Wrong defendant in small claim

[islandgirl]

Someone I know sold an item privately to a private individual and fully described it. The buyer has complained and has issued a claim against the seller (not a large amount of money) which has been allocated after an initial look by a judge to the small claims track with a virtual hearing in the New Year. Problem is the buyer collected the item at the sellers place of work for convenience. The employer had absolutely nothing to do with the deal. However the claim has been issued with the ltd company where the sellers works as the defendant. Seller had already made this error clear in their response to the claim (item 1 in their response) but it has been ignored. I believe the seller needs to write to the court or ring them and inform them and to expedite a solution they could also write to the claimant and explain that they will have to pay over £100 to amend the claim and repeat their offer to settle (for the sum the seller has already offered in mediation) which has been refused. I would be very grateful for any thoughts from fellow beagles, thank you.

[des8]

Besides the seller writing to all and sundry has the Ltd company entered a defence?

[atticus]

I agree. It is for the Defendant (i.e. the company) to defend.

Your friend could notify this claimant that he has sued the wrong defendant, and tell him that he should discontinue the claim against the company, and that if the claimant then chooses to sue him, he will defend the case.

[islandgirl]

It doesn't know! We have told the defendant to tell them...they have absolutely nothing to do with the sale. Good point about telling him to discontinue though thank you

[atticus]

"It doesn't know" - the company? Why not? They aren't going to thank their employee for not telling them.

[islandgirl]

"It doesn't know" - the company? Why not? They aren't going to thank their employee for not telling them.

Indeed! I have told them in no uncertain terms to their employer them right away. I think the problem is we are fairly familiar with all this stuff but people who have never been near a court before have absolutely no idea. They find the huge blocks of information they have to read intimidating and just think everything will be OK. The real defendant has even been through formal mediation with the claimant and told the court in their response to the claim that it was issued against the wrong person but we are here now!....

[echat11]

If you were designing 'judicial procedures / protocols', you wouldn't end up with what we have, it seems to be a justice system based on hoping people don't do things or are ignorant about how it all functions.

[pc52straw]

Or, hoping people use snail mail as expected, while not bothering to do the obvious... Like mandate digital proof of postage/tracked delivery.

Bane of my life... A litigant who refuses to post anything to the other litigant, argues successfully to the court that they've served the other side by untracked standard post, and the other side is b*ggered because they cannot prove a negative (ie that they didn't receive it because they couldn't have received it, because it was never posted in the first place).

Why the system doesn't insist on "prove you posted it to the correct address via tracked/recorded delivery/emailed it to the correct recipient, or it didn't happen ", god knows.

[pc52straw]

Sorry for the digression, but my point is that the court is ignoring evidence right at the very top of the claim response that it's been incorrectly served, because it's still partying like the information age hasn't happened yet.

It'd be cheaper if OCMC / MCO digital workflows could pick up on a "claimant is suing the wrong person" tickbox, and put that in front of a triage team, who then stop the clock on the claim and ping the claimant with an "oi, sort that out"...

[islandgirl]

Sorry for the digression, but my point is that the court is ignoring evidence right at the very top of the claim response that it's been incorrectly served, because it's still partying like the information age hasn't happened yet.

It'd be cheaper if OCMC / MCO digital workflows could pick up on a "claimant is suing the wrong person" tickbox, and put that in front of a triage team, who then stop the clock on the claim and ping the claimant with an "oi, sort that out"...

Absolutely! And it has been before a judge who has listed it for a hearing...What more can you do - especially as the defendant has no idea of the system and has never been involved in anything like this before.