False small claims case against me for Slander

[K9handler]

Hi all, myself and my family have been harassed and abused on social media for the last year and a half and most recently this person who's been creating these posts has got it into his head that I have created some spoof social media accounts slandering him which are completely untrue though there is someone that's done this but it's not me.
Anyway long story short this person has decided to take about 10 people to court using the online MCOL system, suing everyone of us for £10,000 for harrasmant. The issue I have he has sent the court papers to an address I lIved at 8 years ago so I've not been served any papers myself but I know he has done this as he's found out who I work for and has sent my companies senior management an email claiming I'm an abuser and low life and the police are investigating me for harrasment and that he's served me with papers and put my old address on the email.
how do I get this struck off when firstly I only have a out 3 days left to respond (because I didn't know I'd been served) and also without revealing where I live now as we are scared if he has our current address this harrasment will come to our doorstep and not just on social media?
Any advice wpuld be greatfully recieved.

[R0b]

Hello

Are you able to post up the particulars of claim word for word? It's not clear what it is this person is claiming for as you mention slander in the title and then harassment in the post. The two are entirely different types of claims.

If you want your address information anonymised and not released to the claimant you would need to make an application to the court prior to the defence deadline a) asking the court to extend the deadline for filing your defence and b) request that your information for be prohibited from being released to the claim for fear of harassment and intimidation. It will cost you £275 for the fee and there is no guarantee the court will grant your request.

Otherwise you will have to accept your information being released to the claimant and if he chooses to turn up to your door then you call the police and claim harassment.

[K9handler]

Unfortunately I can't post up the details of the claim because I've not got the claim as it was sent to an old address. The only reason I know there is one is that he has told my company is suing me through a civil court and that I've seen some of the other 10 or so peoples claims that he is also suing for £10,000 for same sort of reasons.

[MIKE770]

get onto the area court office and explain you not received N1 court form at your propera address,

[K9handler]

Ok, will do thanks. Also can someone sue through the small claims civil courts for something like harrasmant/slander and just put their own figure of the maximum allowed £10k or does the court case have to be something with financial value such as a debt or non payment?

[atticus]

Harassment claims can be brought in the County Court (with possible allocation to Small Claims track).

Defamation claims must be brought in the High Court (Civil Procedure Rules, Part 53).

[K9handler]

atticus sorry I'm not up with the legal terms. In yerms of the harrasment claim, you've said it can go to county court does that mean he can go straight through the MCOL online claim system?

Thanks

[R0b]

To clarify Atticus' point, claims for harassment alone i.e. that is the only claim being made are to submitting using the Part 8 procedure (see CPR 65.28). Claims normally issued are under the Part 7 procedure which is more adversarial whereas the Part 8 procedure has its differences such as:

- There is no particulars of claim required unless the court orders
- Part 8 Claims are automatically allocated to the multi-track
- Default judgment is not possible
- No oral evidence is needed.

Part 8 claims are paper based and should be submitted to the local Court who will then transfer to the Defendant's local court for processing - You cannot used the MCOL system for this. You can of course object to the use of Part 8 procedure when you have to acknowledge the claim on the grounds that there is a substantial dispute of fact at which point the court decides whether the Part 8 procedure is still suitable or if it should be transferred to the Part 7 procedure and normal rules apply.

It is true that defamation claims like slander must be brought in the High Court unless the parties agree that the County Court should deal with it. I assume you haven't agreed to this and if not, I would strongly suggest you do not, which is your absolute right.

Seems to me the whole procedural process by the claimant is flawed entirely. If I were you, I would email him and tell him of the numerous errors and invite him to drop the claim, the errors being as I see it so far:

- He has issued a claim to your old address which is not your current place of residence. Service of the claim form is invalid and defective.

- Defamation claims must be brought in the High Court not the County Court. Therefore any claim against you for slander is not valid.

- That leaves the harassment claim which is subject to Part 8 procedure only and by issuing the claim via MCOL, both the claim and service of the claim form is defective.

- Invite him to discontinue the claim and put him on notice that if he continues to pursue this claim then you will seek to recover all costs and expenses incurred as a result of his conduct.

- notwithstanding the above, you have become aware of the claim due to him emailing your employers and you do not have a copy of the claim form so request a copy from him and ask him to agree an extension period of 28 days to allow you to file a defence (this falls under CPR 15.5). If agreed, you will need to tell the court this has been agreed so they can make a note of this.

In the meantime, if you have the claim number, get onto the court explain the situation and ask for a copy of the claim form asap. I appreciate you only have a couple of days to file a defence but the problem is you don't actually know what the claim form states so how can you know what case you have to meet? I guess there is a risk of the claimant seeking a default judgment but you should have very good grounds to have that set aside for the reasons above although you would need to pay for that application fee of £275 and should be recoverable if it succeeds.

If you decide to file a defence now, you may be deemed to accept the court's jurisdiction to hear both the harassment and defamation claims both of which are unlikely to be allocated to the small claims court if the court staff/judge had any common sense. It the claim is allocated somewhere other than the small claims track, you are on the hook for costs if you lose and the procedure becomes a bit more complex in terms of compliance and meeting deadlines.

Happy to sense check any email before you fire it off.

Out of curiosity, did you receive any kind of letter before action?

[K9handler]

Ok, well a few months on and myself and wife now have CCJs in our name for the grand sum of 21 grand all because the claimant sent the claim to an old address and therefore won by default when we couldn't defend the case.
we are now currently going through the full process of getting it set aside and a full defence which unfortunately is costing us money we dont have but our solicitors said its almost a cert that we'll win based on the claimants ludicrous lies. We also found out a few weeks ago he had a writ of control drawn up to collect the debt and with that threat looming over we had to act fast and 2 and a half weeks ago we went to the court and got a stay of the writ until our setting aside court date is held. This claimant has continued his harassmant campaign against us.
The issue i now need advice on please is that yesterday, over two weeks since we had the writ stayed bailiffs from the same court turned up in our street to serve the writ and knocked on all our neighbours doors to find out our exact address. They then proceeded to phone my wife and threaten her with possession of goods if she didn't come back from work straight away. What we need advice in is surely this is the bailiffs being in breach of a court order so what can we do about this if anything? Theu caused so many issues yesterday as my wife had to stop work and also all of our neighbours now know that bailiffs were looking for us which is very embarrassing considering we've done absolutely nothing. Thanks for any advice