is my defence good enough?

[Shinybee]

Im wondering if my defence is good enough to stand up in court and not get torn a part :
In the Northampton County Court Business Centre
Claim No:
HOIST PORTFOLIO HOLDING LTD :
Claimant
And
xxxxx
Defendant
DEFENCE

1. I would like it noted on the court file, I responded to the Claimants Solicitors letter, dated xx/05/17, with the attached Pre Action Conduct letter, dated xx/05/17, requesting further information regarding the alleged debt. The Pre Action Conduct request was signed for on the xx/05/17 by xxxx.
2. To date this letter has been totally ignored by Howard Cohen & Co, the claimants solicitor. To ignore such a request, which was clearly received, and proceed with a claim is, in my opinion, an abuse of the court process.
3. I have also sent a further request for information on the xx/07/17, as well as a request under Section 78.1 of the Consumer Credit Act to the claimant enclosing the statutory £1 fee, to date both requests have been ignored, rendering this claim, under Section 78.6 of the Consumer Credit Act, unenforceable against me.
4. Each and every allegation in the Claimants statement of case is denied unless specifically admitted in this Defence.
5. The Defendant denies monies are owed to the Claimant as alleged in the Particulars of Claim and does not recognise the assertion that any debt has been Legally Assigned to the Claimant. As per Civil Procedure rules 16.5(4), it is expected that the Claimant prove the allegation (as set out in the Particulars of Claim) that the money is owed.
6. I received a notice of Pending Legal Action (see exhibit 1) from the Claimants Solicitors Howard Cohen & Co, dated xx/05/17.
7. Under the Practice Direction – Pre Action Conduct, I made a Request for Further Information (see exhibit 2) dated 21/05/17 by way of Service upon the Claimants Solicitors.
8. I posted this Request to Howard Cohen & Co by Royal Mail Signed For (Ref.xxxxxxxxGB, on 23/05/17) (see exhibit 3) and was Signed For by xxxx on xx/05/17 @ 11:12am (see exhibit 4).
9. To date, the Claimants Solicitors have failed to Acknowledge Receipt of Service of this Request for Further Information and have failed to respond to said Request.
10. On xx/xx/17 I received the claim xxxxxx,dated xx/xx/17, from the Northampton County Court Business Centre showing the Claimants total disregard for my Request for Further Information made under the Practice Direction – Pre Action Conduct as they commenced proceedings against me.
11. I returned Acknowledgment of Service on 11/07/17.
12. I sent a CPR18 Request letter dated 14/07/17 to Claimants Solicitors (see exhibit 5) asking for the following to be produced in court:
1) The Agreement/contract
2) The Notice of Assignment
3) The Default Warning letter
4) The Default Notice
13. I posted this Request to Howard Cohen & Co by Royal Mail Signed For (RefxxxxxxGB, on xx/07/17) (see exhibit 6) and was Signed For by xxxx on xx/07/17 @ 11:05am (see exhibit 7).
14. To date I have not received any acknowledgement of my CPR18 Request for Information, nor have any requested documents been forth coming.
15. On the xx/07/17 I sent a formal request for a copy of the original agreement to the Claimant, pursuant to section 78 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 along with the statutory £1 fee (see exhibit 8).
16. The Claimant to date, has yet to comply with s78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 and therefore by virtue of s78 (6) Consumer Credit Act 1974 cannot enforce the agreement.
17. The Claimants statement of case fails to give adequate information to enable me to properly assess my position with regards to the claim.
18. Therefore, I respectfully apply under Section 4.6(1) of the Practice Direction Pre-action Conduct for the proceedings to be Stayed with immediate effect until the Claimants comply fully with the Request for Further Information made.
19. I also respectfully request Sanctions be imposed against the Claimant under section 4.6 (2) Practice Direction Pre- Action Conduct and costs of this application be awarded to the Defendant against the Claimant.

Statement of Truth
The Defendant believes that the facts stated in this Defence are true.
Signed ________________________________
Dated ______________________________

[Amethyst]

Re: is my defence good enough?

Sounds completely fine, although we don't know anything about the case, it seems you have done more than enough to try and find out more information about the debt and any Judge worth their salt should give HC a slap on the wrists. Only thing I might have done is after receiving the claim is to send a CPR 31.14 request for documents mentioned in the statement of case rather than the part 18 - Part 18 is really meant for questions, but can be useful for documents not mentioned.

and

19. I also respectfully request Sanctions be imposed against the Claimant under section 4.6 (2) Practice Direction Pre- Action Conduct and costs of this application be awarded to the Defendant against the Claimant.

- there hasn't been an application, so I'm guessing thats a copy paste from somewhere? GOODF ?

[Shinybee]

Re: is my defence good enough?

Thank you for your reply.
I felt very unconfident about that defence, before getting your reply, so revised it, so it wasn't just a list of what I did and also included the claimants failings. Must admit it did involve cut and paste, but I made sure I understood and meant everything that I wrote. (As it happened I did notice the application bit, which yes was from GOODF : ), and did take that out. So in the end it looked like this:

In the Northampton County Court Business Centre
Claim No: XXXXXXX
HOIST PORTFOLIO HOLDING LTD :
Claimant
And
XXXXXX
Defendant
DEFENCE

1. I would initially like it be noted on the Court File, I responded to the Claimants Solicitor letter (Exbt 1), dated 11/05/17, with the attached Pre Action Conduct letter (Exbt 2), dated 21/05/17, requesting further information regarding the alleged debt. The Pre Action Conduct request was sent by Royal Mail Sign For (Exbt 3) and received by Claimants Solicitors and signed for on the 24/05/17 by XXXX.(Exbt 4).
2. To date, Howard Cohen & Co, the Claimants Solicitors have failed to Acknowledge Receipt of Service this Request for Further Information and have failed to respond to the request. To ignore such a request, which was clearly received, and proceed with a claim is, in my opinion, an abuse of the court process.
3. On 10/7/17 I received the claim XXXXXX from the Northampton County Court Business Centre showing the Claimants total disregard for my Request for Further Information made under the Practice Direction – Pre Action Conduct as they commenced proceedings against me.
4. Each and every allegation in the Claimants statement of case is denied unless specifically admitted in this defence.
5. The Defendant alleges that the Claimants pleadings are an abuse of the process. The Claimants pleadings are lacking in detail, there are no details to when the alleged default occurred, despite requests for information from the defendant, and the Claimant has not provided any details as to how the sums have accrued. Accordingly the Defendant contends that the pleadings are wholly inadequate for a contested matter and that the Claimant should be required to plead its case coherently and accurately as required by the CPR 16 and PD 16. The Defendant reserves the right to replead his defence should the Claimant replead its claim adequately.
6. This claim appears to be for a Credit Card agreement regulated under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 but the defendant is unable to identify such an account within his own records.
7. The particulars of claim fail to state when the agreement was entered into.
8. The particulars of claim state that the account was assigned by Hoist Portfolio Holding Ltd. on a date not provided, and notice served. The Defendant does not recall receiving notice of this assignment.
9. Upon the Claim clarifying matters set out above the defendant reserves his position to amend this defence further. The Defendant shall seek the cost of the amendments from the claimant due to the Claimants failure to plead its case adequately.
10. The Defendant sent a request for inspection of documents (Exbt5) on the 18/07/17, by Royal Mail Signed For (Exbt 6) to the Claimants solicitors under Civil Procedure Rule 18.
11. The Claimants Solicitors received this Request and was signed for by XXXX on 19/07/17 @11:05 (Exbt 7) but has not been replied to.
12. Also on the 17/07/17 the Defendant sent requests for information (Exbt 8) to the Claimant, by Royal Mail Sign For (Exbt 9a), enclosing the statutory £1 fee (Exbt 9b). The request was made pursuant s78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 to ascertain the agreement, which the Claimant was demanding payment under, and to obtain further information about the terms of the contract.
13. The Claimant received and Signed For the said Request on 18/07/17 (Exbt 10) but failed to reply and has not disclosed any documents relating to their claim to the Defendant.
14. Accordingly the Claimant has failed to comply with s78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 to date and by virtue of s78 (6) Consumer Credit Act 1974 cannot enforce the agreement.
15. The Defendant has not yet been able to examine the terms and conditions which were enforce at the time that the agreement was executed and therefore reserves the right to amend these pleadings to address any breaches that are identified if such terms or conditions are disclosed by the Claimant. The amendment will be due to the lace of disclosure by the Claimant and the failure to respond to the s78 CCA 1974 request correctly and the Defendant therefore also reserves the right to claim the costs of such amendment from the Claimant.
16. For the avoidance of doubt the Defendant requires the Claimant to plead effectively and disclose the legible documents upon which the Claim is based. In the event the Claimant fails to replead, then the Defendant reserves the right to apply for whatever orders it deems fit including an order striking the Claim out.
17. It is denied that the original creditor, Barclays Bank Plc, served any Default notice on the Defendant pursuant to s87 Consumer Credit Act 1974. The Claimant is required to prove that a compliant Default Notice was served upon the Defendant.
18. Due to the Claimants failure to allow the Defendant to inspect the Default notice alluded to within the Claim form the Defendant is prejudice.
19. Accordingly the Defendant reserves his position to amend this Defence with the costs of the same paid by the Claimant provides a copy of the Default Notice.
20. The Defendant denies monies are owed to the Claimant as alleged in the Particulars of Claim and does not recognise the assertion that any debt has been Legally Assigned to the Claimant. As per Civil Procedure rules 16.5(4), it is expected that the Claimant prove the allegation (as set out in the Particulars of Claim) that the money is owed.
21. The Claimants statement of case fails to give adequate information to enable me, the Defendant, to properly assess my position with regards to the claim.
22. Therefore, I respectfully apply under Section 4.6(1) of the Practice Direction Pre-action Conduct for the proceedings to be Stayed with immediate effect until the Claimants comply fully with the Request for Further Information made.
23. It is denied that the Claimant is entitled to the relief as claimed or at all.

Statement of Truth
The Defendant believes that the facts stated in this Defence are true.
Signed ________________________________
Dated ________________________________

This was sent off before your reply, so I'm really hoping it is good enough.

[Diana M]

Re: is my defence good enough?

No one can tell you if your Defence is fine without having seen the Particulars of Claim and also knowing the full facts.

You've said the Claimant's pleadings are an abuse of process so can you post up or type out the pleadings (Particulars of Claim) removing anything which could identify you.

Who was the original creditor (Barclays or Barclaycard?) what was the account (credit card/loan/overdraft etc), when was it opened and so on?

You also appear to have annexed ten Exhibits to your Defence which possibly belong to the Witness Statement stage.

In No 22 you've asked for the claim to be "stayed" why is that?

You say your Defence has already been sent off so how did you file it at court (online/email/post)?

Di

[Shinybee]

Re: is my defence good enough?

Hi
There are two claims issued on 3/7/17 both for about £8000 each Barclaycards.
The PoC are the same for each:
This Claim is for the sum of £xxxx in respect of monies being owing under an Agreement with the Account no xxxxxxxxx pursuant to The Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA)
The debt was legally assigned by Barclays Bank plc (EX BARCLAYCARD) to the Claimant and notice has been served. The Defendant has failed to make contractual payments under the terms of the Agreement. A default notice has been served upon the Defendant pursuant to s.87(1) CCA.
The Claimant claims
1. the sum of £ xxxx
2. Costs

I asked for it to be stayed as information wasn't provided by the claimant, as I requested, to prevent any unnessary court proceedings and to enable me to defend myself fairly once they were proceeded with. Then with the intention of applying for an unless order if it was stayed.

I posted both defences separately. One was signed for on 29th July and the other took longer and signed for 1st Aug.