Acknowledge of Service without a Particulars of Claim - CCMCC

[Ssssssssss]

Here you go....

21. Paragraph 23 is neither admitted nor denied, but the Defendant/Part 20 Claimant oppose such an order as follow:
a. The Claimant/Part 20 Defendant has not applied in their application dated 02/092019 for any interim order in part 3.
b. The Claimant/Part 20 Defendant consequently has supplied the attached order they actually seek.
c. The Defendant/Part 20 Claimant respectfully requests that the Claimant/Part 20 Defendants request for an interim order be refused and should he wish to pursue such an order he make the appropriate application with fee.
d. The expert has already been paid and completed the inspection, the report being stopped at this stage seems in the opinion of the Defendant/Part 20 Claimant counterproductive to expeditious justice.
e. This whole application appears to the Defendant/Part 20 Claimants attempt at preventing the expert report as he suspects the outcome will not be favourable to him.

And reword 22

The Defendant/Part 20 Claimant has instructed the expert to continue to produce their report to the deadline as ordered by the court on XX/XX/2019 and only to cease should the court so order.


We can't ask for an interim order after asking for them to be told to make a proper application.

Thanks so much Jaguarsuk - I'll make these amendments today.

I originally wrote to the expert the following (should i still go back to them again ? They haven't replied but i have given them a deadline to let us know by :-

Thank you for attending our property last Thursday and also the time you have already expended on this matter.
We write in response to your email of 10^thSeptember. We inform you that we have no prior knowledge of the information in the letter sent to you and copied to us on the 10^thSeptember by xx Solicitors.
We would advise that the only court direction and order that is active and in place is the one giving the deadline of 18^thSeptember for the filing of a report. No further court orders/directions exist and none have been issued by the court.
Due to that deadline and court order, and payment already having been made to you, we would ask that work on the report continue in order to meet that deadline until such time as the court itself informs otherwise.
If you believe the deadline won’t be met then let us and the court know by Friday or Monday as this will give us time to review the situation.

[jaguarsuk]

Also in 20 c make the following point d

The Defendant/Part 20 Claimant finds it troubling that the Claimant/Part 20 Defendant has written to the expert witness to instruct them to cease work on their report in without the court making a further order. It appears to me that they or their counsel believe they supersede the court and can vary it’s orders at their whim. Enclosed and marked X is communication that the expert will not start their report until this application is resolved and why?

Lets drop them in the shit with the judge

[jaguarsuk]

What you have instructed the expert is fine.

[jaguarsuk]

21 e should be Claimant/Part 20 Defendant

[Ssssssssss]

21 e should be Claimant/Part 20 Defendant

OK great - I will make those updates. It's likely to take me over the weekend.

I was thinking to add also something about the following ? :-

1. They are accusing us of not meeting the order regarding our schedule but 7 days after they sent us their schedule, they sent us a letter saying they had added photos to their schedule and sent them to the court. They can hardly complain at us when we haven't updated our schedule at all

2. That they are expecting one sided disclosure of information while having refused (before the court case got that far) to give us any of the receipts and other information we have asked for. Disclosure should be mutual, not one sided so that one side holds all the cards.

3. We didn't bring litigation as like you said, we are not litigious. We had already contacted an ADR scheme ( the furniture ombudsman) when out of the blue we received the claim form from the other side. (who hadn't responded to our request to use an ADR scheme and didn't write a letter before action - I do note though that this might give them a chance to doctor some more documents as they already lied to the judge to say they hadn't stopped talking to us)

4. I could write that they also refused an extension to the deadline for the expert forcing us to write to the court instead ? ( i think you might have said this already too )

5. sent instructions to the expert without copying us in and took 15 days and 3 requests for them to send their letter of instruction which had amendments to all the agreed sections and they did not account for/specify which other documents had been sent.

[jaguarsuk]

1, 4 and 5 yes where appropriate.

I’d refrain from adding 2 & 3 of honest.

[Ssssssssss]

1, 4 and 5 yes where appropriate.

I’d refrain from adding 2 & 3 of honest.

ok great. I am nearly there but just had a couple of quick questions.

So the defendants are my parents and i've just been pretty much doing everything for them as they are elderly and wouldn't know what to do. Should i write this all in my name ? "I" being me, their daughter. Do we all three need to sign it or should that be me or them ? Bear in mind it will be me speaking in the hearing.

Secondly, in terms of the case, something has been troubling me for ages so i wrote to the court to ask definitely what track we were on a while back ( we had small claims directions and the court seems to be treating it as small claims but we never had a final notice of allocation.). They wrote back the following:-

"please note the matter has provisionally been allocated to the Small Claims Track, however, when everything has been filed as ordered on 12th june (prelim hearing), the file will be referred to a judge again and the judge should finally decide the track. Your letter has been placed on file so the judge can see our preference for the matter to be a small claims track case"

To me, this should mean that we are on small claims track until the court decides otherwise but does this actually mean that and if so does it mean that the rules that are applied to small claim are being applied to our case at the moment e.g. when a CPR is not applicable for small claims etc ? Given the other side are going to try and claim their legal costs...

[jaguarsuk]

ok great. I am nearly there but just had a couple of quick questions.

So the defendants are my parents and i've just been pretty much doing everything for them as they are elderly and wouldn't know what to do. Should i write this all in my name ? "I" being me, their daughter. Do we all three need to sign it or should that be me or them ? Bear in mind it will be me speaking in the hearing.

Secondly, in terms of the case, something has been troubling me for ages so i wrote to the court to ask definitely what track we were on a while back ( we had small claims directions and the court seems to be treating it as small claims but we never had a final notice of allocation.). They wrote back the following:-

"please note the matter has provisionally been allocated to the Small Claims Track, however, when everything has been filed as ordered on 12th june (prelim hearing), the file will be referred to a judge again and the judge should finally decide the track. Your letter has been placed on file so the judge can see our preference for the matter to be a small claims track case"

To me, this should mean that we are on small claims track until the court decides otherwise but does this actually mean that and if so does it mean that the rules that are applied to small claim are being applied to our case at the moment e.g. when a CPR is not applicable for small claims etc ? Given the other side are going to try and claim their legal costs...

No it'll be we and just they will sign it as they are the defendants.

Yes it is in the small claim track and only if the court decides to change the track will it change, the other side can't claim their costs if their strike out is successful only court fees and witness expenses (max £100) for the application (total of £355 if they're lucky).

I'd be surprised if this came out of the small claims track.

[Ssssssssss]

No it'll be we and just they will sign it as they are the defendants.

Yes it is in the small claim track and only if the court decides to change the track will it change, the other side can't claim their costs if their strike out is successful only court fees and witness expenses (max £100) for the application (total of £355 if they're lucky).

I'd be surprised if this came out of the small claims track.

OK great. Thanks again for helping me so much with this. I wouldn't have known where to start.

So i've taken all the text you created and updates and put it in the attached document. I've had to update a few things based on the comments below as some things happened differently to how the other side were making out in the preliminary hearing. I've tried to explain myself below but would you be able to take a look and advise ? I can then put the exhibits in and i presume i would send it to the court and the other side ?

1. The case is about defective workmanship but also about goods not being as described and other contractual issues.
2. I've updated the numbering to that our number matches theirs - this is purely because it will stop me getting confused in the hearing itself. No other reason really.
3. I'm really concerned that if we mention part 31 requests, the other side will fabricate one up. (This has been their mentality to date). Should i instead of itemising about part 31 requests, instead maybe challenge them in the hearing to produce their numerous requests given they haven't put any into their exhibits ? OR should i leave the part 31 stuff in ? I honestly wouldn't put it past the builder to knock up a document though in preparation once he knows about these types of requests.
4. the stuff that happened in the hearing is different to how they say it happened. I've tried to explain and updated accordingly but it may be too verbose?
5. Is paragraph 21 way too long and verbose too ? Should i just summarise all of that instead of putting in the exact detail ?

Also worth noting that the expert has ignored us regarding carrying on with work it would seem as we told him to tell us by today if the deadline would be met and he hasn't responded at all

Thanks in advance for everything - I really don't know how to repay you.

[Ssssssssss]

OK great. Thanks again for helping me so much with this. I wouldn't have known where to start.

So i've taken all the text you created and updates and put it in the attached document. I've had to update a few things based on the comments below as some things happened differently to how the other side were making out in the preliminary hearing. I've tried to explain myself below but would you be able to take a look and advise ? I can then put the exhibits in and i presume i would send it to the court and the other side ?
.....u.

Also, is it worth me throwing in that they haven't submitted a contract with their claim so why should the court throw their claim out ?!! I'm guessing its probably not worth it ?

[jaguarsuk]

OK great. Thanks again for helping me so much with this. I wouldn't have known where to start.

So i've taken all the text you created and updates and put it in the attached document. I've had to update a few things based on the comments below as some things happened differently to how the other side were making out in the preliminary hearing. I've tried to explain myself below but would you be able to take a look and advise ? I can then put the exhibits in and i presume i would send it to the court and the other side ?

1. The case is about defective workmanship but also about goods not being as described and other contractual issues.
2. I've updated the numbering to that our number matches theirs - this is purely because it will stop me getting confused in the hearing itself. No other reason really.
3. I'm really concerned that if we mention part 31 requests, the other side will fabricate one up. (This has been their mentality to date). Should i instead of itemising about part 31 requests, instead maybe challenge them in the hearing to produce their numerous requests given they haven't put any into their exhibits ? OR should i leave the part 31 stuff in ? I honestly wouldn't put it past the builder to knock up a document though in preparation once he knows about these types of requests.
4. the stuff that happened in the hearing is different to how they say it happened. I've tried to explain and updated accordingly but it may be too verbose?
5. Is paragraph 21 way too long and verbose too ? Should i just summarise all of that instead of putting in the exact detail ?

Also worth noting that the expert has ignored us regarding carrying on with work it would seem as we told him to tell us by today if the deadline would be met and he hasn't responded at all

Thanks in advance for everything - I really don't know how to repay you.

I won't get chance to read this before leaving the office, so will try to look tomorrow.

Regards the expert, I would email them giving them 24 hours to respond and remind them that it is they, not the Claimant/Part 20 Defendant or you who will be in contempt of court should they miss the deadline, so if it is going to be missed they'd be well advised to let you know. In the absence of an order of the court their obligation is determined by the last order given by the court.

[Ssssssssss]

Also, is it worth me throwing in that they haven't submitted a contract with their claim so why should the court throw their claim out ?!! I'm guessing its probably not worth it ?

Eek k-i've left the judges name in by mistake. I'll zap that out and re-submit once you have read it if you want ?

[jaguarsuk]

Eek k-i've left the judges name in by mistake. I'll zap that out and re-submit once you have read it if you want ?

Can replace it now.

[Ssssssssss]

I won't get chance to read this before leaving the office, so will try to look tomorrow.

Regards the expert, I would email them giving them 24 hours to respond and remind them that it is they, not the Claimant/Part 20 Defendant or you who will be in contempt of court should they miss the deadline, so if it is going to be missed they'd be well advised to let you know. In the absence of an order of the court their obligation is determined by the last order given by the court.

OK -The document is all updated in the post above and thanks again in advance.

Thanks for your help and have a great evening.

[jaguarsuk]

21 c Defendant/Part 20 Claimants (you)

Other than that it all looks fine to me.