No response from Claimant

[peterpiper]

On behalf of a colleague. She filed a defence against claimant (£200.00) middle of February to which there was no reply.
The court had stayed the claim after 30 days. Phoned the court today who said if I want the case struck off I need to send an
application to do so at a cost of £106.00. Is this really the only way around this ? Otherwise this claim will be forever be out there
hanging in the balance.

Please advise on her next move
Thank you

[Pezza54]

Please read hallellis.co.uk/strike-out-applications/

The claimant could apply to have the strike out removed and if he or she has good reasons for not returning form N180, could be successful.

Your colleague could have spent £106 to no avail.

My advice would be to let sleeping dogs lie. There must be a time limit (possibly 6 months?) when the claimant would have to file the claim and pay the court fee again.

Others on the forum might provide different advice.

[jaguarsuk]

If the claim is stayed it will remain stayed in perpetuity.

Now it is stayed if the claimant wishes to proceed they must make an application to the court, serve that application on your colleague and pay the fee of £275. That said there is always an exception, if they can prove they sent the N180 Directions Questionnaire and the court has made a clerical error then a court officer may lift the stay of their own volition.

The court ought to know that the fee of £108 is an application by consent, in other words the claimant has agreed to the application and understands that if they lose it they may be liable for the cost of the application.

In a Strike Out application that would be madness, the claimant can issue a Notice of Discontinuance for free and end this if they wish.

If you wish to file an application to Strike Out then it will cost £275 (unless you do have consent), the application must be filed with the court and served on the claimant. If successful you can ask that the claimant becomes liable for the fee, but if not then it would have just been cheaper to settle for the £200 plus £35 court fees being claimed by the claimant.

'Letting sleeping dogs lay' is one route, however if the claimant does intend to pursue this, when they do not hear from the court after a certain period of time they will contact the court and things will go from there.

Ultimately it is your colleagues claim and they should conduct it how they feel best to defend in the way they see fit.

You haven't provided full details of what the claim is for and who is claiming (not names, but what relation that party is to the defendant), so it's difficult to theorise about why the claimant may not have sent the N180 back.