Granted Judgement by Acceptance now defendant denies this

[stoneman56]

I started a MCOL against a company that owes me money for a job I did. Within 14 days I received a letter from Northampton stating that the defendant had accepted liability and that I could now ask for judgement.

I thought this was odd as I have had nothing but abuse from this company stating that they would fight me all the way and not pay me a penny.
Along with the letter was the original N9a, and yes they had indeed ticked the box on page 1 where it asks if you accept liability . They also signed and dated the bottom of the reverse of that page.

BUT....... Page 2 "Acknowledgement of Service" they also ticked the box "I intend to defend all of this claim" signed and dated.

I phoned MCOL helpline, and as they DON'T KEEP COPIES OF ANYTHING (WTF) I had to describe what I had been sent. The agent said as long as the first part was ticked, signed and dated that's what counts. (This was after going away and speaking to a supervisor) So I applied for, and was granted judgment.

4 days later I received a letter from Northampton saying that the defendant had been in touch after receiving the judgment papers to say that they never admitted acceptance. I was asked to send in my proof that they accepted liability, which I did, only page 1, along with MCOL's own letter to me saying that the defendant accepted liability. A bar was also put on the judgement.

All this was November 10th, on December 20th I phoned up and asked if there was any movement . Agent went away, said that my proof had been received, but "because of our heavy workload, we haven't gotten round to it yet".

It is now nearly 2 months since I sent in my proof and there has still been no decision on what's happening. Any advice on how to move this forward would be helpful.

[Amethyst]

Sounds about right for the court. So the defendant had completed the response pack on paper via the N9a ? Had they completed the financial statement or simply ticked the "I admit the full amount of the claim" box and returned that along with their acknowledgment of service form saying they intend to defend in full. The bar is on the judgment to stop any enforcement action while the court sort themselves out - was this a bulk centre claim you made online or did you complete the N1 on paper and file at your local court ? as you mentioned MCOL I'm assuming you used this https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome ?

Sadly there isn't a great deal you can do until the court looks at the case and they will have a backlog and it's your guess as good as mine how long they might take - I'd give them a ring next week and then every couple weeks until it's dealt with to ensure it doesn't get lost.

Has the defendant filed a defence ? If they filed the acknowledgment and the court finds that a mistake was made and the claim should have been acknowledged then they likely will order the defendant to file their defence.