Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

[perplexed]

Hello, My son received a Court Claim for a very old Shop Direct account that he paid off in full around 8 years ago. For some reason, they have passed this on to Lowell who have now raised a claim through BW Legal claiming that he owes over £450! I had a look at the information here and told my son to apply for an extension to 28 days. I then helped him prepare a CPR 31.14 request to BW Legal and a CCA and full statement of account to Lowell. Neither have responded. In the meantime, aware that the deadline was approaching, I told my son to go online and see if he could extend the deadline for his defence further. He tried to login a number of times last week, over last weekend and again yesterday. He was unable to call the Court as their opening hours are from 8.30am to 5pm. He starts work at 7am and doesn't leave until 5pm. To make matters worse, he can't get a signal to call them on his mobile from where he works. In desperation, and knowing that the deadline was imminent, he managed to finish work 30 minutes earlier today (despite resistance from his boss) and called the Court. He was told that the deadline was yesterday and so there was nothing they could do. They were totally unsympathetic about the difficulties he had logging on and told him that they don't have an IT helpline. Is this true? If so, how can they run an online service without adequate support? They then told him to call BW Legal. What are his options now, i.e. what course of action should he take? He still can't access the information he input online so has no idea what details he provided with regard to his defense. He is IT literate so I'm confident he knew what he was doing when attempting to login. I suspect he left any information about his defense blank as BW Legal didn't provide any information at at except for the amount they claimed he owed - although he did say that he disputed that he owed anything at all. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks

[Amethyst]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

If you can get a defence in to the court - you can do it via email - then it will put a barr on BW asking for a default judgment. From what you have said the court have just said the deadline has passed, NOT that BW have applied for default judgment.
Example defence - Defence Example
How old is the shop direct account btw? has it been over 6 years since last payment?

[Amethyst]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

email: ccbcdefendants@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk

Subject: DEFENCE - Claim XXXXX - Lowell v YOUR SONS NAME

Attach the defence as either a Word Doc or a PDF. He can electronically sign it.

Once you've edited the defence ( barring name and claim No.) then post it up here and someone will give it the once over xx

[perplexed]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

Thank you Amethyst. I'll pass this onto him and we'll let you have a look at the defence before he emails it. Will the Court accept it now that it's gone past the deadline?

[perplexed]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

Sorry didn't see you first message. How old is the shop direct account btw? - He opened it 9 years ago and the last payment as far as we can remember was 8 years ago. The outstanding balance was paid by my mother a couple of years before she passed away in 2010. Thanks for your help.

[Tallullatrotter]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

I can't really offer much advice but I missed my defence deadline which was last wednesday, nothing was showing online when I logged in last week, I phoned the court today and was no ccj had been awarded yet and if I got my defence in straight away it would still be ok

[JackieG]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

Hi

The important thing is to get the defence in as soon as you can.. in my experience, the court will usually deal with the defence before any default judgement presented even if they got there at the same time..

[Amethyst]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

Sorry didn't see you first message. How old is the shop direct account btw? - He opened it 9 years ago and the last payment as far as we can remember was 8 years ago. The outstanding balance was paid by my mother a couple of years before she passed away in 2010. Thanks for your help.

If you post up the defence - add in this bit as well as the CCA section and CPR sections.

" The Defendant contends that any alleged debt is statute barred by virtue of section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980. The last payment / acknowledgement of any debt was in 2008.

" The Defendant contends that in 2008 the alleged debt was paid in full directly to the original creditor.

Sooner you can get it done and in the better really. You can email the defence as a word or pdf attachment to ccbcdefendants@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk - with ''DEFENCE Claim No XXXXX Lowell Portfolio v Son's name'' as the subject.

[Tallullatrotter]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

I have received a letter off Lowell today which has a copy of their direct questionnaire but I haven't received one for myself to fill in and when I log into MCOL it doesn't say any have been sent out

[Amethyst]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

Give the court a call is usually easiest to check if you should have had one - if it is small claims then you can download one http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...4&d=1409917407 to send back.

[Tallullatrotter]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

I've phoned the courts and they have said they haven't said a direct questionnaire out at all and he had dealt with 5 others that had received them too but it's nothing to do with the courts and Lowell have until sunday to respond to my defence

[Amethyst]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

mmmm interesting. Might be worth a call to BW Legal - may just be a over enthusiastic paralegal getting ahead of themselves.... lol.

Does the Directions Questionnaire actually say anything other than a tick for mediation etc ? Letter with it ?

[Diana M]

Re: Missed Northampton Court 28 day deadline for defense

I've phoned the courts and they have said they haven't said a direct questionnaire out at all and he had dealt with 5 others that had received them too but it's nothing to do with the courts and Lowell have until sunday to respond to my defence

From what you say that means Lowell may not have yet informed the court whether they intend to continue with the proceedings.

If they don't do that by the deadline then the claim ought to be stayed

Di