Help! Received Judgement in Default from County Court Business Centre

[mhj]

Hi,

I recently received a Judgement in Default from the County Court Business Centre following an unpaid parking ticket from Parking Control Management UK and Gladstones Solicitors.

This is apparently due to the fact that they never received the email I sent them within the time limit to submit my defence. After contacting them it appears to boil down to the fact that the attachment I was trying to send in the email was over the size limit for their email servers. However, I didn't receive any guidance on this when I phoned them to ask for the email and neither is it clear on their contact details page. When sending the email as well I also had no 'email unsent' notification which is usually common if email servers are unable to accept files of a certain limit.

I have emailed them since and they have informed me that my only course of action now is to pay a £255 fee to have the judgement set-aside. I was wondering if anyone on here knows of any other action I might be able to take to prove that I did indeed send it in time and that it's clearly due to a technical error that they didn't receive it.

Hoping someone can help as I put a lot of time into writing a long defence which I'm sure would have seen me win had it gone to a hearing. I posted in the parking tickets forum previously and was very kindly helped by [MENTION=5553]charitynjw[/MENTION]

Fingers crossed someone knows some way!

[Guest]

Re: Help! Received Judgement in Default from County Court Business Centre

Your correspondence in legal matters needs to be sent via royal mail so you have proof of posting because you have no proof with emails unless you receive a response and you can print off a copy... a lawyer will know no response to your email is to their advantage and telephone calls are hear say in court unless recorded. You need to inform the court and the plaintiff's lawyer of your defence in writing by post not emails then there is a record in both places. Sorry to say you have created your own problems using emails and not turning up in court was the nail in your coffin, chalk it up to experience or set aside the judgement it's up to you.

[ostell]

Re: Help! Received Judgement in Default from County Court Business Centre

Were you sending your defence to Gladstones or the court?

MCOL has the ability to accept documentation by email and provides a positive response. It also lists on the case status. PS it is a claimant not a plaintiff in County COurt.

[MIKE770]

Re: Help! Received Judgement in Default from County Court Business Centre

Were you sending your defence to Gladstones or the court?

MCOL has the ability to accept documentation by email and provides a positive response. It also lists on the case status. PS it is a claimant not a plaintiff in County COurt.

Claim responses & directions:
ccbcaq@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk

[ostell]

Re: Help! Received Judgement in Default from County Court Business Centre

OK, so it's the correct place It's not unknown for defendants to send to the claimant's solicitors without realising it has to go to the court.

As said emails are not the most reliable means of communications. A reject message is a function of the receiving email server and some people choose no to implement a return of an error message. Never assume silence is delivered.

[Diana M]

Re: Help! Received Judgement in Default from County Court Business Centre

Sorry to say you have created your own problems using emails and not turning up in court was the nail in your coffin, chalk it up to experience

There was no court Hearing for the OP to attend.

A Hearing wouldn't take place until after the Defence had been filed, Directions Questionnaires filed/served by both parties and the case transferred from MCOL to their local County Court for allocation to track and listing.

This was a Default Judgment and MCOL is a processing centre for claims issued online.

Di

[mhj]

Re: Help! Received Judgement in Default from County Court Business Centre

Hi [MENTION=39331]ostell[/MENTION]. I have only just seen this, apologies. I hadn't received any email notifications so didn't realise anyone had posted. I sent the defence to the court via email to ccbcaq@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk This is the correct address but unfortunately I didn't realise there was a size limit of 10mb for attachments and my file was 17mb (user error, I hadn't checked before I sent it).

They are now saying that although I can show it is in my sent items via a screenshot, that because they cannot find it at their end (as it was obviously undelivered) and I don't have proof of sending it by means of their auto response, that they can't do anything.

Unfortunately I was following an online instruction which said to send the defence formatted as a PDF via email rather than through the MCOL system as it allowed you more room for defence and also the MCOL system would ruin any formatting that had been put together.

I was hoping that someone might know whether I have a leg to stand on in being able to prove that because it's in my sent items within the time and date limit, that I did indeed sent it. Obviously if I have no other option then I will have to figure out if I believe paying the £255 fee to have the judgement set aside is worth it or not.

If I was to pay to have it set aside, would I still run the risk of then also having to pay Gladstones / UK Parking Management the £260-odd they are asking for? Say it was set aside, would I then still go through the remaining process and eventually end up in court to defend the claim?

- - - Updated - - -

Hi [MENTION=87380]Diana M[/MENTION], you're correct - I haven't attended anything as unfortunately my defence was never received by the court. Do you know if I have any legal leg to stand on (so to speak) whereby if I was able to show, via a screenshot for example, that the email with the attachment was in my sent items withing the allotted time period?