Court claim started prematurely

[Nokkerboff]

Hi,

I wonder if you could help?

In May 2019 our pet dog broke his leg and was operated on by some specialist vets in Manchester. We thought we were insured but the insurers didn’t pay out.

The vets subsequently instructed solicitors to pursue the debt (£5,900) with solicitors costs added. I wrote to them explaining we could only pay x amount per month. They would not accept this (although we paid it monthly anyway).

In March 2021 they offered to us to pay 50% of the balance in full and final settlement. We were not in a position to do this at the time so offered them £1000 which they rejected.

We then received no correspondence for a month. I contacted them to see what was going on and they had issued court proceedings without warning to the amount of £7200. They said we had been issued with a 14 day notice of intention to start legal proceedings but in no uncertain terms did we ever receive that letter

I have since been back to them and offered to pay their proposal of 50% of the balance which they have now refused.

I have filed an acknowledgement of service. Should I just accept the claim or should I defend on the basis that a. They are being unreasonable as they were willing to accept 50% of the balance until recently and b. that I did not receive a 14 day Letter Before Action

Thanks in advance

[ostell]

They are supposed to give a 30 day letter before claim ut failure will not help you.

what did there offer letter say?

[Nokkerboff]

4th March:






Thank you for your email.

The balance on file is £5,850.96. As such, I do not believe our client will find this acceptable as settlement. This is because our Clients position was that you either make payments of at least £100.00 per month to clear the balance or pay 50% of the balance in full and final settlement.

Kind Regards

[Nokkerboff]

The solicitors are DWF

[Nokkerboff]

Hi could anyone help with this?

many thanks

[des8]

With so many posts about this matter .....

If the original offer of 50% was not withdrawn in writing, or was not automatically withdrawn on your counter offer or it did not have a time limit which had expired you were still free to accept it (Gibbon v Manchester City Council [2010] EWCA Civ 726)

[Nokkerboff]

Ah. I went back to them and offered what I could afford at the time which was around 20% of the balance. Does this then automatically withdraw their offer?

Am I right in thinking that there is no point defending the claim then? As I don’t want to risk acquiring extra costs

thanks

[Nokkerboff]

For clarity. The offer that I refer to was pre-action. I believe the case you refer to relates to part 36 offers I.e. after proceedings have commenced

[Celestine]

I don't think the status of previous offers is going to assist you much here. Need to keep focused on the impact because you have a few choices how to deal.
Unlikely to be able to defend the claim seriously as the vets have done nothing wrong in terms of treatment, billing and so on.
How important is your credit rating? Do you need to get finance for car, house etc?
If you don't defend the claim, they'll get judgment in default but you can apply to the court for a means assessment to pay off the debt based on what you can actually afford monthly. But you will have a CCJ for six years.
Or you settle the case in full now, ring them up and make an offer to withdraw the claim via a consent order, that way you'll avoid the CCJ.
Incidentally - why didnt the insurer pay up?

[Nokkerboff]

The operation they performed didn’t really work as we had to get the leg amputated a year later. I tried to take him back to the specialist vets but they wouldn’t see him until the balance was cleared (I wasn’t in a position to do that then) I have lots of debt (which is why I was trying to pay it down in a payment plan) but my credit rating has been repaired now (999 rated) as the defaults have dropped off after 6 years. Should I just pay the claim with a 0% credit card then?

[Celestine]

The operation they performed didn’t really work as we had to get the leg amputated a year later. I tried to take him back to the specialist vets but they wouldn’t see him until the balance was cleared (I wasn’t in a position to do that then) I have lots of debt (which is why I was trying to pay it down in a payment plan) but my credit rating has been repaired now (999 rated) as the defaults have dropped off after 6 years. Should I just pay the claim with a 0% credit card then?

I'm really sorry to hear that, I hope your pup is adapting ok. Personally, I would probably pay it because proving negligence could be very hard indeed and would require expert opinion and would be hard to assess probability of success. Sometimes vets perform operations in the hope of success but then it doesnt work and more significant surgery is later needed, not a battle I'd want to take on I must admit. x

[Nokkerboff]

Yes you’re right this has been preying on our minds for over 2 years and we want to draw a line under it. Hopefully I can keep up the minimum repayment on the credit card (which would be around £170 per month otherwise I’ll have to do the whole writing to creditors to agree to payment plans. I seem to be in a vicious circle of debt..... just as credit rating has been repaired it’s going to be bad again for another 6 years

thanks for your help.....

[Nokkerboff]

Just out of interest. What would have the greatest negative effect on my credit rating:

1. Accepting CCJ and paying back what I could afford

or

2. paying the claim on a credit card, defaulting and going on a payment plan with cc company?

[Celestine]

Strangely, a CCJ and a default have fairly similar impact on credit files. A CCJ is worse overall I guess because it carries the risk of enforcement whereas a default would not.

[Nokkerboff]

Does it make any difference that I didn’t sign the papers for the original contract for the operation? I.e. they have served the wrong person?