Small Claims Case

textbook

So I had a thread about taking a man to court for not paying the final invoice.  My Claim for the money was stopped quite soon into the case because-

He wrote two texts after he did the final payment-


I've sent you-  £420.  All details in the receipt.


Then a text one minute later saying-

Payment sent in full and final settlement of monies outstanding relating to decorating works at 60 Expensive Road.   


I didn't reply to this text saying I'd accept this as part payment or return the money and also left it two years to dispute this.   I left it two years to not make waves as he offered me more work at the time.   Realising I wasn't gonna get it after two years pursued the case.   This was a long time and that text was enough legally that this dispute was settled according to the judge.

I actually printed off that text and gave it him!  I helped him lol  No idea that this was gonna go against me.

I might also have had to pay his costs.


Also, got a letter saying-

IT IS ORDERED THAT

The Claimant has permission to amend his claim form to correctly spell the defendant's name as Mr Lying Git.   (Spelt his name wrong in application.)

Service of the Amended Claim Form is dispensed with and the Court file shall be updated with the defendants correctly spelt name.

Claim dismissed

No order for costs.

Does the above mean, I have to or if I want to amend the claim form?   or has it already been done.   i don't understand what they mean.,

Has permission means it's up to me and if I don't will I get punished?  

Jenni_D

It's basically saying ... you got his name wrong, they'd allow you to amend the claim accordingly, but as the claim has been dismissed then there's no point so they'll just update the court records to make the correction. There's also no order as to costs, so you don't have to pay him anything (nor him to you).

DullGreyGuy

You've sued a non-existent person so the case has been dismissed, the non-existent person cannot pay the court fees so you have naturally lost those. 

If you want to try again you will have to refile and pay the costs again, you cannot include the original costs, and obviously this time ensure you correctly identify the defendant properly. 

Undervalued

textbook said:

So I had a thread about taking a man to court for not paying the final invoice.  My Claim for the money was stopped quite soon into the case because-

He wrote two texts after he did the final payment-


I've sent you-  £420.  All details in the receipt.


Then a text one minute later saying-

Payment sent in full and final settlement of monies outstanding relating to decorating works at 60 Expensive Road.   


I didn't reply to this text saying I'd accept this as part payment or return the money and also left it two years to dispute this.   I left it two years to not make waves as he offered me more work at the time.   Realising I wasn't gonna get it after two years pursued the case.   This was a long time and that text was enough legally that this dispute was settled according to the judge.

I actually printed off that text and gave it him!  I helped him lol  No idea that this was gonna go against me.

I might also have had to pay his costs.


Also, got a letter saying-

IT IS ORDERED THAT

The Claimant has permission to amend his claim form to correctly spell the defendant's name as Mr Lying Git.   (Spelt his name wrong in application.)

Service of the Amended Claim Form is dispensed with and the Court file shall be updated with the defendants correctly spelt name.

Claim dismissed

No order for costs.

Does the above mean, I have to or if I want to amend the claim form?   or has it already been done.   i don't understand what they mean.,

Has permission means it's up to me and if I don't will I get punished?  

I am sorry but basically you have messed up here, firstly by getting the basic information (name) wrong then trying to reopen a "full and final"  settlement two years (!!) after the event. Yes, "full and final" is not always legally binding but you need to positively reject such a settlement reasonably promptly.

I think you need to put this down to experience.

saajan_12

textbook said:

...

Payment sent in full and final settlement of monies outstanding relating to decorating works at 60 Expensive Road.   

I didn't reply to this text saying I'd accept this as part payment or return the money
..... 

By keeping the money and receiving the message, you are assumed to have agreed to the F&F settlement. Courts know some contracts are done informally and its not practical to expect individual, written and signed acceptances of each piece. If you disagreed, you should have promptly returned the money / replied saying there was no F&F settlement. 

textbook said:

I actually printed off that text and gave it him!  I helped him lol  No idea that this was gonna go against me.

Why? What did you expect that message to do? 

textbook said:

IT IS ORDERED THAT

..
Claim dismissed

No order for costs.

The judge decided that you don't have a valid claim, likely because it was settled in full and courts don't go around reopening settlements. This is regardless of the spelling mistake that has been corrected. Nothing further for you to do, but also you have no further remedy in small claims court regarding this. 

textbook

saajan_12 said:

textbook said:

...

Payment sent in full and final settlement of monies outstanding relating to decorating works at 60 Expensive Road.   

I didn't reply to this text saying I'd accept this as part payment or return the money
..... 

By keeping the money and receiving the message, you are assumed to have agreed to the F&F settlement. Courts know some contracts are done informally and its not practical to expect individual, written and signed acceptances of each piece. If you disagreed, you should have promptly returned the money / replied saying there was no F&F settlement. 

textbook said:

I actually printed off that text and gave it him!  I helped him lol  No idea that this was gonna go against me.

Why? What did you expect that message to do? 

textbook said:

IT IS ORDERED THAT

..
Claim dismissed

No order for costs.

The judge decided that you don't have a valid claim, likely because it was settled in full and courts don't go around reopening settlements. This is regardless of the spelling mistake that has been corrected. Nothing further for you to do, but also you have no further remedy in small claims court regarding this. 

So I don't need to log in and change the spelling?  Not gonna get fined or anything ridiculous?

textbook

I just assumed that because I didn't reply to agree to his text saying full and final monies in settlement etc that it was just his opinion so meant nothing in a court.   I know morally he's in the wrong but I guess the law and morals aren't the same and the law is a bunch of rules which need to to be followed.  It's a game hence why we use lawyers who know how to play this game better than us.   We all know how immoral lawyers are.

On another note I sent an email to the court as no one ever picks up the phone asking if I need to change the defendant's name but stupidly copied and pasted the info from this thread(with info from this letter stating what I'm supposed to do) and this included 'lying git' as his name.   Will I get fined for that?  Can I unsend an email?   

Obviously I apologised and resent another email 

Aylesbury_Duck

textbook said:

I just assumed that because I didn't reply to agree to his text saying full and final monies in settlement etc that it was just his opinion so meant nothing in a court.   I know morally he's in the wrong but I guess the law and morals aren't the same and the law is a bunch of rules which need to to be followed.  It's a game hence why we use lawyers who know how to play this game better than us.   We all know how immoral lawyers are.

On another note I sent an email to the court as no one ever picks up the phone asking if I need to change the defendant's name but stupidly copied and pasted the info from this thread(with info from this letter stating what I'm supposed to do) and this included 'lying git' as his name.   Will I get fined for that?  Can I unsend an email?   

Obviously I apologised and resent another email 

I think you need to give it up.  You're just compounding your original error with more errors.  I don't think you're going to get fined, but you're wasting yours and others' time chasing something which is closed.

Okell

textbook said:

I just assumed that because I didn't reply to agree to his text saying full and final monies in settlement etc that it was just his opinion so meant nothing in a court.   I know morally he's in the wrong but I guess the law and morals aren't the same and the law is a bunch of rules which need to to be followed.  It's a game hence why we use lawyers who know how to play this game better than us.   We all know how immoral lawyers are.

On another note I sent an email to the court as no one ever picks up the phone asking if I need to change the defendant's name but stupidly copied and pasted the info from this thread(with info from this letter stating what I'm supposed to do) and this included 'lying git' as his name.   Will I get fined for that?  Can I unsend an email?   

Obviously I apologised and resent another email 

On 26 May you posted referring to the "full and final" payment that the defendant had made two years ago and that "This was a long time and that text was enough legally that this dispute was settled according to the judge".

Do you remember writing that?  Were you actually in the judge's presence when he told you that your claim was dismissed because (1) you had accepted the F&F payment and (2) that by waiting 2 years you had waited too long?

If yes, then your claim has failed and there's no point trying to resurrect it.

If you were present, then you know better than any of us what reason the judge gave for dismissing your claim, and it's a waste of time asking us if you don't know.

Where I do sympathise with you is I think the wording of the order you posted (if that is the actual wording of the order) is needlessly confusing.  If the judge was dismissing your claim because he had decided that you were bound by accepting the F&F payment without disputing at the time and because you had now waited too long, I don't know why they muddied the issue by (1) giving you permission to change the defendant's name but then (2) dispensing with this by dismissing the case.

Are you sure that's what the order said - word for word?

Or you could go and ask your "legal advisor" down the pub who advised you down this route in the first place...

Bradden

textbook said:

.   We all know how immoral lawyers are.

I don't agree with this  ... Do you think legal advisors you met in  the pub have higher moral standards? 😊

user1977

textbook said:

We all know how immoral lawyers are.

Given how many other things you've got wrong here, what makes you think this is accurate?

(I also presume you don't want any more free advice from the lawyers here...)