum back.  You don't want their kind offer!

Everything you say above is right.  They only had to text or email you before filing the claim, to check the service address, or they should have spent 29 pence on a bulk 'soft trace' to find you.

Both the CPRs and the BPA Code of Practice require a Claimant to take steps to check, and they can't just rely on an address they had before (not even the DVLA address) because it can't be assumed it is still good for service.

A useful link was just posted by @Johnersh that gives you some info and case law authorities:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79148545/#Comment_79148545

rbceurope

@Coupon-mad
Thanks for your quick response.
We've already incurred financial loss  due to this CCJ as we missed out on a good mortgage deal and the despair this has brought us in the last 4 weeks.
We wont be accepting any offer of paying back to CEL before the hearing but think we should go back to them with some response, but not sure what it should be.

The other question we have is, what does this mean from CEL "You have not shown any grounds in your application that you have any reasonable prospects of defending the claim".
Does the claim here mean the default judgement that resulted in CCJ or PCN ("exceeding the parking time paid for")

During the hearing (date yet to be known) will the judge be expecting us to provide evidence for:
1. The claim was served at the wrong address (we have evidence for this)
2. Grounds to defend the claim "exceeding the parking time paid for" (we haven't looked into this, yet)

Coupon-mad

1.Yes definitely, in order to establish that CPR 13.2 applies (mandatory set aside).  You need to send that evidence to your court in advance, refer to some of Johnersh's case law authorities and append those transcripts, plus append the BPA CoP section that states that an AOS member MUST check details before filing a court claim.

2. Possibly, if the Judge wants to consider CPR 13.3 as a fallback position and satisfy themselves there are good reasons to allow the application and let you defend the PCN.