County Court claim struck out but claimant trying again

[BurnCK]

Hi,

I had a county court claim issued against me last year, chose to defend it and attended small claims court on Feb 14th. The judge dismissed the claim but now I have had a letter from the original claimant asking me for payment or they will issue a claim against me. Can they do this?

[BurnCK]

Can anyone advise please?

[Amethyst]

Do you have your original judgment order? Simply need to respond to the 'claimant' reminding them that the cause of action has already been litigated on and their case dismissed. I suspect it's just a case of them not having updated their records, so either send a copy of the judgment or just tell them the case number. If you are confident that it is the same debt then you could just give them a call ( if it's a sensible DCA like Cabot or Lowell that's the claimant, if it's Asset / TM again, stick to writing )

[BurnCK]

Hi yes I have a copy of the original judgement.
It is TM Legal who I'm having to deal with. I already spoke to them on the phone, but only because they rang me chasing payment. I informed them I'd already been to court and had their claim dismissed but the woman kept saying that because it hadn't been heard before a judge (basically they submitted no evidence and didn't turn up to the hearing) then they could submit it again. I personally think they're just trying it on as it was heard before a judge because I was sat in front of him in court....

I think she was basically saying that because they didn't turn up and present their case that allows them to submit a claim again. I begged to differ....

[Amethyst]

You're right, they're wrong. I'd put it in writing so you have it on record that they are fully aware their claim was dismissed. All they could do would be apply to set aside the judgment or appeal the ruling. A new claim would need permission. If they did issue a new claim you could have it struck out.

Are they still contacting you now ?

[BurnCK]

The last (and only) time I spoke to them the conversation ended with the woman asking if I wanted to set up a payment plan....this despite me telling them it had already been to court. I told her I'd just defend it again and to only correspond with me further in writing. I haven't spoken to them since, although they did try calling me again. I ignored it.

[Amethyst]

Ok - see if they write to you - if they do you can write back with the dismissal info.

[BurnCK]

Didn't hear anything back from the jokers at TM Legal but now I, 10 months later, have received an email from them again asking for payment. I'm pretty sure nothing will happen as they didn't pursue after I spoke to them last April.

Am I right in presuming that they are well outside their window of appeal for the original dismissal? The original County Court hearing was in Feb 2019.

[R0b]

You might want to consider writing to them saying that you view their demands for payment as harassment. Repeat what you've previously said in that the matter was litigated in February 2019 and the claim was dismissed. (Presumably) they failed to make any appeal against the dismissal and so they are way out of time for that and on that basis the judgment in February was a final determination on the matter and you consider it now closed.

You could also go in hard and say that you now require a response from them giving assurances that the matter will be closed on their end but if you don't hear back, you will make a formal complaint to the SRA for breach of the firm's SRA Standards and Regulations.