N1claim form received over Marbles Credit Card

[paddy1]

Re: N1 received over Marbles Credit Card

Just an update. Filled in the option to defend the claim online Friday. The letter, kindly provided by Flaming Parrot, printed off & sent special delivery today. Lets see what happens

[paddy1]

Re: N1 received over Marbles Credit Card

Hi just called the solicitors to chase up the paperwork but they have stated that they have never received my letter requesting the documents pursuant to CPR31.14 even though I have sent it special delivery & royal mail have confirmed delivery.

Where do I go now? As I only have until the 6th to return my claim?

[ncf355]

Re: N1 received over Marbles Credit Card

Balance of probability comes in here I would think - you can show the court you sent the request and they received it


have you submitted an embarrassed defence?

[paddy1]

Re: N1 received over Marbles Credit Card

Embarrassed defence? Sorry what's that?

[ncf355]

Re: N1 received over Marbles Credit Card

A defence that states you are currently unable to fully plead due to the fact that they have failed to support their claim with documents such as the original agreement, related terms, the notice of assignments from the original creditor and a copy of the default notice that must be served prior to commencement of court action for the full balance

[paddy1]

Re: N1 received over Marbles Credit Card

Ok great I will do that. Has to be in today

[FlamingParrot]

Re: N1 received over Marbles Credit Card

I hope I'm still not too late, I hadn't been here for a while. Before submitting an embarrassed defence, it may be worth reading what PT2537 :yo: has written on the subject elsewhere:

The Whitebook has a very helpful piece on holding Defences. It states

Quote:

15.5.3 Holding defence A defendant cannot legitimately obtain more time for preparing their defence by filing the so-called “holding defence” such as “I deny this debt: full defence to follow”. Such a defence does not comply with Pt 16 (contents of defence). A defence which consists of a bare denial may be struck out under r.3.4 (see Practice Direction supplementing r.3.4 , para.1.6, see above para.3PD.1). Indeed on the filing of such a defence a court officer may refer it to a judge and the court may strike it out on its own initiative (see rr.3.2 and 3.3 ).

So if you file a holding defence instead of pleading your defence properly then you will be putting yourself at risk of an application from the Claimant to strike out your Defence or you may find the Court makes an order of its own motion and strikes you out.

It is important that if you can prepare a defence then you do so. It is also equally important in my view that you use the rules to secure the information that is necessary for you to be able to prepare a defence to the Claim.

Now just to qualify a point, if the claim is for money relating to for example a debt that you never had ie they got the wrong person, then you would put forward a simple bare denial as the debt isn't yours, however, if in 1993 you took out an MBNA card and you know it was assigned to 3 different companies over the time and now the Claimant is suing you for that debt, it is foolish in my view to say i don't know about this debt as you would be lying, if you want to however challenge the assignment say then you can say you admit entering into an agreement with MBNA or Barclays but you deny that it has been lawfully assigned to the current claimant, that is of course if you do not have proof of the assignment to the current claimant and genuinely havent been served with the correct papers etc. The single most important thing NOT TO DO is LIE, you must be honest and truthful.

The biggest problem that litigants in person seem to face is that they request a copy of say the agreement mentioned in the Claim form, and the Default notice and the Claimant fails to provide copies within the 7 days which rule 31.15 provides. In these circumstances it seems normal for people to file a "embarrassed Defence" which basically argues the Defendant is embarrassed at pleading because no documents have been provided and for leave to amend the defence later.

There is the option for the Defendant where the Claimant is in-breach of the provisions of CPR rule 31.14 & 31.15 to make an application on an N244 form. Now then, you should exhaust all options before launching an application, it should be last resort not first. Let the creditor have the 7 days he is allowed. On day 8 write to him pointing out the time is slipping and that you require disclosure, ask for an estimate of when the documents will be provided. Dont be frightened to give the creditor a time frame. Say "I require the agreement by 4pm on xxxxxx 2012 or i will have no choice but to make an application to the Court" it will assist if the application is necessary.

Do not allow the time for filing your defence to expire. If you have asked for an extension using CPR Rule 15.5 and that is about to expire, then an application to extend the time frame is important otherwise you will face default judgment and may be faced with a bar on your ability to file a defence.

The single most important thing here is not to ignore things, but do write letters to the creditor, keep proof of posting, and copies of the letters so that they can be exhibited to the application if you decide to make one. If you do apply, you will need to send a witness statement with the N244 exhibiting the letters and setting out the chain of events that have lead to this point. You will need to set out that you have had an extension under Rule 15.5 and that you need the Court to grant further leave to file a defence and would ask the Court to order the Claimant to provide the documents requested so that you can plead.It is good practice to send a draft order too with the application.

It is also good practice to invite the Claimant to consent to the application. My favoured option is to send a copy of the application and send a cover letter with a consent order inviting them to consent to the application to avoid the costs which could be incurred in attending and contesting the application. This is not intended to provide an indepth description on an application merely just to give an overview on the process.

[paddy1]

Re: N1 received over Marbles Credit Card

Hi

Please see letters recently received after I filed a defence stating I was unable to compile a full defence as I was not in receipt of documents requested.

After reading your last post FlamingParrot it seems that this was possibly the wrong thing to do?

Where to go from here?

claim.jpgclaim0001.jpg

[FlamingParrot]

Re: N1 received over Marbles Credit Card

I would suggest PMing PT2537 :yo: or Cel :yo: with a link to this thread. :thumb:

[paddy1]

Re: N1 received over Marbles Credit Card

I didn't think we were allowed to PM them to take a look??

[FlamingParrot]

Re: N1 received over Marbles Credit Card

I didn't think we were allowed to PM them to take a look??

Why wouldn't you? They are busy and can't ready every thread, most of them are not relevant to them anyway but this one is.