DCB Legal Ltd Claim Form delayed in mail redirection abroad

neilflah

There is no mention of 'no order as to costs'

Coupon-mad

How come you only paid £108 not £275? Wasn't this a set aside by consent? What did the consent order you signed say?

neilflah

£108 as I selected 'without a hearing' on the basis I'm out of the UK and had strong evidence.  I don't ever remember ticking anything for a 'set aside by consent'.  Which consent order?

neilflah

I posted this previously:

Update - upon calling CNBC in October to query the set aside fee another employee confirmed that the fee of £108 was correct and their colleague had made a mistake.  They assured me they would look into the matter and would be in touch.  Nothing until 26th January when I receive in the post my N244 application notice, Witness Statement and evidence returned along with a General Directions Order and Notice of Transfer of Proceedings.  The latter states 'To all parties:  As a result of an order made on 6 December 2023, this claim has been transferred to the County Court at St Helens.'  

The General Directions Order states Highview Parking Limited v Me
'Before Deputy District Judge xxxxx sitting at the CNBC
It is ordered that:

1.  The claim be sent to the County Court at St Helens for the application to be listed for hearing (on notice) and served.

Because the this Order has been made without a hearing, the parties have the right to apply to have the Order set aside, varied or stayed.  A party making such an application must send or deliver the application to the court (together with any appropriate fee) to arrive within seven days of the service of this Order.  If the application is one which requires a hearing, and
a) the party making the application is the Defendant; and
b) the Defendant is an individual,
then upon the filing of the application the claim will be transferred to the Defendant's home court.  In all other cases requiring a hearing the claim will be transferred to the preferred court.

neilflah

and of course , DCB sent this into the court prior to the hearing which didn't happen:

In view of the above, the Claimant does not oppose the Defendant’s Application to set aside the Judgment and requests that an Order be made as per the proposed Draft Order.

COSTS

In the event that the Defendant also seeks to recover the costs of making the Application to set the Judgment aside, it is respectfully submitted that the Claimant has not acted unreasonably and it is denied that the Defendant is entitled to the same. A trace was conducted to ensure that the Claim Form was served to the Defendant’s last known address pursuant to CPR 6.9 (3) – the Claimant has therefore followed the correct process. A ‘Letter of Claim’ was issued to the address of “xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx” during a time at which the Defendant has evidenced that they resided there, yet they did not inform the Claimant or the Claimant’s legal representative that they would be leaving the address, therefore; the Claimant had no reason to believe that the Defendant would not have received the Claim Form. Had the Defendant responded to the ‘Letter of Claim’ outlining that they were moving overseas, the Claim would not have been issued and costs for the same would not have been incurred.

Pursuant to CPR 27.14, the Defendant is not entitled to costs incurred where the matter has been allocated to the Small Claims Track. If the matter had proceeded, it is reasonable to assume that the Claim would have been allocated to the Small Claims Track, given the complexity and balance of the case.

We look forward to hearing from you further. Yours faithfully,

DCB Legal Ltd

neilflah

seems strange to me that their illegitimate claim, struck out by the judge, has ended with the judge not considering my cost of the set aside fee!

Castle

neilflah said:

and of course , DCB sent this into the court prior to the hearing which didn't happen:

In view of the above, the Claimant does not oppose the Defendant’s Application to set aside the Judgment and requests that an Order be made as per the proposed Draft Order.

Did they send you a copy of this "Draft Order"?

neilflah

Hi Castle,

Yes, DCB Legal cc'd me into the email on 11/03/24 to the court which had the Submissions and Draft Order attached.  

Draft Order reads:

IN THE COUNTY COURT AT ST. HELENS BETWEEN: -

HIGHVIEW PARKING LIMITED AND
XXXXXXXXXXX

DRAFT ORDER

Before District Judge ___________________________

CLAIM NUMBER: XXXXXXXXX

CLAIMANT

DEFENDANT

UPON considering the Defendant’s Application dated 19/09/2023, and considering the Claimant’s Submissions dated 11/03/2024 in response;

AND UPON considering that, despite Court proceedings being correctly served to the Defendant’s last known address pursuant to CPR 6.9, the Defendant was not residing at the address the Claim Form was served to and therefore did not have the opportunity to file a response to the same;

AND UPON the Defendant now residing overseas;
AND UPON there being, in view of the above, some other good reason to set the Judgment aside

pursuant to CPR 13.3;

It is hereby ordered as follows: -
1. The Judgment entered on 29/08/2023 be set aside; 2. The Claim be dismissed; and
3. There be no Order as to costs.

Dated _________________

Coupon-mad

I predict your Judge will have used that draft Order as the basis for theirs, which will come out to you in April, snail mail to whatever address the court holds, with no costs granted.

The reason is that DCB said they sent everything to your last known address - add they say they did a CRA trace to check it - so they didn't do anything wrong.

I think you've got the very best CCJ and claim dismissal (it's likely all over!) outcome you could possibly have achieved from abroad - nicely done.  For £108 I call that a result.

neilflah

'A trace was conducted to ensure that the Claim Form was served to the Defendant’s last known address pursuant to CPR 6.9 (3)'

This is surely just a DVLA check trace?  What's a CRA trace?