Acknowledge of Service without a Particulars of Claim - CCMCC

[Ssssssssss]

Personally, I would write to the otherside thanking them for the DQ and asking them if they intend to respond the counterclaim, point them to the relevant CPR and giving them 7 or 14 days to do so before you would request default judgment on the counterclaim. Then if you request default judgment and they subsequently argue the case, you can show you were reasonable and gave them every opportunity.

It really isn't clear, particularly for LIPs, how to deal with counterclaims, and the documents the court sends out don't exactly try to give any clues that you are meant to defend with the DQ.


" I am in receipt of your Directions Questionnaire however I note that you have failed to file or serve any reply to the Defence nor respond to the Counterclaim issued against you with either a proposal for payment nor a reason why you dispute the Counterclaim. If you do not respond to the Counterclaim within the next 7/14 days ( by 4pm on xxxx December 2018 ) I will ask the court to enter Judgment against you in default.

I draw your attention to the following Civil Procedure Rules and the accompanying Practice Directions - Part 15 - Defence and Reply and Part 20 - Counterclaims.

Nicey nice bit about mediation opportunities etc "

Thanks Amethyst, That sounds like a very sensible way forward. We still haven't received anything so I'm just drafting a letter up as outlined by you. Its so hard navigating the system when the other side don't seem to allow any rules :-(

[Amethyst]

Personally, I would write to the otherside thanking them for the DQ and asking them if they intend to respond the counterclaim, point them to the relevant CPR and giving them 7 or 14 days to do so before you would request default judgment on the counterclaim. Then if you request default judgment and they subsequently argue the case, you can show you were reasonable and gave them every opportunity.

It really isn't clear, particularly for LIPs, how to deal with counterclaims, and the documents the court sends out don't exactly try to give any clues that you are meant to defend with the DQ.


" I am in receipt of your Directions Questionnaire however I note that you have failed to file or serve any reply to the Defence nor respond to the Counterclaim issued against you with either a proposal for payment nor a reason why you dispute the Counterclaim. If you do not respond to the Counterclaim within the next 7/14 days ( by 4pm on xxxx December 2018 ) I will ask the court to enter Judgment against you in default.

I draw your attention to the following Civil Procedure Rules and the accompanying Practice Directions - Part 15 - Defence and Reply and Part 20 - Counterclaims.

Nicey nice bit about mediation opportunities etc "

[Ssssssssss]

I've also just been reading your notes on setting aside a ccj and it mentioned that if we brought a default judgement against the other side on a technicality, we might be sanctioned??? Is not providing a defence to counterclaim deemed a technicality?

[Ssssssssss]

When I say negative consequences in message above, I mean will the judge look badly on us in way?

Both they and us have said on directions questionnaire that we want to use small claims mediation for example. Will this therefore look bad on us if we apply for default judgement now?

[Ssssssssss]

So I've taken a look at form n225 but it seems to be geared towards claims not counterclaims. Is this the right form to use for a default judgement if the claimant hasn't replied to our counterclaim?

Should I tell the claimant I am filing this?

Are there any negative consequences of doing this at all?

[Ssssssssss]

They have 14 days from the date they have been served the defence and counterclaim (14 days from 2 days after the date MCOL says the DQ was sent to them) to reply to it.

They must file and serve it on all parties (you) as well as the court.

if they do not then you should seek summary judgement of the counterclaim.

Thanks, I'll get the form to do this and double check with the court if they received anything. Are there any negative consequences for us of applying for a default judgement ? I'm sure they will try and say it isn't valid.

[jaguarsuk]

They have 14 days from the date they have been served the defence and counterclaim (14 days from 2 days after the date MCOL says the DQ was sent to them) to reply to it.

They must file and serve it on all parties (you) as well as the court.

if they do not then you should seek summary judgement of the counterclaim.

[Ssssssssss]

Hello. We just received a copy of the allocation questionnaire that the claimant filed and it doesn't contain a defence to our counterclaim in it.

I've just noticed that when we received our own allocation questionnaires from the court it said on them "this is now a defended claim. The defendant has filed a defence a copy of which is enclosed". This order doesn't seem to mention our counterclaim. Is this something we should be worried about ?

I did phone the court who said it looked like the counterclaim had been registered ok in their systems so i'm not sure what has happened now. Shouldn't the allocation questionnaire have said "this is now a defended claim and counterclaim has been filed ??" Also our defence is one document and says "defence and counterclaim" on it so i'm not sure how they could make a mistake.

Also, should we do anything given we haven't received a copy of a defence to counterclaim with the allocation questionnaire the claimant sent us? Obviously the court won't process anything sent to them for another few days as they have their 4 day backlog.

[Ssssssssss]

For completion of the N180 please see the link in my signature below, it may be helpful.

in answer to your specific questions:

1. Personally I would add his communications into your witness statement as a way of entering his thoughts into evidence. Don’t worry about whether they request an expert, small claims track is on the balance of probabilities (what’s most likely to have happened) and so you don’t need his evidence to be in the form of an expert necessarily.

2. For the purpose of the form only those going to court are witnesses. The others you mention, don’t get them to submit a witness statement and instead ask them to write a letter to you detailing their involvement. You can then introduce these in your witness statement, so their points are made and they are not obliged to attend.

Thank you jaguarsuk (once again). We are just about to send our forms off tomorrow and have used your instructions so thank you hugely for that and your views on witnesses and experts. It completely makes sense to do it as you've described.

[jaguarsuk]

For completion of the N180 please see the link in my signature below, it may be helpful.

in answer to your specific questions:

1. Personally I would add his communications into your witness statement as a way of entering his thoughts into evidence. Don’t worry about whether they request an expert, small claims track is on the balance of probabilities (what’s most likely to have happened) and so you don’t need his evidence to be in the form of an expert necessarily.

2. For the purpose of the form only those going to court are witnesses. The others you mention, don’t get them to submit a witness statement and instead ask them to write a letter to you detailing their involvement. You can then introduce these in your witness statement, so their points are made and they are not obliged to attend.

[Ssssssssss]

Hello, Thanks so far for all the help you have given. I wouldn't have managed without it.

We have finally received our directions questionnaire which thankfully is for the small claims track at this stage.

It seems fairly straightforward to fill out but i just had a couple of questions in regards to expert evidence, witnesses and me.

1. Expert Evidence. We have a basic report from someone however it is not complete and we are having trouble getting him to write down his qualifications. We didn't pay for it as he said that once we engage him for the building work, he will add a small amount to that bill if necessary. Given this might well be struck out as expert evidence for the reasons above, should we use it just as a disclosure of correspondence from a builder and then instead state another name and request for an expert report in the questionnaire e.g. an official section 35 report to be made by the tile association for example? Not sure how to treat what we already have versus what the court might require. We aren't even sure that an expert is really required but are worried that the other side would request one so we should too ?

2. In terms of witnesses,

2a) can i assume my mum, my dad (they are both the defendants), me are definitely witnesses ?

2b) We have someone who was in the house when the claimant came to do their own inspection and his statement would only state that he was there and it lasted 20 minutes - I doubt he would come to court but is he then classed as a witness ??

2c) We have an old client of the claimant who has forwarded me letters of the poor work the claimant did for her. I also have my correspondence with her too. Does she count as a witness ? She again would not be willing to come to court but she did say she would be willing to write a statement of some kind.

Any help greatly received. Not sure who else we should class as witnesses ? The builders who gave us quotes are unlikely to want to attend court or be witnesses but we have their quotes. We also have evidence via email from Wickes and a manufacturer....should they be classed as witnesses too or should i just refer to their correspondence ?

[jaguarsuk]

Ok we will file AOS. Hopefully letter from the court arrives tomorrow to confirm new dates in writing.

if I do a cpr 31.14 request, I saw that I can only ask for documents he has mentioned in his statement of case. We have copies of these anyway but is it worth making a request anyway just in case he tries to add anything to them without our knowledge ? Or am I worrying too much about it?

The documents I don't have copy of eg receipts etc, I guess I can't ask for them as he hasn't mentioned them.

I wasn't aware you already had copies, if that's the case you don't need to bother and may as well file.

[Ssssssssss]

New deadline is 4pm 8th November 2018 with AOS or 25th October 2018 without it.

The claimant has 7 days to respond to the 31.14, so if he's not replied after 10 you could include that in the defence and file without further Acknowledging Service, but I would still file one ASAP to protect your position.

If he doesn't respond it doesn't mean you still can't files after 10 or 15 days from now, but this just gives you a protected cushion.

Ok we will file AOS. Hopefully letter from the court arrives tomorrow to confirm new dates in writing.

if I do a cpr 31.14 request, I saw that I can only ask for documents he has mentioned in his statement of case. We have copies of these anyway but is it worth making a request anyway just in case he tries to add anything to them without our knowledge ? Or am I worrying too much about it?

The documents I don't have copy of eg receipts etc, I guess I can't ask for them as he hasn't mentioned them.

[jaguarsuk]

OK - so i've just managed to get this sorted over the phone and to anyone reading this and having to deal with CCMCC, if you have urgent issues i would phone and when you get nowhere with the call centre people, just insist on getting a call back from the court team. You will have to push heavily and tell them that the court needs to decide ( if that is indeed what needs to happen ). It seems to be the only way to get something sorted out quickly. Email takes 5 days and so cant be relied upon if things are urgent for you.

Jaguarsuk, i have managed to get the court to come back and they have said because the claimant didnt inform them whether he had filed the POC or not, they can only go by the date they sent it to me so they have effectively given us 14 days from 11th October to file another AOS (to get a further 28 days) or the defence.

New deadline is 4pm 8th November 2018 with AOS or 25th October 2018 without it.

The claimant has 7 days to respond to the 31.14, so if he's not replied after 10 you could include that in the defence and file without further Acknowledging Service, but I would still file one ASAP to protect your position.

If he doesn't respond it doesn't mean you still can't files after 10 or 15 days from now, but this just gives you a protected cushion.

[Ssssssssss]

The claimant himself should have served you with them, so I think you should contact them to request how you get an extension or else you will have to file the defence by the date the court directs. Ask them what they are setting as you deadline and to confirm that via email.

OK - so i've just managed to get this sorted over the phone and to anyone reading this and having to deal with CCMCC, if you have urgent issues i would phone and when you get nowhere with the call centre people, just insist on getting a call back from the court team. You will have to push heavily and tell them that the court needs to decide ( if that is indeed what needs to happen ). It seems to be the only way to get something sorted out quickly. Email takes 5 days and so cant be relied upon if things are urgent for you.

Jaguarsuk, i have managed to get the court to come back and they have said because the claimant didnt inform them whether he had filed the POC or not, they can only go by the date they sent it to me so they have effectively given us 14 days from 11th October to file another AOS (to get a further 28 days) or the defence.