Service of Amended Particulars - England

[legalopera]

Hi All,

Hoping someone might be able to help. I’ve instructed solicitors to assist with my claim against a company. The defendant has agreed that they will accept service of all correspondence and court documentation by email moving forward and stipulated for the documents to be sent to two email addresses. I have a signed letter confirming this. The defendant also agreed that for me to serve amended Particulars of Claim by 4pm November 1st.

Unfortunately, due to budget limits I’ve had to cease the help of my solicitor and served the amended Particulars myself which was done at 3:40pm on Friday by email. I’ve also sent 3 copies to the court via email and tracked post and a hard copy to the defendant.

My solicitor never filed a Notice of Change in legal representation to the court or the defendant and I had to file it today once they informed me of it.

The defendant now states that I didn’t serve correctly as they didn’t agree to the service of documents via email with myself but my solicitors. Are they correct in saying this - isn’t this unfair since it’s the same claim and the solicitors were acting on my behalf? They quoted the case of Sir Robert McAlpine v Richardson Roofing Co Ltd and they are asking to withdraw my claim otherwise they will make an application to dispute jurisdiction. Clearly they received the amended Particulars so will a judge take pity? Any advice on how to respond to them would be great, thanks.

[Pezza54]

Hi
You should have used form N434 "Notice of change of legal representation" and selected box "A"
It should be filed with the court and served on the defendant's solicitors and your own solicitor

What amendments did you make to the Particulars of Claim? You need to apply to the court for permission to make changes to the poc

To carry on and represent yourself you are going to have to study court procedures, court rules (cpr) etc

[legalopera]

Hi Pezza54, I have filed the N434 form, albeit after serving the amended Particulars.

A consent order was filed with the court to permit the amended particulars of claim which was signed by both my solicitors and the defendant’s solicitors (the defendant is a law firm so their solicitors are in-house). The district judge approved and issued the consent order with no issue. There were significant amendments as the particulars weren’t detailed enough and my solicitors advised it’s best to seek consent to amend them.

They’ve been shady all throughout, not responded to any of our pre-action correspondence and once our solicitors got in touch to arrange the consent order, they’ve played dumb and said that they’ve never received our Letter before Action and Reply to Defence despite having emailed and posted both to them via tracked delivery.

My question is whether the service is satisfied or if what they are saying, that only solicitors had consent to serve them via email is correct. The case they quoted isn’t really relevant IMO.

If it goes to trial, we will engage solicitors again to represent us but for now we are trying to keep costs down.

[Pezza54]

When the defendant agreed that you should send amended poc, did they email you their acceptance?

The following is my opinion:
Practice Direction 6A 4.1 (1)
"the party who is to be served or the solicitor acting for that party must previously have indicated in writing to the party serving"

When the defendant's solicitor wrote to your solicitor agreeing to service by electronic means, I believe they gave permission for documents to be served by email from whoever represents the claimant ("to the party serving"). The defendant's solicitor should have qualified their agreement, restricting approval to solicitors only

You did not need to send your revised poc by post. It would have arrived after the deadline

[legalopera]

Pezza54 This is what my solicitors wrote to them via a signed doc:

"In terms of practicalities going forward, please confirm that you will accept service of all correspondence and court documentation by email going forwards. If you agree, we will reciprocate by accepting service of court documents by email from you going forwards provided that you (and any parties serving court documents) copy both Solicitor A and Solicitor B into any emails serving documents and additionally that:

1. in the event that an out of office response is received in respect of any such service and the out of office response indicates an alternative email address to be utilised, service must be effected on that email address also;
2. files served must be in a format that can be opened by this firm. We expect that documents for service will either be in Word or PDF format unless agreed otherwise in advance of service; and
3. any passwords required to open files must be provided in advance of or accompany service.

Accordingly, please confirm that you agree to email service on the above reciprocal basis – until agreement is in place, we will not accept email service."

And this is what they responded with via a signed letter: Service by Email

"We confirm that we will accept service of al correspondence and court documentation by email. We note that if we serve court documents via email we must copy Solicitor A, B and C in to that email.

If you serve court documents on us via email, please ensure that you email Solicitor X and Solicitor Y."

Thanks for your insight. I am just not sure whether I should respond to their email and argue that service was effective as they didn't restrict service via email to my solicitors only. Technically, I am the party serving on them - whether via solicitors or not and so, service is valid. They asked me to withdraw my claim due to defective service and threatened that they would make an application to dispute jurisdiction due to invalid service and seek costs of doing so against me.

[Pezza54]

In McAlpine v Richardson the defendant's solicitor, Manleys, had provided their email address on N434 but had not specifically agreed in writing to being served documents by email

You may not have given your written agreement to being served documents by email, but their solicitor is now emailing you and not posting letters.

You can't stop the defendant from applying to court to have your claim struck out. My advice is to wait and see if the defendant applies

[JK2054]

Hi All,

Hoping someone might be able to help. I’ve instructed solicitors to assist with my claim against a company. The defendant has agreed that they will accept service of all correspondence and court documentation by email moving forward and stipulated for the documents to be sent to two email addresses. I have a signed letter confirming this. The defendant also agreed that for me to serve amended Particulars of Claim by 4pm November 1st.

Unfortunately, due to budget limits I’ve had to cease the help of my solicitor and served the amended Particulars myself which was done at 3:40pm on Friday by email. I’ve also sent 3 copies to the court via email and tracked post and a hard copy to the defendant.

My solicitor never filed a Notice of Change in legal representation to the court or the defendant and I had to file it today once they informed me of it.

The defendant now states that I didn’t serve correctly as they didn’t agree to the service of documents via email with myself but my solicitors. Are they correct in saying this - isn’t this unfair since it’s the same claim and the solicitors were acting on my behalf? They quoted the case of Sir Robert McAlpine v Richardson Roofing Co Ltd and they are asking to withdraw my claim otherwise they will make an application to dispute jurisdiction. Clearly they received the amended Particulars so will a judge take pity? Any advice on how to respond to them would be great, thanks.

dispute juristriction doesnt change with legal rep or not

[legalopera]

JK2054 Thanks for your response. Does this mean that, in your opinion, they have no ground for an application to strike out the claim?

[JK2054]

striking out and disputing jurisdiction are entirely different??