Court claim from JC Acquisition for a Talk Talk debt

[RobSine]

Hello. I've received a court claim and have been trying to go through the first steps but need some help before completing them if possible please.

Received a claim?: Yes

Issue Date: 22/04/2021

Have you Acknowledged the Claim?: Yes

Total Amount Claimed: £300

Claimant’s Name: JC International Acquisition LLC

Solicitors Firm: Moriarty Law Limited

Original Creditor: Talk Talk

Original Debt: Broadband fees, presumably accumulated by failure to stay with them for the minimum duration of the contract

Particulars of Claim: The claimants claim is for the balance due under an agreement with Talk Talk Limited dated XX/XX/XXXX which was assigned to the claimant on XX/XX/XXXX and notice of which was given to the defendant on the XX/XX/XXXX and which is now all due and payable. The defendant agreed to pay monthly instalments under account number XXXXXXXXXX but has failed to do so. And the claimant claims the sum of £XXX.XX. The claimant also claims interest thereon pursuant to S.69 County Court Act 1984 limited to one year to the date hereof at the rate of 8.00% per annum amounting to £XX.XX.

Is the debt Statute Barred?: No. The debt itself isn't 6 years old, even without contact.

List any letters you have sent: None as yet because I have a query about both the CCA and CPR.

The claimant's address given on the claim form is Minnesota, USA. I am in the UK. So it seems unlikely that my CCA request would be sent, and a reply received, in time. Would it be sufficient to send it to a UK address for JC International instead, or would this give them an excuse to refuse a reply?

I am confused about what documents to request in my CPR request. The full text of the particulars of claim is printed above for reference.

Any Other Information or Background Details: I took out a contract (I think it was a 12 month contract?) with Talk Talk for broadband internet. From the very start, I experienced nothing but problems with the service. The connection cut out daily, sometimes multiple times a day. I had to reset the router every time to get back up and running. And even while it was working, I never got anywhere near the speeds that they had promised. When I asked them about this over the phone, they gave me some scripted nonsensical diatribe about broadband speed tests being unreliable indicators of the actual speed of the connection and politely told me I was too incompetent to know what speeds I was actually getting and proceeded to "inform" me that I was getting a speed that I was definitely not getting (even with an ethernet connection, so proximity to the router and strength of the signal could not be to blame). I gave up and put up with the poor service for a few more months before snapping and switching providers and phoning the bank to have my direct debit with Talk Talk cancelled so that they would lose the authority to extract further funds from my account. I started getting letters from them about an outstanding payment for my latest bill. Then, presumably they realised that I had switched providers and the amount due in their letters jumped considerably. I ignored them all. I then got a few letters from JC International informing me that the debt had been passed onto them and I continued to ignore them as well until getting the claim form. I panicked, googled JC International or Moriarty Law (can't remember which) and saw some bad reviews that claimed they were a shady debt collection company pretending to be a law firm that sends out fake court documents to trick people into paying debts. I relaxed again and ignored it for a few days, but luckily decided to start digging again just in case and discovered that the claim form is real. Which brings me to now, trying to actually get it sorted through the proper channels.

Any advice is appreciated.

[RobSine]

Ok, the claim has since progressed. I sent an SAR request to the Talk Talk Data Protection Office and a CPR request to Moriarty Law. I have heard nothing back from Talk Talk at all. I received a letter from Moriarty Law confirming that they were passing the request on to JC International but I never received the actual requested documents (agreement and notice of assignment) and still haven't to this day. The deadline for submitting my defence quickly approached so I submitted a defence informing the court that I hadn't received the documents, requesting that the court force them to produce the documents and that the claimant should then pay for me to amend my defence.

Now I have received a DQ (N180) which is due to be filed by 21/06/2021 and an EX730 mediation form. I'm in two minds about what to do. On the one hand, I don't have enough information about the claim to enter into negotiations. On the other hand, if I answer no, mediation gets cancelled and goes to a hearing and with them hiding what information they have on me, I don't know if it's strong enough to win the case for them. If they do, it will cause me to pay the full amount and the hearing costs on top of that. A mediation might be my only chance to actually hear them voluntarily openly state what their case against me consists of prior to a hearing and will also give me the opportunity to not only avoid hearing costs but get the price down to a reasonable figure (assuming that their case is strong enough to make me want to settle). Which one would be the preferable course of action?

Also, in my defence, I argued that I didn't have the relevant information from them (agreement and notice of assignment) or the relevant information from Talk Talk. If I answer "yes" to the EX730 question of whether or not I have enough information to enter into negotiations at a mediation but then I hear them out and decide not to settle, can they use my "yes" at the hearing as a reason to refuse to provide the information that I requested, given that I will have acknowledged that I already have enough information to enter into negotiations?

[MIKE770]

Mediation will just ask have you the necessary documents to mediate you state NO. They will say NO mediation and inform the court for next stage. In the system. Look around the site and see how the courts system works