Court has dismissed defence without hearing and issued judgement

niallmitch

Hi

Hopefully someone can help with this - Im dealing with claim on behalf of my daughter who is soon to buy a new house so CCJ would be a disaster.

We did the AOS within the time limit then issued the template defence from here, again within the time limit - all via MCOL. But this has been "rejected" by court and judgement issued. The first we were aware of this was Saturday when a letter from the court arrived with the judgement.

There was no reason given for the rejection and MCOL only says it was rejected on 18 March.

I am currently no. 44 in the queue on the phone but suspect I will never get through.

Looking online, it is saying we can apply to set aside the decision but the fee MCOL is asking for that is £313 - more than the original claim!

Anyone got any experience of how to resolve this?

Ironically I was on the opposite end of this a year or so back when I took a supplier to court and got judgement only for the Court to then have to rescind that due to their error.

thanks

Coupon-mad

Show us the MCOL History.

niallmitch

A claim was issued against you on 10/02/2026

Your acknowledgment of service was submitted on 17/02/2026 at 16:05:42

Your acknowledgment of service was received on 18/02/2026 at 08:05:45

Your defence was submitted on 04/03/2026 at 10:16:22

Your defence was received on 04/03/2026 at 12:05:28

Your defence was rejected on 18/03/2026

A judgment was issued against you on 23/03/2026 at 19:08:39

Gr1pr

Show us a redacted picture of the latest letter, the judgment

No personal or private details, no reference numbers, leaving dates and reasons showing

ChirpyChicken

Ring the court at 8.30am sharp

Email them as well. Looks like an error

niallmitch

bit blurry as this is second hand

ChirpyChicken

This is not an uncommon problem

niallmitch

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81943292#Comment_81943292

Thanks, I took up the option of a call back once I got to 40 in the queue but that was a couple of hours ago and Im not confident it will happen in the next hour

Gr1pr

Send A complaint about it by email to their relevant claims handling email address as shown in the defence template thread first post, case progression seems to be the one

Mark it as URGENT, UNPROCESSED DOCUMENTS, adding a copy of the claim history to prove that the defence was filed correctly and should not have been rejected, stating that you want them to issue a set aside free of charge due to their error

Possibly copy in a complaint about it to HMCTS too

Ps, it must come from the defendant

ChirpyChicken

Dont worry, !

Call them back at 8.30 sharp in the morning find out the reason and then email them

niallmitch

Thanks all, I got a call back late in a day yesterday - its seems the defence was rejected because I submitted it rather than Daughter - seems bizarre as there was an option to say submitting on behalf of defendant - anyhow, given their very soon need to apply for a mortgage, I have paid the bill which is less than the set aside fee and will raise a formal complaint with the Court in an effort to get this refunded - dont hold out much hope but there you go