Hearing for CCJ set aside (first time nervous)

[8yf13L0]

Hi I am new to this group.

I got a hearing at southampton county court this Thursday of which I instigated in an attempt to get my satisfied CCJ set aside.
I am self representing at this hearing and I never been to a court before, I must say I am very nervous to say the least.

The hearing is not about the debt dispute, it is about clearing the black mark off my record with my case being that the claimant (previous employer) used incorrect address details resulting in me not been aware of any money owed whilst it escalated to county court. I only discovered the judgement when I used a credit checker service 5 months after judgement date.
I paid and satified the judgement promtly after my discovery.
I have evidence to prove I notified the claimant of my correct address details consistant of an email thread to two of my line managers at the time.

My question is what am letting myself in for at this hearing?

Should I seek legal advice before attending or is this clear cut enough for me to proceed as I am.


Regards

Jamie

[pt2537]

Jamie,

It seems to me that you are saying you were not served with the Claim form. If the Claimant served the Claim on an address which it knew was wrong then the Court has to set the Judgment aside under CPR rule 13.2 as it is a mandatory condition.

Southampton isnt a bad court, its my local court and i do believe there are some good judges there, however being a litigant in person can be tricky, as you will need to provide evidence the claimant used the wrong address and that it knew this was the case

[8yf13L0]

Thank you for the reply.

All I have is the moving home notification email thread quoting...
"As of wednesday 26th march, my address has moved to as down below.
Please advise if any other parties within the company need to be informed.
(Address details here)
Regards. Jamie B."

I also got a P60 after this date with wrong address on.
And two seperate employee letters, one dated in May and one in June - same thing.
I queried this with my line managers at the time and was assured that all critical systems had my new details.
When I left the company (whilst on sick and for health reasons), my notice email had my correct address at the top - I have copy if this also.

I do not have any evidence of claimants acknowledgement at the time ufortunatley. only verbally with my line managers at the depot I worked from. And that given the nature of my role at the time I used a tracked company van that monitored my locations and was issued jobs based on route maps to and from my home address. So they had to know my correct address.

Based on what you now know, what is my realistic likely outcome of my case?

Do not worry if it is bleak I just need to know what to prepare for.

Many thanks

Jamie

[pt2537]

Thank you for the reply.

All I have is the moving home notification email thread quoting...
"As of wednesday 26th march, my address has moved to as down below.
Please advise if any other parties within the company need to be informed.
(Address details here)
Regards. Jamie B."

I also got a P60 after this date with wrong address on.
And two seperate employee letters, one dated in May and one in June - same thing.
I queried this with my line managers at the time and was assured that all critical systems had my new details.
When I left the company (whilst on sick and for health reasons), my notice email had my correct address at the top - I have copy if this also.

I do not have any evidence of claimants acknowledgement at the time ufortunatley. only verbally with my line managers at the depot I worked from. And that given the nature of my role at the time I used a tracked company van that monitored my locations and was issued jobs based on route maps to and from my home address. So they had to know my correct address.

Based on what you now know, what is my realistic likely outcome of my case?

Do not worry if it is bleak I just need to know what to prepare for.

Many thanks

Jamie

As long as you can show that the Claimant served proceedings on the wrong address the CCJ may be set aside, although i also think you need to consider whether you would actually have a Defence to the Claim if you were successful in setting Judgment

Its worth having an argument up your sleeve on that point in case the Judge asks

[8yf13L0]

Thank you.

Once I realised I had a CCJ I just followed the process to settle the debt as quick as possible - as I did not want it to escalate to any higher court. The amount was £424 of overpayment of salary of I which I did not contest.

With my latest proceedings all I hope to achieve now is fixing my credit file and nothing more.

This is holding me back from first time buying a property with my wife and child.

Would the claiment be likely to bother sending a legal representative to this hearing, as their debt is settled?

And if they did send someone, and my case is unsuccessfull, will I be liable for the cost of their time attending?

Regards

Jamie

[pt2537]

Thank you.

Once I realised I had a CCJ I just followed the process to settle the debt as quick as possible - as I did not want it to escalate to any higher court. The amount was £424 of overpayment of salary of I which I did not contest.

With my latest proceedings all I hope to achieve now is fixing my credit file and nothing more.

This is holding me back from first time buying a property with my wife and child.

Would the claiment be likely to bother sending a legal representative to this hearing, as their debt is settled?

And if they did send someone, and my case is unsuccessfull, will I be liable for the cost of their time attending?

Regards

Jamie

very difficult to advise, although there is case law that says the Court can set aside judgment if the debtor would have paid, had they known about the proceedings. So you may be able to get home.

As far as sending a lawyer, yes they may, especially if they are concerned about being hit for legal costs. If they were to win, then in theory you could be ordered to pay their costs.

As i say its difficult to advise on here without having all of the details about the case

[GM1880]

although there is case law that says the Court can set aside judgment if the debtor would have paid, had they known about the proceedings. So you may be able to get home.

I’d be intrigued to hear more about this if you have a moment. I’m due in court in the next month to set aside a default judgement on the basis that the claimant bought a debt from the original creditor, who had my new address at the point of assignment (I can readily prove this), but sent the court papers to an old address. This is the basis for the set aside. I don’t dispute the debt and paid it of in full as soon as I knew about it’s existence, but accept a default, but feel the CCJ would have been avoidable if the papers were correctly served.

However some suggest simply this isn’t enough and i’d need a defence to the original claim too.

[8yf13L0]

I will update on here how I got on.

[pt2537]

I’d be intrigued to hear more about this if you have a moment. I’m due in court in the next month to set aside a default judgement on the basis that the claimant bought a debt from the original creditor, who had my new address at the point of assignment (I can readily prove this), but sent the court papers to an old address. This is the basis for the set aside. I don’t dispute the debt and paid it of in full as soon as I knew about it’s existence, but accept a default, but feel the CCJ would have been avoidable if the papers were correctly served.

However some suggest simply this isn’t enough and i’d need a defence to the original claim too.

Hi there

Having a defence is a good idea, but not mandatory if you fall within CPR rule 13.2. This rule is the rule which states the Court MUST as opposed to MAY set aside Default judgment if it was entered in circumstances where the Claimant was not entitled to enter it under rule 12.

The point being, if the Claim hasnt been served on you then the time for filing the acknowledgment of service hasnt begun to run, so therefore cannot have expired.

here at the two rules, 13.2 is clearly more straight forward than 13.3 which would require a defence

DEFAULT JUDGMENT

Contents of this Part

Scope of this Part	Rule 13.1
Cases where the court must set aside judgment entered under Part 12	Rule 13.2
Cases where the court may set aside or vary judgment entered under Part 12	Rule 13.3
Application to set aside or vary judgment –procedure	Rule 13.4
Omitted	Rule 13.5
Abandoned claim restored where default judgment set aside	Rule 13.6

Scope of this Part

13.1 The rules in this Part set out the procedure for setting aside or varying judgment entered under Part 12 (default judgment).

(CCR Order 22 r.10 sets out the procedure for varying the rate at which a judgment debt must be paid)

Back to top Cases where the court must set aside judgment entered under Part 12

13.2 The court must set aside^(GL) a judgment entered under Part 12 if judgment was wrongly entered because–

(a) in the case of a judgment in default of an acknowledgment of service, any of the conditions in rule 12.3(1) and 12.3(3) was not satisfied;

(b) in the case of a judgment in default of a defence, any of the conditions in rule 12.3(2) and 12.3(3) was not satisfied; or

(c) the whole of the claim was satisfied before judgment was entered.

Back to top Cases where the court may set aside or vary judgment entered under Part 12

13.3

(1) In any other case, the court may set aside^(GL) or vary a judgment entered under Part 12 if –

(a) the defendant has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim; or

(b) it appears to the court that there is some other good reason why –

(i) the judgment should be set aside or varied; or

(ii) the defendant should be allowed to defend the claim.

(2) In considering whether to set aside^(GL) or vary a judgment entered under Part 12, the matters to which the court must have regard include whether the person seeking to set aside the judgment made an application to do so promptly.

(Rule 3.1(3) provides that the court may attach conditions when it makes an order)

(Article 19(4) of the Service Regulation (which has the same meaning as in rule 6.31(e)) applies to applications to appeal a judgment in default when the time limit for appealing has expired.)

[8yf13L0]

I am trying to break down the legal terminology, It appears I could get the CCJ set aside based on the terms specifically in CPR 13.2 (a) in the case of a judgment in default of an acknowledgment of service, any of the conditions in rule 12.3(1) and 12.3(3) was not satisfied;

Is this correct?

Thanks

Jamir

[Diana M]

Once I realised I had a CCJ I just followed the process to settle the debt as quick as possible - as I did not want it to escalate to any higher court. The amount was £424 of overpayment of salary . . .


Would the claiment be likely to bother sending a legal representative to this hearing, as their debt is settled?

And if they did send someone, and my case is unsuccessfull, will I be liable for the cost of their time attending?

Have you asked the Claimant if they would consent to your set aside application without the need for a Hearing?

Di

[8yf13L0]

Hi, this did not cross my mind to be honest, besides the company is a large company with their own legal department based in W1C.
I am guessing they will refuse to admit they got the details wrong that put me in this mess in the first place.

The hearing is tomorrow morning and I will just try my best and see what happens.

Incase I am expected to digress on the subject, what section of CPR 13.2 does my case fall in to in arguement to get my ccj set aside?? - I am struggling to make out the legal jargon.

regards

jamie

[8yf13L0]

Well just come out of the court hearing, the judge has thankfully ruled in my favor to get it set aside. But only by judge's discression and not the case on it's own.
Please read on...

To start with, the claimant was a no show but according to the judge the claimant did send a letter to the court on 21st of february and was meant to be cc'd to me via the post, but I never recieved anything, I told him of this when asked if I recieved it.

The point stated in their letter and also what the judge wanted take in to account in his decision was the fact that there was 2.5 year time gap between me satisfying the CCJ and then applying to get it set aside. The judge pointed out that this would fall in to CPR 13.3, and such a request would not be successfull in principle.

I was transparent in my reply in saying that when I satified the CCJ in November 2015, I left things as they where intentionally as I forecast no major changes in my life so a poor credit file I felt would not affect me majorly for the next 6 years it would theoretically stay on my record for.
But now only more recently it has become more of a unessesary incoveniance financially and is holding me up from first time buying the property I live in with my wife and one child as well as a few other things such as changing contract phones, debt consolidation etc.

The Judge seemed understanding of my situation and obviously lead to a decision in my favour of which I thanked him.

Thank you all for your support on this.

Sincerely

Jamie

[GM1880]

Ah, great news, you must be so relieved. I got news yesterday that mine’s been set aside without a hearing even and it’s not really sunk in yet.