General Form of Judgement or Order

[Sarah1988]

Hi everyone, I received a General Form of Judgement or Order and i'I little bit confused over what has been ordered.

I am the claimant.

1. Unless by X time on X date the claimant provides to the court with a copy to the defendant her grounds for saying the court should not make the order indicated, judgement shall be made in the claimant'' favour in the sum of £X with costs therafther be determined by the court.

2. This order, in part or in whole, has been made on the application of one party without notice to another. Any party affected by it may apply within 7 days of service of it upon him/her/it to have it set aside or varied.

Please can someone dumb this down a little bit for me?

Many thanks in advance

[R0b]

Looks like something is missing.

There is a reference to an order made by the Court, so that either suggests that there has been a previous hearing with a judgment, or the Court has made an order off its own back, or there is an order made in that Order but you've not listed it. Reading between the lines its suggesting that the court has found in favour of the defendant, for one reason or another.

The court appears to be suggesting you to make written submissions as to why it should not make an order for you to pay X costs to the defendant.

Are you able to upload a redacted version of that order?

[Sarah1988]

Well I did previously apply for a CCJ, but that was automatically set aside because the defendant had actually responded by asking for extra time, it just took the money claims people a while to process it.. but that's fine I've never argued that.

Mediation had failed because the defendant didn't respond in time, got referred to the court and ultimately received this letter yesterday.

But it states judgement will be made in the claimant's favour so how would the defendant win?

This is really confusing, it's not really clear what they're asking

[R0b]

In which case I would contact the court and ask them to urgently put it in front of a judge for clarification as the order itself is unclear and misleading.

You might want to follow that up by email too as a record of what you discussed over the phone. The issues you want the court to clarify are:

1. What order is the court referring to having been made (and why haven't you received a copy)?

2. If no order has been made, why is an order for judgment being made without a hearing? this is contrary to your right to a fair trial (assuming you have to provide grounds and not the defendant, in which case its not applicable).

3. Why does it say the Claimant has to provide grounds to the Defendant and then subsequently state that judgment will be made in favour of the Claimant?

When sending by email, you should set out in the subject line something like "Urgent response required by the Court: Claim No. XXXX (Claimant Name v Defendant Name)" otherwise it won't likely get looked at immediately. You should also provide a summary background as above and again ask the court to clarify urgently and if necessary put in front of a judge for further directions.

Ultimately, if the order is meant to be in favour of the defendant and it affects you, then you might have to submit an appeal but as it is a clear error from the court and their drafting, I would also make a formal complaint to the court manager and seek to recover any costs you might incur as a result.

[Sarah1988]

With your response in mind, and reading it again I now see you have made several valid points.

The first half of point 1 in my original post if I change Claimant to defendant in my head it reads perfectly

I am never one to jump ahead of the game, but the first line of the defendant's statement is literally "I owe this money" and I won't go into details but let's say he submitted an essay of harassment accusations as excuses for not paying which are soon to be dealt with separately by police.

I'm not sure if the order refers to my first attempt at applying for a CCJ when I originally began the claim, as he hadn't responded by the 14 day deadline, but then it was set aside because he had actually asked for a further 14 days it was because the money claims staff hadn't processed it in time although he submitted it in tine. But I accepted that as that wasn't his fault.

Thank you so much, it's helped me a lot

[Amethyst]

This order, in part or in whole, has been made on the application of one party without notice to another.

I think as well as asking court to correct the order you should request a copy of said application.


Is the Claimant a 'her' and the Defendant a 'he' ? ( as first line says 'her' )

but anything would be guessing really, so call the court in the morning.

[Sarah1988]

Yeah I am the claimant and I'm female, the defendant is a male.

But as Rob pointed out, why do I need to provide grounds for the court not to proceed with the order when it will be awarded in my favour anyway?

And I have no idea what order they're referring to

[Amethyst]

Ahhh, if harassment etc is involved it could be that the court want you to confirm you still want the judgment in your favour without a hearing - is the claim a fixed sum moneyclaim ?- have damages etc been mentioned in it ?

So the Court is going to award you the case, but if there are outstanding issues ( as well as costs) ( eg you want to reply to the defence - is there a counterclaim maybe ?) you can give reason to the court not to award the judgment until the case has been heard.

Oh that's no clearer than the order is it... ring court tomorrow.

[Sarah1988]

Well I will definitely want to be going ahead with the claim, the sole purpose of this whole process was to claim back monies owed.. nothing else. It's for a fixed sum.

He has claimed harassment to police because he paid for a mediator initially, and unfortunately I was unwilling to pay for mediation to discuss his personal problems as that is not the point of a money claim.

He also threatened me into mediation offered free by the court, which I agreed to in the end well ahead of the deadline but he left it to the last minute by which time the appointment had gone to someone else this this was refferred to the court.

Then all of a sudden the police are on the phone stating he has made harassment claims and I need to go in and chat to them.. which is fine but the timing is all very convenient.

I'm a public servant and if I don't stand up to him then I don't deserve to do the job that I do.

[Amethyst]

Hopefully then the court will be able to shed some light - it may need to be referred back to the Judge to clarify if it isn't just a typo, but I'd ask the court staff to send a copy of the application mentioned in the order in any event.

[Sarah1988]

I just had a weird thought.. would the order served to the defendant a CCJ order and only sent to the defendant?

And would I really be entitled to a copy of that order?

Although it would be nice to see what it says, am I really entitled to a copy of it? Just a thought that crossed my mind

[Amethyst]

Doesn't hurt to ask xx

[Sarah1988]

Called them up and got a call back.. basically it's an opportunity for me to contest the amount the judge has stated.. but regardless of the amount I am awarded I still win the case nonetheless

[Amethyst]

Excellent. From what you've said previously I assume you are just going to let the judge issue the Judgment as per your original judgment application.

[Sarah1988]

Well he has paid up to a point since the start of the claim and I have already emailed the court advising of this.

Which brings me to another query: if the defendant wished to challenge it, is an email acceptable? Or does he have to go through the formal route i.e formally apply and pay the fee to have the judgement varied/set aside