County court claim form: if I pay it all off now, will I still get CCJ issued anyway?

[Ntsurian]

I've received a county court claim form for a debt from Lowell solicitors. My main priority is to avoid getting a CCJ issued against me and I'm wondering if it may be too late now. If I make the full payment of the debt now including the added legal costs, would a CCJ still be issued? What would be the process of avoiding a CCJ in this case?

[ploddertom]

Seeing as it is now the weekend why not tell us a little more about this. Hopefully you will then have a plan to action on Monday morning.

[Ntsurian]

Seeing as it is now the weekend why not tell us a little more about this. Hopefully you will then have a plan to action on Monday morning.

Thanks for the reply. Most of the debt is for a Vanquis credit card from 2015 and the rest is the last 2 months of a vodafone contract from 2018. In total, it's about £500. Neither component of the debt is statute barred. I've made some payments towards the Vanquis credit in 2016. I changed addresses at the beginning of the year and I believe they must have been sending letters to the old address, until last month when they sent a letter saying I've 30 days to my current address. I believe that was the claims letter. I thought I'd wait until at the end of the current month to pay it off all at once or make deal with them, but now they have initiated court proceedings by sending a court claims form.

Is a CCJ inevitable after a court claims is issued even if you pay it all off at once? My main concern is that I do not want to have a CCJ issued against me, even if paying it within 30 days of the judgement means it won't get registered. Is there a way to avoid it at this stage?

[Awareness]

No, it isn't inevitable. If you pay the debt, you don't owe anything, so the Court wouldn't be able to order you pay it.

Lowell will also have to tell the court immediately if you pay them. It's also worth saying that Lowell have to physically ask for a judgement after the forms have been issued, so if you call them and ask them to wait (if you need time), you should hopefully find they're cooperative with you.

[MIKE770]

Lowell wait???? they take advantage by the back door

[GBExile]

Lowell wait???? they take advantage by the back door

Lumping 2 separate debts for totally 2 different services is more than a tad taking the mick & intimidation for a start.

OP need to list the claim as stated on the court claim form.

[Ntsurian]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Much appreciated.

I said Vodafone earlier, but it's BT. I confused things because this was BT when I had sim only contract with them. They cancelled my service after non-payment. I called to pay what I owed after a month and to have the service reinstated but they said no - and that (a) I owe them the rest of the contract, (b) even if I pay that, they won't reinstate any service. With Vanquis I remember they sent a letter apologising for something and reducing the total amount I owed - I believe they violated a rule or something. I'm not sure if the total amount in the claim takes the reduction into account - I'll need to find the letter.

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Particulars of claim Compromises of the following Agreements the Defendant entered into:
a. Vanquis Bank with reference xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and current balance of £300
b. BT plc with reference xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and current balance of £100
The agreements were terminated as payments were not maintained and subsequently assigned to the claimant.
The claimant claims:
a) The total of the said sums being £400
b) The interest pursuant to s29 county courts act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of the assignment to the date of issue, but limited to one year, being £29.91
c) costs.
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I approximated the actual amounts to avoid giving exact figure.