On Holiday -Claim.form from civil national business centre

Loxy1

Hi All,

A long time after being advised that legal action  was going to take place and after no response to my request for information we have received a letter from The civil national business centre DCB legal. The issue is that we were rushing out on our holidays, I'm now overseas for 3 weeks and have realised this is an actual court claim and that I need to respond within 2 weeks. However I need to know if I can do this online as by post is not an.option, any advice on this as I'm struggling to identify how would be greatly appreciated 

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?
You can certainly file an Acknowledgment of Service online giving you an extra fourteen days to file a Defence, but tell us the Issue Date before doing anything.

Loxy1

They sent notice of intended prosecution last October 2023, I asked for a hard copy of their claim form and heard nothing back until now

Loxy1

I need to know if it's OK to use the o line money claim site to get an acknowledgement of service as I've seen somewhere on the thread that I shouldn't use this and I'm.confused

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Do not file an Acknowledgment of Service within five days of the Issue Date.

To file an Acknowledgment of Service, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

DE_612183

Don't worry too much about DCB LEGAL - they generally end up here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80602486#Comment_80602486

KeithP

DE_612183 said:

Don't worry too much about DCB LEGAL - they generally end up here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80602486#Comment_80602486

But one does need to file a Defence in a timely manner to get anywhere near that resolution.

Loxy1

Thank you so much for the replies, it's a pain when on holiday but the issue date is 12th July, is it worth counterclaimimg for the hassle, I'd then give any return to charity, I just want to make them feel the pain for.messing us about as they have not replied to our issues

KeithP

Loxy1 said:

...the issue date is 12th July

With a Claim Issue Date of 12th July, you have until Wednesday 31st July to file an Acknowledgment of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an Acknowledgment of Service, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 14th August 2024 to file a Defence.

That's almost four weeks 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 again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service guidance.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that 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'.

Loxy1

Ah ok thank.you, so.i can file an acknowledgement of service via money claim online, bit a defence needs to be done in.writing? My concern is I'm.not back.in the UK till 9th August, I can set out a defence on holiday but can o file it online too?

KeithP

Please read again what I wrote.

I wrote...

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email...

Can you see the words by email in there?