JC Acq Int LLC/Post Office & Moriarty

[gollum]

Hi,

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to deal with this myself using the great help and advice here but I'm currently seriously ill so have little capacity to deal with this at the moment and have to admit I'm struggling.... If someone could please advise what options I have, if any, and what to do next i would be very grateful.


OK so far:

Had PO telecom phone & broadband throughout 2015 but basically they were rubbish, overcharges, no broadband service, spent hours on the phone complaining, they didn't improve, we requested to leave, they agreed, we left. It was one month from end of contract, we refused to pay month 11 bill, they agreed to waive it as we'd had no service.
Had a final bill with an outstanding amount so ignored.
Heard NOTHING from PO since then, Jan '16, as expected.
02.07.19 received 'Final demand' letter from Moriarty law chasing debt on behalf of JC Acquisitions LLC, Minnesota, USA and threatening Court. Ignored.
No notice of assignment to JC ever received
Letter dated 28.08.19 from Moriarty advising court proceedings issued.
Court summons dated 29.08.19 received (in fact both this and letter above arrived same day). POC appears same cut & paste as others on here. Claimant - JC Acquisitions International LLC Minnesota. Address for docs - Moriarty, London.
Acknowledged
Defended using amended template here citing no assignment, agreement from PO to leave, mismatch in agreement dates,no communication from PO since and advising requested copy of agreement from Moriarty.
Letter sent recorded 12.09.19 to PO requesting copy of agreement
Letter sent recorded 12.09.19 ro JC C/O Moriarty CPR 31.14 request for copy of agreement and assignment relied on in their claim
Letter sent recorded 12.09.19 to JC C/O Moriarty for SAR
Letter sent recorded 12.09.19 to PO for SAR
Letter dated 10.10.19 from PO requesting proof of ID to release agreement details
Letter dated 14.10.19 Letter from Moriarty acknowledging receipt of defence and confirming client proceeding with claim
Docs received 15.10.19 from PO in response to SAR - as expected not much info apart from copy bills, record of communications by email but no record of phone calls. Also internal memo querying why no action taken for outstanding amount but also stating 'account balance written off', 'no further action needed and 'Next steps - resolved' in Aug and Oct '16
Letter sent recorded 18.10.19 to PO providing proof of ID
Letter dated 15.10.19 from Moriarty in response to SAR request, returning £1 and stating request should be made to Jefferson Capital, Basingstoke! Not the address on the claim or on any letters from Moriarty.
No response to CPR request from Moriarty
Allocation to small claims dated 16.10.19 received, response required by 04.11.19

Can I ask the Court to set aside the claim or at least delay it as Moriarty/JC have failed to comply with requests or am I right in thinking telecoms agreements aren't covered by CPR and therefore not good reason?

If not could anyone please suggest the best way forward?

Please don't judge me too harshly on my tardiness in responding to the claim and requesting info in good time. I accept it's all been last minute but as mentioned previously, I am struggling with illness. I'm also in a benefits claim nightmare which isn't helping.

Thank you

[Guest]

Hey Gollum,

The history of your case is quite dense, so apologies if my reply doesn't seem overly helpful.

I think most of your problems here have stemmed from ignoring the final bill you were sent. Often administrative mistakes aren't recorded properly and from there it becomes a lot harder to deal with. For future reference, if you spot a mistake; deal with it!

The CPR applies to anyone and everyone who's bringing a claim in the County Court, except in these cases:

1.	Insolvency proceedings	Insolvency Act 19861, ss.411 and 412
2.	Non-contentious or common form probate proceedings	Supreme Court Act 19812, s.127
3.	Proceedings in the High Court when acting as a Prize Court	Prize Courts Act 18943, s.3
4.	Proceedings before the Court of Protection	Mental Capacity Act 20054, s.51
5.	Family proceedings	Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 19845, s.40
6.	Adoption proceedings	Adoption Act 19766, s.66 or Adoption and Children Act 2002, s.141(c)7.
7.	Election petitions in the High Court	Representation of the People Act 19838, s.182

The issue with not receiving letters is that you'll find a business will have almost always sent one, so relying on not receiving something like that in a defence is not your best shot. It's almost a 'pass the buck' argument. Although, it would be worth asking Moriarty why you weren't contacted about the debt before hand.

I think you might be flogging a dead horse asking for a SAR from Moriarty because the claim stems from PO. But, the CPR does require pre-action disclosures, so any evidence Moriarty intends to rely on will come to you before-hand and there's no harm in chasing them for the info you've already asked for. Just be wary that they might not send any documents to you right up to the last second.

You will probably find that even after a case has been allocated to the small claims track, you could be waiting sometime for an actual hearing. However, you could ask the court to delay any hearings because of your illness, particularly if it will impair your ability to manage the case. I wouldn't ask them to delay because Moriarty hasn't responded to a request. Asking for a delay because of illness is a much stronger rock to stand on in your case.

You will probably find you don't have ground to have the case set-aside because you've already filed a defence, so any application to set aside would likely be dealt with by a hearing anyway.

On a side note - have you thought about approaching a law firm to see if they can help on a pro-bono basis?

[MIKE770]

Amethyst

[Amethyst]

Hey xx

Allocation to small claims dated 16.10.19 received, response required by 04.11.19

You are currently completing your directions questionnaire or has that already been done and the case transferred to your local court ?

Just checking first exactly whete where you are at - I think your mention of set aside has confused things - you only set aside a judgment - you don't have a judgment against you that I can see- you have filed a defence against the claim so need to follow the next step... which is either return ( and serve on moriarty) your DQ ... or you've already done that and need to do witness statements and documents before a hearing date ? If you can clarify that we can have a look at it further to check you're on track.

Also internal memo querying why no action taken for outstanding amount but also stating 'account balance written off', 'no further action needed and 'Next steps - resolved' in Aug and Oct '16

sounds good - nothing in that SAR about selling the account to JC ( or anyone else ?) - anything about termination ?

Most telecoms aren't covered by the consumer credit act ( so the cca s77/78 request won't help much )
but the CPR request is perfectly valid - you have a bonafide dispute on this alleged debt and you are perfectly right to dispute.

[gollum]

Hi Nick Joyce and Amethyst and thank you for taking the time to reply so thoroughly and apologies for the delay responding.... (my health again. I don't like to keep on about that so please assume I am unable to reply as opposed to ignoring you if I don't get back here for a couple of days.)

Nick
Moriarty have effectively declined to provide a SAR response by returning my £1 fee and instead referring me to Jefferson Capital for a SAR disclosure. I have sent that request, but only just so don't expect a response any time soon.

I think the letter from Moriarty dated 02.07.19 would probably qualify as a pre-action letter but I would need to check all the pre-requisites.

I am thinking of asking the court for time if things are tight time-wise as I really am struggling to attend to this effectively. I have a course of therapy I need to concentrate on over the next 4-6 weeks so thank you for that advice, it's comforting to know that it may be an option open to me.

Amethyst
Yes, I have the Directions Questionnaire currently, to be filed by the 4th Nov. Apologies if I confused things with my terminology. I was hopeful I could ask the Court to not continue with the claim if the claimant hadn't complied with docs or something.

Internal memo:
Nothing in the internal memo about selling the debt to JC or any one else.
With regard to the mention of termination, there is a line that reads 'Debt termination of service' ?
It's difficult to follow the chronology of the memo as most of it was entered all on one day, I think because it had been ignored/overlooked/waived previously but there's not a lot in it. I think I've mentioned all the pertinent content.

Thank you,
Gollum

[gollum]

Hi, just a bit concerned about time.

Is there anything I can do with this claim?

Many thanks

gollum

[Amethyst]

Have you sent in the Directions Questionnaire yet ? If not, just get that filled in, Directions Questionnaire
, and sent to court and send a copy to Moriarty.

And don't be worrying. Moriarty don't like defences and attending court very much, so really for now you follow procedure and wait for directions xx

Put any of your appointment dates ( even if you need a full 6 week period kept free ) on the directions questionnaire to say you aren't available. Hearing date is usually not given out for about 3/4 months after directions.

[Amethyst]

If you want to do a pic of the internal memo thing and send it me admin@legalbeagles.info - see if I can decipher anything from it?

To ask Court to strike out the case because of the lack of documents sadly takes an application, hearing normally and a £255 fee ( sorry realised I'd missed that query ).

[gollum]

Oh marvellous, thanks so much Amethyst.

Not completed the Directions Questionnaire yet so I'll get that done and sent to Court & Moriarty tomorrow.

Thank you

[gollum]

.... and yes, I think I'd feel more comfortable if you could have a quick look over the internal memo to make sure I've not missed anything so I'll email that to you tomorrow too.

I was just playing for time really re the lack of docs but if it takes a few months to get to court normally anyway that'll be fine.

Thanks again x

[Amethyst]

xxx

[gollum]

I just realised I never came back to let you know how I got on with this. It's only been 2 years!

Basically we won at court.
The Claimant didn't show.
Part of our defence was that the the original creditor had not notified us correctly (at all) that the 'debt' had been sold.
The documents the claimant provided in their defence were so shoddy and lacking in info they were laughable.
Judge agreed and we got a tenner for our travel expenses.

Gollum