VCS Southend Elms Legal Court Claim - Cancelled!

1505grandad

"On [Date], I received a letter from your firm dated 16/03/2026 titled "URGENT: NOTICE OF JUDGEMENT IN DEFAULT."

Pedantic observation - there would not have been a middle "e" in "Judgment" in this context.

 

Castle

OP

Who signed the claim form?

fivestarsamz

Okay, so i made the complaint to ELMs legal as advised above, however, I did keep the bit where I would like them to issue the discontinuance, as I thought there was no harm in adding it in.

To sum it up, they said they entered the judgment before I did the AOS and Defence, which I can see may be true, but for some reason unknown to ELMS, the court rejected it. (I think I got saved by the whisker by doing the AOS and defence at the time I did). But the thing that confuses me is, they say "the Default Judgment was rejected after the
letter was sent to you, but it was not sent in error". That is clearly not true, because the judgment was rejected on 13/03/26, and the date on the letter is 16/03/2026, so it was drafted, and of course sent, and received AFTER the judgment was rejected.

But ultimately they are offering "In light of the above, we invite you to confirm whether you would be agreeable to the matter being discontinued on a “drop hands” basis, whereby each party bears their own costs and no further action is taken by either side."

Ultimately, does that mean they will discontinue the case if I don't escalate the complaint? And I would not have to pay a penny? If that is the case, I think I would take that. What do you guys advise?

Here is their response:

fivestarsamz

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81935361#Comment_81935361

It was signed by Edmund Shoreman-Lawson (claimant's legal representative as defined by CPR 2.3(1))

Coupon-mad

Yes I would accept a drop hands offer. It means it is all over very quickly, and no costs.

fivestarsamz

So as coupon-mad mentioned, both parties has gone for a drop hands offer! Very happy it got sorted very quickly. Thank you all once again for your help!

Coupon-mad

Is this being overseen by Edmund Shoreman-Lawson personally? They really screwed up!

Car1980

Absolutely no reason for them to discontinue.

But as they know they have come across a difficult adversary they've thrown the towel in, instead of in 6 months time. Plenty of other low-hanging fruit to pursue…