Letter of Claim form not received

glasso

Hello,

Letter dated 28th December from BW Legal to tell me "following expiry of a letter of claim" followed by a claim number I had never seen before, they have issued county court claim on 15th December.

I didn't receive any letter of claim from the court - not sure what happened but I am certain this did not arrive in the post. I have spoken to county court on the phone and they essentially said not their problem if it didn't turn up... no judgement has yet been entered against me on the system so I should complete online forms urgently as judgement could be entered at any time.

Any advice? Now feel like I have to write a defence immediately so it's not going to be the best defence it could be.

KeithP

A Letter of Claim doesn't come from the court. The Claimant should send it direct to the prospective Defendant.


I am going to assume that the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form is 15th December. Please confirm.

You also make no mention of having filed an Acknowledgment of Service, so I will assume you have not done that. Is that right?

With a Claim Issue Date of 15th December, you had until Tuesday 3rd January 2023 to file an Acknowledgment of Service.
It looks like you failed to do that.
That in turn means that your Defence filing deadline became 4pm on Tuesday 3rd January 2023.

Since 4pm on Tuesday 3rd January the Claimant has been free to seek a Default Judgment against you.

If they seek and get that Judgment before you have filed a Defence, then they win the race - it's game over - you lose.

Check your MCOL Claim History to see if there is a Judgment against you. 
If there is, then you can ignore the rest of this post.

On the other hand if you file a Defence before the Claimant actually seeks and gets that Default Judgment, then you win this heat and go through to the next round and I suggest you aim to file a Defence before 8am tomorrow.

The good news is that whatever the Claimant may do, nothing untoward will happen today or overnight.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. From now on the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Mouse007

@KeithP I don't think the OP received the CC Claim form so will not have the MCOL password to check.

@glasso you need to prepare your defence. See the template referred to above. If you do not know what this relates to say so, post your 2 and 3 points here. Do not change anything else on the template.

On monday morning email the defence as instructed in the template defence thread.

Then phone the Court back and ask them to email the claim made. Don't wait for this before filing a defence, they may seek Judgement while you are doing so. Defence first, follow up later.

In the meantime why have you missed so much post? Have you moved recently, is the vehicle V5 at an old address? are you in shared accommodation, block of flats or house of multiple occupation?

glasso

I'm really confused as I've done 2 or 3 of these before and the order which things have come through in this case aren't what I'm expecting.

The letter from BW Legal was the first time I'd seen that claim number - no letter of claim or county court claim form. The letter from BW Legal states 15th December but I didn't receive any letter so who knows.

I did an acknowledgement of service today - again I can't remember what order these things should happen in but AoS presumably well outside of time scale it should have been in as I haven't had any letter?

MCOL has no mention of this claim number so no judgement against me yet - but should the claim number appear on MCOL regardless of what stage the claim is at?

Mouse007

glasso said:

MCOL has no mention of this claim number so no judgement against me yet - but should the claim number appear on MCOL regardless of what stage the claim is at?

I'm guessing but suspect it won't show on MCOL until YOU link it with the password from the claim form.

AOS too late, defence late and you are in a race to file that before a judgment by default is entered against you.

glasso

I'm guessing but suspect it won't show on MCOL until YOU link it with the password from the claim form.

I didn't receive a claim form in the post so I don't have the password needed...

KeithP

OK, then as I said earlier, get your Defence filed before 8am tomorrow following the guidance in the opening post of the template defence thread.

Coupon-mad

glasso said:

I'm guessing but suspect it won't show on MCOL until YOU link it with the password from the claim form.

I didn't receive a claim form in the post so I don't have the password needed...

You will have to just use the Template Defence and email it then, as the thread explains. TODAY.

You are lucky we have a template defence that can be adapted easily, even if you know not much about the PCN and haven't received the claim (which you can state in your facts paragraph).

Clever of BW Legal to send claims out on the day of a postal strike just before Xmas, innit? Absolute sharp practice IMHO.

Believe us.  I know it is daft and unfair but if you want to avoid a CERTAIN CCJ then get your defence emailed TODAY and cross your fingers that BW have not already got a default CCJ.

Don't ask how to find out.  You don't have time ... and can ONLY try to win the race.  Win the defence race and you can find out about the claim later on.

glasso

So to update on this... hadn't heard anything about this since December 2022 until this week I received a "notice of proposed allocation to the small claims track" with a "directions questionnaire" to complete.

If I remember correctly the advice is to do this online rather than paper? But... still don't have a defence pack password to access on MCOL as I have never been sent a defence pack.

Any advice on what I should be doing? I've already emailed my defence off back in January so I'm presumably already ahead of saying I want to defend the claim fully?

KeithP

Forget about MCOL. You no longer need it. There was never any suggestion that MCOL should be used at DQ time. 
In fact, the last line of my post on 15 January at 3:40PM said...

 From now on the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Items 8, 9 and 10 on the checklist in the opening post on the Template Defence thread explains what you should be doing now.

glasso

Another update- received a letter with a date for small claims court. Presumably at this point it's best to go ahead and attend in person and comply with everything the court requires? Any advice?

I need to send a one page DRH position statement - what is this? Had a brief google and can't find a form to fill out etc. 

I also need to send copies of everything I intend to rely on for my defence, presumably this will just be the template defence I already created and sent to the court back in January?