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RE my previous thread where my sister has got a claim form for a accident she has no involvement in: https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...due-dillegence
I raised another here because it seems like a more appropriate section and also wanted to ask updated questions.
We are now in a situation where the other party refuses to drop the claim until they finish conducting further enquires to rule out my sisters involvement, trouble is this is likely to take weeks and weeks, if not months and my sister obviously has 14 days to respond to the claim form and put in a defence. The other party advised us to not bother putting in a defence as they say once the enquires come back and prove it's not my sister they won't apply for judgement. However, given this person has stolen my sisters identity I don't know what will come back from their enquires and I don't trust them to not just ask for default judgement and not care anymore. So we will provide a defence.
My questions are as follows:
1. My sister appears to have received a paper money claim, because there is no mention of how she can respond via MCOL, instead it says you can e-mail your response. If she wants to e-mail the response, can she download the appropriate form online (e.g. N9B) and fill it out electronically and then e-mail it within 14 days? Or does she need to physically fill out the paper form, scan and e-mail?
2. Since my sister has a learning difficulty and is unable to deal with this matter on her own (or even understand what it means), we want to make sure the courts are aware of this and me (as her brother) wants to do as much of the process as I can for her, to keep this stress free for her as she does not have the mental capability to understand. However, I understand from this forum that I need to tread carefully and not try to do a solicitors job. How do we make sure the courts are properly aware of this? We want to ideally incur zero costs, as this case has absolutely nothing to do with my sister, they simply have the wrong person.
3. I saw on the forms that a "Litigation Friend" can sign on her behalf, I don't know if I count as that or whether I should just get my sister to sign it herself and somehow inform the court of her issues in another way?
4. If my sister wants to give a defence, does she have to provide a full defence in the response now (i.e. alongside the ack of service)? Can she simply write something like "it's nothing to do with me, case of mistaken identity, other party is aware and is conducting further enquiries". Or does she need to put in a full defence like "It's nothing to do with me, at the time I was in place X with proof Y. My phone number is different, as you can see from my phone bills, I'm not the registered keeper of the vehicle in question and have never owned a vehicle, etc, etc".
5. If she is to provide a full defence within the 14 days then how does she provide evidence, for example she may have letters and screenshots to show, do we just attach them in the e-mail and then in the N9B form say "we have provided files X, Y and Z as attachments" sort of thing?
6. We have asked the claimants solicitors to provide an extension for us to give a defence (I understand this is 28 days), this is because we are hoping they can do further enquiries and drop the case when they realise it's nothing to do with my sister, in addition my sister is flying out on holiday in a few days time so can't get all the full defence items ready in time. They are happy to provide this extension, however I don't know the correct procedure with the courts, do we just e-mail them the acknowlegement of service and attach like a cover letter to say the other party has agreed to the 28 day extension for us to provide evidence?
I raised another here because it seems like a more appropriate section and also wanted to ask updated questions.
We are now in a situation where the other party refuses to drop the claim until they finish conducting further enquires to rule out my sisters involvement, trouble is this is likely to take weeks and weeks, if not months and my sister obviously has 14 days to respond to the claim form and put in a defence. The other party advised us to not bother putting in a defence as they say once the enquires come back and prove it's not my sister they won't apply for judgement. However, given this person has stolen my sisters identity I don't know what will come back from their enquires and I don't trust them to not just ask for default judgement and not care anymore. So we will provide a defence.
My questions are as follows:
1. My sister appears to have received a paper money claim, because there is no mention of how she can respond via MCOL, instead it says you can e-mail your response. If she wants to e-mail the response, can she download the appropriate form online (e.g. N9B) and fill it out electronically and then e-mail it within 14 days? Or does she need to physically fill out the paper form, scan and e-mail?
2. Since my sister has a learning difficulty and is unable to deal with this matter on her own (or even understand what it means), we want to make sure the courts are aware of this and me (as her brother) wants to do as much of the process as I can for her, to keep this stress free for her as she does not have the mental capability to understand. However, I understand from this forum that I need to tread carefully and not try to do a solicitors job. How do we make sure the courts are properly aware of this? We want to ideally incur zero costs, as this case has absolutely nothing to do with my sister, they simply have the wrong person.
3. I saw on the forms that a "Litigation Friend" can sign on her behalf, I don't know if I count as that or whether I should just get my sister to sign it herself and somehow inform the court of her issues in another way?
4. If my sister wants to give a defence, does she have to provide a full defence in the response now (i.e. alongside the ack of service)? Can she simply write something like "it's nothing to do with me, case of mistaken identity, other party is aware and is conducting further enquiries". Or does she need to put in a full defence like "It's nothing to do with me, at the time I was in place X with proof Y. My phone number is different, as you can see from my phone bills, I'm not the registered keeper of the vehicle in question and have never owned a vehicle, etc, etc".
5. If she is to provide a full defence within the 14 days then how does she provide evidence, for example she may have letters and screenshots to show, do we just attach them in the e-mail and then in the N9B form say "we have provided files X, Y and Z as attachments" sort of thing?
6. We have asked the claimants solicitors to provide an extension for us to give a defence (I understand this is 28 days), this is because we are hoping they can do further enquiries and drop the case when they realise it's nothing to do with my sister, in addition my sister is flying out on holiday in a few days time so can't get all the full defence items ready in time. They are happy to provide this extension, however I don't know the correct procedure with the courts, do we just e-mail them the acknowlegement of service and attach like a cover letter to say the other party has agreed to the 28 day extension for us to provide evidence?
