Default judgement saying no response even though we responded

08ravea

Hi all, would really appreciate some help. My fiancée got a ticket last summer and I convinced her to fight this when she just wanted to pay, but now it's just causing us serious stress and I'm really regretting it. 

We received a claim form from DCB legal with an issue date of 7th March.

We filed an acknowledgement of service on the 13th March stating I intend to defend all of this claim.

We sent the defence (using the template with only the minimal adaptations) to the claim responses email on 2nd April.

We received an automated reply from CNBC confirming receipt of the email. This email said please expect a response to your enquiry in 10 days.

We heard nothing from court or DCB legal, until today when we have received a letter titled "Judgement for Claimant (in default)" that states "To the defendant, you have not replied to the claim form. It is therefore ordered that you must pay the claimant £179.84 for debt [and interest to date of judgment] and £110 for costs [less £0 which you have already paid]."

Now I don't know what to do, I know you can submit appeals for this but the cost for those appeals looks to be about as much as the claim. If we won the appeal (as in they admit we had filed the defence) but then still lose the case do we end up losing the appeal fee and the claimed debt and the costs?

ChirpyChicken

You need to complain . Sending the court the original email and receipt email to. Copy in the dq email address and complaints@justice.gov.uk
Tell them to put it in front of a judge immediately as it is clear the CNBC has not logged the defence. Tell them your are not required to file an application as this is an administration error by the CNBC
You may have to push a few times to get it sorted but there is no cost for doing this.
It happens more then it should 

Green_hopeful

Just to say court admin isn’t great. There are loads of mistakes. They should just ask you to write in and explain you want the mistake corrected and the case dealt with properly. 

Coupon-mad

Happens a lot, very common crap admin by the CNBC. We see it at least once a month. Here are this month's latest crop:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81396615/#Comment_81396615

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6593447/help-defending-a-very-silly-pcn-from-uk-car-park-managment-limited/p3

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6601185/euro-car-park-dcb-legal-judgement-received-in-default

In fact, if you search for replies by me including the words 'common complain CNBC' you'll find quite a few who went through this waste of time.

And two years ago they were paying £150 compensation in these cases - e.g. thread by @jag_run 

But now they just go "oh dear, we missed your defence, sorry about that. Alright then we've set aside that order. Off you go. Nothing to see here"! 

It'll cost nothing to sort out. Complain.

08ravea

So we spoke to someone at CNBC on the phone on the 24th, they came back saying just email it through again, they'll get to it within 2 weeks. 2 weeks go by, nothing. Rang again yesterday and they said "oh no, its taking 3 weeks to get through the email backlog, call back if nothing after 3 weeks". The problem is, next friday (3 weeks + 1 day) will be 30 days since the judgement was issued, and from what I understand, that's when a CCJ appears on your credit reports. This is particularly problematic for us as we know we'll be applying for a loan at the end of this month, so even if the court overturn the judgement, it may still be on file for us at that critical time.

It just feels like BS that we're at the back of the queue with all the other emails when really they should be prioritising cases where they've made a mistake.

Coupon-mad

Ring them again now AND on Monday morning and insist on speaking to the court manager.

Also put in a complaint with HMCTS.

08ravea

Just got through again now and the judgement has been put aside today and the defence properly filed today. Thanks for you help all

If only that was the end of it, still need to go through all the rigmorol of actually defending ourselves now!