No 30 day extension requested too late.

Goldfinch_1997

I received a letter of claim on the 28th Jan (dated the 17th Jan).   I’ve sent a SAR to One Parking Solution but didn’t also email their solicitor (DCB Legal) in time (my own fault I missed that their email could be found on here and didn’t find details until after the deadline).  

They’ve emailed back to say it’s too late to put the case on hold.  What are the implications of this?

I’m working on my defence and plan to send that through in the next couple of days.

Trainerman

You won't be sending any defence anywhere just yet.  Assuming you were responding to a letter before claim, it means you did not get the 30 day delay. It just means that the claim might arrive sooner. IF it arrives, follow all the advice on the Newbies, including the hows and whys of MCOl and defence.

Edit to ask, have you actually received the court claim? If so, follow the timings on the Newbies

KeithP

Goldfinch_1997 said:

They’ve emailed back to say it’s too late to put the case on hold.  What are the implications of this?

The only implication is that you won't get the thirty day delay.
No big deal.

Goldfinch_1997 said:

I’m working on my defence and plan to send that through in the next couple of days.

Hang on... have you already received a County Court Claim Form?
If so, what is the Issue Date on it?
If not, then it is a bit premature to 'sending a Defence through'.

Goldfinch_1997

Yes, I’ve received the Claim Form with a claim number from the County Court Business Centre. I’ve completed the online Money Claim -responding to summons.
I think I may be too late to send my defence. I thought I had 30 days (from the date on the claim form) but just read it’s 28 and as I mentioned it’s dated 17 Jan (received 27th)….am I right?  I do have it written.  Can I still email it through or am I totally misreading this?

KeithP

Goldfinch_1997 said:

I’ve completed the online Money Claim -responding to summons.

What does that actually mean? Please explain.
Does it perhaps mean you have Acknowledged Service of the Claim?
If so, when exactly did you do that? Hopefully sometime before 7th February. Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer.

Goldfinch_1997 said:

I thought I had 30 days (from the date on the claim form) but just read it’s 28 and as I mentioned it’s dated 17 Jan (received 27th)….am I right?

No you are not right.
You actually have thirty-three days from the Issue Date on the Claim Form to file a Defence provided you filed an Acknowledgment of Service within nineteen days of that Issue Date.

Boat_to_Bolivia

Goldfinch_1997 said:

Yes, I’ve received the Claim Form with a claim number from the County Court Business Centre. I’ve completed the online Money Claim -responding to summons.
I think I may be too late to send my defence. I thought I had 30 days (from the date on the claim form) but just read it’s 28 and as I mentioned it’s dated 17 Jan (received 27th)….am I right?  I do have it written.  Can I still email it through or am I totally misreading this?

You need to clarify the issue date.

Apologies. Cross posted with @KeithP

Goldfinch_1997

Yes sorry it was an acknowledgement of service of the claim (just double checking the date).  The letter of claim guidelines states:

Goldfinch_1997

So acknowledgment of service was submitted on 30/01/2023.

KeithP

I am going to assume that when you filed an Acknowledgment of Service you wrote absolutely nothing in the 'Defence and Counterclaim' text box found there.

With a Claim Issue Date of 17th January, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 20th February 2023 to file your Defence.

That's still almost a week away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

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

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an Acknowledgment of Service has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Goldfinch_1997

Thank you Keith P. I presumed that the date to submit defence was linked with the initial letter of claim i.e 28days from the 17th Jan.  I have read the second post and have pulled a defence together and have details re: CCBCAQ email & that it should be sent (with an appropriate title) in office hours. 

KeithP

Goldfinch_1997 said:

I presumed that the date to submit defence was linked with the initial letter of claim i.e 28days from the 17th Jan. 

It really is important to get the terminology correct and will become increasingly so as you progress along this path.

Firstly, your Defence filing deadline is in no way linked to a Letter of Claim.
You received a Letter of Claim from DCB Legal giving you 30 days to respond.

Your Defence filing deadline is however directly linked to the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form and the back of that form states:

Note the last sentence there - "The day of service is taken as 5 days after the issue date shown overleaf".

It goes on to say:

This is confirmed in the Money Claim Online (MCOL) - User Guide, which also explains that a Defence is never due on a non-working day.

On page 14 of that document it says:

How long does the defendant have to respond to my claim?

The court will send out a claim pack to each defendant once the claim has been issued and allows 5 calendar days from the date of issue for the service of the claim. Therefore the 'date of service' is the 5th calendar day after issue.

The defendant has 14 calendar days from the 'date of service' to file a response. If the last day for filing the response falls on a day that the court is not open (i.e. a weekend or public holiday), the court will allow the next full working day for a response. The defendant can extend the time to respond to 28 calendar days by filing an acknowledgment of service (AOS).