Please help to set aside CCJ in the UK

KeithP

Have you seen this video?...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n93eoaxhzpU

Just three or four people sitting round a table having a discussion.

LDast

The judge will lead you through the process and knows you’re a litigant in person with no formal training and so makes allowance for this.

danojs7

Can anyone direct me to where I can find copies of the case laws?! Just trying to print everything out to bring with me to the hearing. 

In my skeleton I referenced them as URL’s from casemine.com. But it won’t let me print them!

Vinos v Marks & Spencer [2001]

Deputy Master Marsh in Croke & Anor v National Westminster Bank [2002]

Piepenbrock v Associated News Limited [2020]

Collier v Williams [2006]

MB Garden Buildings Ltd v Mark Burton Construction Ltd & Anor [2014] 

Coupon-mad

All of them were found by us by Googling.

Find the transcripts and just hyperlink them as numbered footnotes at the bottom of your witness statement.  That's good enough for a Judge because all of those authorities are easy to find if your links don't work. 

danojs7

Ok so no need to print the transcripts?

My skeleton has already been submitted. 

danojs7

Hi everyone. My hearing is imminent and I have just received an e-mail from the Claimant's solicitor including their N244 Application and Draft Order.

They state that they received my application in January 2024. But when commencing work to prepare their witness statement (which I still have not received), they noticed there was an error in the contravention date of the PCN!!

Their excuse is that the agent who acted on behalf of the claimant sent instructions to the solicitor in the form of data upload in the format of SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol). The dates were in an Americanised format i.e. month/date/year rather than English format i.e. date/month/year.

The Claimant is seeking permission to amend the Claim Form to ensure compliance with CPR 16. They are also seeking permission for the application to be heard on my hearing date.

An Order is further requested for consequential direction arising out of the amendment as per the Draft Order which states:

• Judgment be set aside
• Permission for Claimant to amend the Claim Form
• Claimant to file and serve an amended Claim Form and amended Particular of Claim within 14 days of this order
• The Defendant to file a Defence within 14 days of the service of the amended Claim Form
• Witness Statement to be filed and served within 14 days of the service of the Defence
• The Claim to be listed for Trial
• No Order as to Costs

Obviously I have included the same (wrong) date in my original WS. The PCN was so long ago so I couldn't remember either!

I am hoping the claim is struck off anyway but is it likely the courts will grant this? I would really REALLY prefer not to prepare a Defence or another WS and attend court again!!

Are there any arguments that I could say in my court hearing to help strengthen my case?


Eagerly waiting for advice. I am sat at my computer tonight!

Coupon-mad

OK so this is your set aside hearing for which you paid a whopping £275 fee and spent days/hours burning the midnight oil, researching case law and creating both a witness statement and a detailed skeleton about why the CLAIMANT was at fault for failing to trace your current address, ignoring the silence which was sufficient 'reason to believe' you'd probably moved and instead they just ran with a 3 year old DVLA vehicle address.  Which is a clear breach of the CPRs and their Code of Practice.

So WHY should QDR be able to fly in at the eleventh hour to use YOUR set aside hearing to get a 'free hit' to re-plead their woeful POC and even worse, beg for 'no order as to costs'?!

i.e. they want to ambush your application and distract the Judge into thinking this application and draft Order is an easy and quick way to deal with the case. 

No.  And more no.

"The Claimant is seeking permission to amend the Claim Form to ensure compliance with CPR 16."

Why should they get another go?!

The court's case management powers are not there to enable parties to escape errors, sanctions or wasted fee costs that should rightly now be payable to the Defendant.

We've seen QDR do this before, with mixed results.

Try adapting and using the case law and long response seen in the thread by @Neverafine  which caused QDR to discontinue.

Can't promise it will work the same because in the thread by @Harbmeister QDR were granted a hearing of their application and they are proceeding.

danojs7

Thanks @Coupon-mad. I’ll have a good read but too late to submit anything now. 

They have sent this the night before my hearing which is absurd…

Coupon-mad

Right so you are going to have to raise it first.

Strongly object to their last minute attempt to ambush the hearing you were forced to pay for due to their unlawful use of an old unchecked DVLA address, which the Code of Practice confirms is NOT allowed without further checks.

Strongly object to their attempt at a hasty draft order to let them get away without paying your costs and to 'comply with CPR 16' which their POC did not (regardless of USA date).

Assume your Judge MIGHT be taken in by a firm of solicitors presenting an easy way forward.  Some Judges are naive and easily impressed by their fellow solicitors.

If the Judge greets you smiling and says "this will be quick" get straight in and say you sincerely hope he/she doesn't mean the court is minded to use the 'ambush' last minute application and Draft Order instead of yours, which OBVIOUSLY requires the C to pay your costs due to their wholly unreasonable conduct.

Please read the case law in the thread by @Neverafine because you may need to take your Judge to it on the hop, to persuade them that this last minute application is an abuse.

Also have the right Code of Practice clause to hand, that requires a Defendant's details to be checked (by a soft trace) BEFORE litigation because some Judges wrongly think PPCs can run with a DVLA address.  They can't.  And it's irrelevant when you updated it because the industry can't ask the DVLA twice.  Hence why it's compulsory for them to do an address trace with a credit ref agency.

If the Judge won't order your fee to be paid by the erring Claimant (then they are wrong..) ask in the alternative for costs to be 'reserved' if the court has not struck out the claim for failure to meet Part 16 (a failure which is nothing to do with the Americanised date and everything to do with the two persuasive parking case 'inadequate POC' appeals in CEL v Chan and CPMS v Akande).

danojs7

Hearing done. Judgment set aside! But claim not struck off and no costs awarded to me. 

Judge said she couldn’t access my case laws as URL’s apparently. I was only able to print the Boxwood transcript but not others. 

Showed BPA Code of Practice. Said claimants were in breach of CPR’s too. Judge said ‘no where does it say, do a soft trace’. Tried to revisit this several times. Explained DVLA rules and stated that the claimant did not take reasonable steps to ascertain my address. Etc. She didn’t quite buy it!

Claimants solicitor did get a bollocking for the late draft order though. 

Not quite the victory I wanted but at least judgment has been set aside. 

I think in hindsight I could have answered better when explaining the basis of my defence. I was nervous though. 

Now I will be served with an amended claim form in the next 2 weeks. But very much considering just settling for a payment as I need to carry on with my life!