**URGENT- CCJ** Need advice if I have posibilities to set aside by N244 and after win the case

Lia_F

VCS VS CARR

74. I respectfully request that the judge reviews a similar case (VCS vs Carr - Reference: CA-2024-001179) EXHIBIT XX-00

In the matter of VCS vs. Carr (CA-2024-001179), the court set aside the default judgment entered against Mr. Carr, thereby affording him the opportunity to defend against the claims brought by Vehicle Control Services (VCS). The court’s decision underscored the paramount importance of justice and the right to a fair hearing. It was particularly noted that Mr. Carr had not been served with the claim forms, thus depriving him of the chance to respond or present his defense.

This ruling exemplifies the judiciary’s commitment to ensuring that defendants are granted a fair opportunity to contest claims, especially in instances where procedural deficiencies have impeded their ability to do so.

Key Points from the Ruling:

Overriding Objective: The ruling highlighted that under Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) 13.3, the objective is to avoid injustice, and even delays in responding should be weighed against the right to a fair trial2.

8. However, the purpose of the power under CPR 13.3 is to avoid injustice, and although a lack of “promptness” in applying to set aside is a mandatory consideration, the rule makes it clear that the overriding objective is paramount. It is far from clear that the Circuit Judge approached the matter from that perspective. I find it telling that there is no mention in her judgement of the overriding objective nor of what the justice of the case required.

Setting Aside Judgment: The court found that the initial judgment was unjust due to Carr's lack of knowledge about the proceedings, which denied him the opportunity to defend himself effectively.

9. Even in a case of relief from sanctions where the delay is lengthy and there is no excuse for it, the court is required to consider all the circumstances of the case, in order to deal justly with the matter: Denton v White. This court has confirmed that the approach in Denton applies in the context of setting aside a judgment in default: FXF v English Karate Federation [2023] EWCA Civ 891

The following is relevant, albeit where the default judgment was obtained after sending to a separate address:

10. The starting point of the analysis must be that the defendant, who at all material times lived at the property where his car was parked, was being served with parking enforcement notices by the claimant because through no fault of his own and despite making every effort to get one, he could not display a parking permit to prove to them that he had the right to park his car in that space. He had tried without success to ‘explain this to the claimant, who in substance said it was not their problem and he should take it up with the letting agent/landlord. The claimant then obtained a default judgment for a sum in excess of £10,000 in respect of the accumulated parking charges after they had sent all relevant correspondence to and served the proceedings at an address where the defendant no longer lived. The Circuit Judge rightly found that he could not be criticised for failing to respond to a claim form which he never in fact received.

Real Prospect of Defense: The court acknowledged that Carr had a legitimate defense against VCS's claims, which further justified setting aside the default judgment2.

11. Given the Circuit Judge's finding (which the claimant realistically does not seek to challenge) that there was a real prospect of successfully defending the claim, in my judgment it is arguable with a real prospect of success that she did not properly carry out the holistic evaluation she should have done at the third ‘stage of the Denton test, despite expressly acknowledging that she had to take all the circumstances into consideration. As a result she placed too much weight on the delay after the defendant became aware of the default judgment, which she said she regarded as the most important factor.

No opportunity to defend (albeit a different address casing a "failure to respond"):

15. There also appears to have been no specific consideration at the third stage of the fact that in practical terms this defendant has never had an opportunity to advance his valid defence irrespective of whether service was property effected at his former address. That is related to but different from the point that he cannot be blamed for failure to respond to the claim form because he never received it.

No Opportunity to contest (first sentence):

16. Standing back and looking at the bigger picture, if the defendant has a viable defence, then by reason of a judgment to which it was not entitled, and which he had no opportunity to contest before it was entered, the claimant will be unjustly enriched at his expense. Visiting those consequences upon him simply because of a 2-year delay in seeking to set the judgment aside during a period when he was undergoing a divorce and his parents became ill might be regarded as falling outside the generous ambit of decisions that were reasonably open to the court when that and all other relevant factors are weighed together.

SET ASIDE APPLICATION WAS MADE PROMPTLY

75. I have responded to this matter as promptly as possible. On XX/10/24, a prospective landlord refunded my holding deposit, stating that after reference checks, they were no longer comfortable proceeding with my application. On XX/10/24, I discovered this claim after speaking with the real estate agent Open Rent, who informed me that adverse credit was detected on my credit score, despite credit agencies stating that I had never missed a payment. They advised me to contact Equifax. On the same day, Equifax confirmed that I had a CCJ and provided me with the case number. I then purchased the County Court Judgment report from www.trustonline.org.uk for case number NUMBER, which listed an old address, ADDRESS, where I have not lived since 2020. On XX/10/24, I attempted to contact the County Court Business Centre by telephone but was unable to speak with anyone due to long waiting times, so I sent an email. After trying daily, I finally managed to speak by phone with the County Court Business Centre on XX/10/24 to obtain relevant information regarding this default judgment and was informed that I would receive an email containing the Particulars of the Claim, which I received immediately. On the same day, I sent an email to PCM - PARKING CONTROL MANAGEMENT (UK) LTD at their publicly available email address, info@pcm-uk.co.uk, to inform them that they had served court papers to an incorrect address, thus not complying with Civil Procedure Rules 6.9, and invited them to consent to setting aside the claim to avoid wasting the court’s time further. I requested an urgent reply and informed PCM that I was willing to defer making a unilateral application to set aside the judgment until 4 pm on DATE. After failing to reach an agreement for a Consent Order with PCM - PARKING CONTROL MANAGEMENT (UK) LTD, I submitted my case on XX/11/24 to set aside this judgment and have the opportunity to fairly present my case. (See Exhibit XX-00) Email with offer to PCM UK

ADDITIONAL STATEMENT REGARDING THE IMPACT OF THE CLAIMANT’S ACTIONS ON THE DEFENDANT’S LIFE AND MENTAL WELLBEING

76. This CCJ has significantly impacted my financial situation and personal life, by firstly, ruining my credit score which at the time was very good and as such crippling the defendant financially and preventing the defendant from being able to obtain credit with reasonable interest rates at a most difficult time in the defendant’s life.  My son and I are searching for a new place to live because our landlady is selling the flat. I am applying alone, as my son is an 18-year-old university student. My salary is insufficient to afford a two-bedroom flat, and most landlords do not accept students and want two incomes. I have been looking for a place to move for months, and when I finally found a flat, the landlady refused to rent it to me due to the CCJ on my credit record. We are at risk of becoming homeless, and the council cannot provide us with accommodation because we have lived in the council area for less than five years. This entire situation has caused us significant emotional distress. EXHIBIT XX-00

CONSIDERING ALL OF THE ABOVE, I WAS UNABLE TO DEFEND MYSELF AGAINST THIS CLAIM.
77.I believe that the Default Judgement against me was issued incorrectly and thus should be set aside, the claim struck out, and I ask the Court to kindly consider the reimbursement of the fee of £303 from the claimant should this request be successful. 

Statement of Truth. I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.

Signed: ______________________

NAME

Date: [Insert Date]

Johnersh

Slightly at a loss with this.

You can't say that no efforts were made to locate you, when the PPC did make those efforts. The o/p then failed to respond despite being on notice that they would commence proceedings to the address they had (which the o/p self-evidently wasn't going to receive).

The judgment has probably been properly obtained (which is not to say that signage or the sums claimed are appropriate.

Gr1pr

The statement of truth changed a few years ago, so is incorrect 

Coupon-mad

Johnersh said:

Slightly at a loss with this.

You can't say that no efforts were made to locate you, when the PPC did make those efforts. The o/p then failed to respond despite being on notice that they would commence proceedings to the address they had (which the o/p self-evidently wasn't going to receive).

The judgment has probably been properly obtained (which is not to say that signage or the sums claimed are appropriate.

I see what you mean but ... I dunno...

On the other side of the coin, isn't it unreasonable and somewhat disingenuous for a trader to trace what they know from the CRA soft trace address data IS the current (newest) address but say: "unless you reply to this particular threatogram we'll revert to the old out of date DVLA address"?

"Real Prospect of Defense"

No S in defence, Lia.

1505grandad

Typo -  "20. The vehicle was sold on XX/06/21 (SEE EXHIBIT XX-00)

Lia_F

Gr1pr said:

The statement of truth changed a few years ago, so is incorrect 

@Gr1pr What format do I have to use? Thank you!

Lia_F

Lia_F said:

Gr1pr said:

The statement of truth changed a few years ago, so is incorrect 

@Gr1pr What format do I have to use? Thank you!

@Gr1pr
Changed to:

STATEMENT OF TRUTH 

78. I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth. 

Thanks!

Lia_F

1505grandad said:

Typo -  "20. The vehicle was sold on XX/06/21 (SEE EXHIBIT XX-00)

@1505grandad What is the typo mistake, please?

20. The vehicle was sold on the XX of June, 2021

Lia_F

Coupon-mad said:

Johnersh said:

Slightly at a loss with this.

You can't say that no efforts were made to locate you, when the PPC did make those efforts. The o/p then failed to respond despite being on notice that they would commence proceedings to the address they had (which the o/p self-evidently wasn't going to receive).

The judgment has probably been properly obtained (which is not to say that signage or the sums claimed are appropriate.

I see what you mean but ... I dunno...

On the other side of the coin, isn't it unreasonable and somewhat disingenuous for a trader to trace what they know from the CRA soft trace address data IS the current (newest) address but say: "unless you reply to this particular threatogram we'll revert to the old out of date DVLA address"?

"Real Prospect of Defense"

No S in defence, Lia.

Coupon-mad & Johnersh

The first Letter Before Claim (LBC) was sent to my 2019 address in December 2022. The second LBC was sent to my current address in January 2023, stating: “Please note that if you fail to confirm that the trace address is now your current residential address, we will have no alternative, should proceedings be issued, than to arrange for them to be served at the original address supplied to us by our client.” However, they did not trace my address from 2020 to 2022 and did not trace any other address until January 2023.

I have the December 2022 letter and the 2023 one because Gladstones sent it to me by email last month. However, I lost the January 2023 letter, but I can say I never received it.

Below the history of my address:

June 2020, I moved to ABROAD due to the COVID-19 pandemic – I provide flight checking confirmation, boarding pass and email giving notice to the landlord.  SEE EXHIBIT XX-00

September 2021, moved in to address: ADDRESS – I provide electoral roll updated for this address in September 2021 SEE EXHIBIT XX-00

August 2022, moved to current address: ADDRESS- I provide my tenancy agreement. SEE EXHIBIT XX-00

What is the correct aproach on my case? They are not including relevant documentation to support the claim or pictures. They said "as detailed in the attached schedule (full details of them having been sent to you by our Client already)"

I just found the below, please check 

CCBC cases

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/debt-management-and-banking/dmbm665410

1505grandad

Lia_F said:

1505grandad said:

Typo -  "20. The vehicle was sold on XX/06/21 (SEE EXHIBIT XX-00)

@1505grandad What is the typo mistake, please?

20. The vehicle was sold on the XX of June, 2021

"Opening post you stated:-

" I sold the car in 2020 and moved abroad, returning in 2021 to other address."

You also state in your WS para 16:-

"However, I sold the car on XX/06/2020 before leaving the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (SEE EXHIBIT XX-00) EMAIL"

Both state "2020" so presumed that the one I highlighted was a typo.