**discontinued** county court document received have no idea what to do.

[Amethyst]

Sounds ok. Are there further directions regarding exchange of documents and witness statements or is it solely the hearing date?

[whu]

Amethyst Thank you for replying here are the further directions.

[whu]

Amethyst ostell jaguarsuk I just wanted to check that i should call the mediation service and agree to mediation?im not sure if this is even an option when lowell still haven't provided any documents. I am also very concerned by the court date of 3rd january 2020 as the letter from the court states documents should be exchanged at least 14 days prior and with christmas and new year i fear this might well cause an issue with my defence should i receive any of the documents from lowell due to christmas/new year should i try to change the date? I'm not even sure if that is allowed. I'm sorry for the questions I'm unsure as to what to do next.

[Amethyst]

Do mediation not send a form to complete asking if you have all the documents/info needed in order to mediate? If they don't do that any more then I'm pretty sure they'll ask at the start of the call - I do think it is best to arrange mediation and then deal with it from there ( in case documents do turn up while waiting for the appt ).

The court date does seem terrible awkward, and yes I'd agree that Lowell might use it as an excuse to serve any documents late, however it could work in your favour as if you get your documents over to them and the court in plenty of time you can ask court to discount their late or non existent until the hearing date documents, because you were capable of managing deadlines despite it being Christmas etc, and they're a huge company dedicated to dealing with court cases and still failed.... so swings and roundabouts really.

Just going to have a mooch at the directions now anyway xx

[Amethyst]

Ahh yes they are pretty standard directions so all good. Should aim to send your WS off to court and Claimant on the 13th December then you shouldn't have any issues with Christmas post holding things up and you're in plenty of time. If the claimant does manage to do theirs and do produce the documents required you can always do a 'reply' via a supplementary statement later.

[whu]

Amethyst thank you i will call the mediation service today. if i get my witness statement ready to send i guess the next thing is to wait and see if the court fee is paid on the 6th december? is there anything else i should do as lowell have still not supplied any documents relating to the claim after 20 months do i need to resend request for said documents? again thank you for the advice.

[Amethyst]

No, your original requests stand and tbh you don't want them to actually send the documents as they can't proceed without them.

So yes wait and see if they pay the hearing fee before submitting your witness statement - you can start preparing it though just be aware you might have to amend if any documents do turn up xxx

[whu]

Amethyst Good morning i have received another tomlin order request from lowell this morning asking that i agree a settlement of over £800 plus a £100 court fee to avoid the matter going to court is this a normal tactic from lowell asking for the full amount? when still they haven't produced anything to back up there claim.

[MIKE770]

sounds like the usual last hope for them, tactic before discontinuing???

[whu]

Amethyst MIKE770 good afternoon today i have received a notice of discontinuance from lowell and they state this has also been sent to the court? just wanted to check if there is any thing i have to do now? or should this be the end of the matter sorry as i have not had any experience of this should i wait to receive confirmation from the court? before i breath a sigh of relief.

[Amethyst]

I think you're safe to breathe a little sigh of relief.... give court a buzz on Monday and check they have received the same It SHOULD be the end of the matter - Mike was completely right on the Tomlin order being a last ditch attempt xxx

[whu]

Amethyst you are a superstar I can't thank you all enough for the advice given over the last 20 months i couldn't have done any of this without the help and advice of the generous people on this site..

just to check do the court also send notice of the discontinuance? and i assume the safe thing to do would be keep all correspondance for a certain amount of time?

[MIKE770]

Always file away

[Amethyst]

No the court won't send you anything, theres a declaration on the discontinuance form that they have served a copy on the other parties.... so court assumes it has been done properly... it is always best to double check with the court a few days after receiving a NoD and definitely keep the NoD on file with the rest of the court claim stuff, just in case anything pops back up in the future.

It's good they did it now rather than dragged it out until the hearing fee was due to be paid ( which is what they usually do ) saves you having to make a start on your witness statements xxx

[jaguarsuk]

Sorry to contradict, I have always received a sealed version from the court, so you should get a copy sealed. It is of course not officially discontinued until the court orders.