Using moneyclaim against a Scottish company

[shep23]

Hi,

My firm (based in England) has an unpaid debt of around £4k from one of our customers in Scotland.

I initially used moneyclaim but couldn't proceed as the customer is based in Scotland.

I started a simple claim through the Edinburgh Sheriff's Court but this was dismissed as the contract between us states that it is subject to English Law. How do we best proceed ?

Thanks in advance

[R0b]

Is your customer a consumer or a business?

The fact that the governing law is English law is not really that relevant, the question is whether your contract has any jurisdiction clause that says disputes are to be settled by the English courts exclusively. If there is no exclusive jurisdiction, then you can technically issue a claim in Scotland but hear the claim based on English law although the court can reject this is if it thinks it is not best suited to hear the case.

Equally, if your customer is a consumer then your governing law clause may not be valid as there is a general rule for consumers that the law is governed by where they reside. Also the Consumer Rights Act is applicable to both England, Wales and Scotland so in this case the court should have jurisdiction to hear your dispute rather than dismissing it.

Obviously this is just speculation but it would help if you can clarify the points I made above.