Help - this making me feel Suicidal

[Sunnytime]

Mortimer Clarke solicitors have been chasing me for an alleged debt to a company called Cabot Financial. They have been threatening me will prison if I don’t pay off a £4000 debt. I cannot believe their letters are so threatening. I have wrote to them many times as I believe the debt is statue Barr . No contact or payment has been made over 10 years. I have asked them to substantiate their claim and provide all details appertaining to the alleged debt ( I have never acknowledged debt) and their reasons why any debt they believe I have is not statue Barr. I have asked time and time again and advised them that I am ill and have not worked for over 10 years due to disabilities. They said they would refer my letter onto the company they say I owe money to for a response. I never received one. They continue to send threatening letters and fail to respond to my requests and now today I receive a notice of transfer of proceedings and that they are transferring claim to county court. I am worried sick. I have never been to court in my life . I am just about surviving and my savings are less than £1000. What can I do ? Please can some help me.

[Amethyst]

I can't believe their letters are that threatening either, do you have a copy of what they have sent you threatening prison ? We don't have debtors prison... the only way for things to get to a Prison threat would be if they got a judgment, then an order for questionning to court that you don't attend... and then it just never happens.. and by the sound of it you don't even have a judgment against you as yet ?

Please can you do some pictures of what you have received and send it to me - admin@legalbeagles.info - hopefully we'll be able to set your mind at rest and help you get this sorted out. Please try not to worry xxx

There is a court claim issued and you have entered a defence saying it is statute barred already ? Or has it gone to a default judgment and they are trying to enforce by an application to court ? ( as I say, if you can do some pics of the latest letters and anything you're concerned about hopefully we'll be able to sort out what's what and get things sorted with you xxx )

Have you told Cabot in writing about your health and financial issues?

[Sunnytime]

I can't believe their letters are that threatening either, do you have a copy of what they have sent you threatening prison ? We don't have debtors prison... the only way for things to get to a Prison threat would be if they got a judgment, then an order for questionning to court that you don't attend... and then it just never happens.. and by the sound of it you don't even have a judgment against you as yet ?

Please can you do some pictures of what you have received and send it to me - admin@legalbeagles.info - hopefully we'll be able to set your mind at rest and help you get this sorted out. Please try not to worry xxx

There is a court claim issued and you have entered a defence saying it is statute barred already ? Or has it gone to a default judgment and they are trying to enforce by an application to court ? ( as I say, if you can do some pics of the latest letters and anything you're concerned about hopefully we'll be able to sort out what's what and get things sorted with you xxx )

Have you told Cabot in writing about your health and financial issues?

Sorry I have not kept any letters , I destroy them , I can’t stand to see them. I have written to them so many times but they ignore my requests for info and just threaten me I have just written to them using your template requesting a copy of the consumer credit agreement etc . What do I do if I get a letter from the court requesting I attend ? I could not do this. I can’t stop crying

[Amethyst]

Do you have this most recent letter about the transfer of proceedings ?

A transfer takes place either on an application for enforcement or after you have defended a claim, so need to know which it is to know what you need to do. You're not going to prison and it's unlikely you'll have to attend court - most things can be done in writing xxx

Do you have a claim number at all? And are you okay to use the telephone, give the county court business centre a call and ask them to send you details of the claim - they can email it to you. ( You could email them to ask for it but it will take longer and I think you need to know where you stand and what's going to happen next so you can get back on track and ease the worry a little bit )

[Sunnytime]

Thanks for help. I sent them a letter with a postal order for £1 requesting details of the claim and proof of the account and non payment etc and now they seem to have backed off. All of a sudden instead of the court hearing I am told case has been referred back to the company that they say I owe money to. It makes me think it was a lie all the time and this company of solicitors were threatening me with lies and there was no official court hearing.

[Amethyst]

That letter is saying they will refer back to the creditor to get the documents you asked for. It likely came from a different department that has no idea there are court proceedings going on

Please try and keep letters about this now. If you don't understand something please try to do a picture of letter and send us it ( admin@legalbeagles.info ) - or if you can redact your personal info you can post it on here and we can try make sure you know what you need to do.

Did you call the court ? If not, do, tomorrow - give them the claim number and ask what the current status is. Write down what they tell you and ask them if they can email you the case details.

You need to know if a) there is a judgment against you b) if the claimant has made any applications for enforcement - and if so what ? And c) whether there is a hearing you need attend.

Its nearly a month since you last posted - have you had any other letters from Cabot or the court since then or just the reply to your CCA £1 letter ?

[Sunnytime]

Thanks so much for coming back to me. Cabot wrote to me to say that Mortimer Clarke had returned the case to them. No mention of the £1 postal order I sent for info. Cabot were requesting my personal details so I sent them the statue Barr letter as I sent to Mortimer. Today someone came to my door. They did not ring the bell they just left a scruffy envelope with a letter inside . It really looks fake but scares me as it says it’s from a bailiff. I don’t know what to do. It must have something to do with this but it all seems so moody. I’ll try and post picture.

[Amethyst]

So sorry for missing this post - thank you for the email. Have you heard anything else since this letter was put through the door?

Did you call the court ? If not, do, today - give them the claim number ( or your name address details) and ask what the current status is. Write down what they tell you and ask them if they can email you the case details. Alternatively you could call Cabot to find out what the situation is ( as they are the last ones you heard from on the matter ). You do need to find out some information what the status of the claim is so that you can get it dealt with.

[Welsh-dragon]

Thanks so much for coming back to me. Cabot wrote to me to say that Mortimer Clarke had returned the case to them. No mention of the £1 postal order I sent for info. Cabot were requesting my personal details so I sent them the statue Barr letter as I sent to Mortimer. Today someone came to my door. They did not ring the bell they just left a scruffy envelope with a letter inside . It really looks fake but scares me as it says it’s from a bailiff. I don’t know what to do. It must have something to do with this but it all seems so moody. I’ll try and post picture.

After it has been in front of a Judge, if & only if the Judge ordered a Bailiffs services

Genuine Bailiffs from the court will NOT turn up at the door, just to ask you to phone them on a mobile number, they typically send first few letters out via the post office & with a date of their intended action & who will attend with a Claim number & Warrant number, then give you advice if the date is not suitable contact them to arrange a suitable date... See: https://www.civea.co.uk/assets/img/C...tice_Guide.pdf for a brief guide they have to follow...

I have not dealt with genuine Bailiffs, but at least the ones I dealt with have tried a little to look legit...

No court I have dealt with gives mobile numbers for contact, they only give official landline numbers & in the footer of the paperwork says who produced it...

For example the ones I have here says in the top left corner

Notice of [intended action]

then a box with information

In the County Court [County-borough] & Claim Numer & Date

Then a box with information saying, to The Legal-Name AND ALL OTHER OCCUPIERS, & the address
Then another box saying who the Claimant is v's The defendent, [typically the name of a bussines]

In the main body of the letter no boxes, & says a paragraph about the court issuing the War-rant...

Then the time & date the action they are going to take will take place...

Then a paragraph on What will happen

Then a few paragraphs on What you can do

Then a blank box

Then a box with Contact details

NO Court Seal or Judges wet ink signature on the one I have here


I notice the County Court rubber ink stamp & its placement....

The placement of the stamp is crucial as they use it in place of the Seal, where it is to seal the document at the end to make it authentic & official...

In Contract Law anything in boxes is not valid & pertains to nothing in the rest of the document... In fact boxes negate the documentation...

Any War-rant must have both a seal & a judges wet ink signature...


County Courts...
A1Establishment of a single county court


(1)There is to be a court in England and Wales, called the county court, for the purpose of exercising the jurisdiction and powers conferred on it—

(a)by or under this or any other Act, or

(b)by or under any Act, or Measure, of the National Assembly for Wales.

(2)The county court is to be a court of record and have a seal.] County courts and districts

F21County courts to be held for districts.

Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/28/part/I

seal (n.1) "design stamped on wax," especially one attached to a document as evidence of authenticity, c. 1200, from Old French seel "seal on a letter" (Modern French sceau), from Vulgar Latin *sigellum (source of Italian suggello, Spanish sello; also Old Frisian and Middle High German sigel, German Siegel), from Latin sigillum "small picture, engraved figure, seal," diminutive of signum "identifying mark, sign" (see sign (n.)). An earlier borrowing directly from Latin is represented by Old English insigel. Technical use, "what prevents the escape of a gas or liquid" is from 1853.

Source: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=seal
What is OFFICIAL SEAL?

the name that is given to the imprint or seal that is placed on an official document by the public official. Source: https://thelawdictionary.org/official-seal/

[MIKE770]

No Form Number????

[Welsh-dragon]

No Form Number????

No form numberr, Just Claim & War-rant numbers...

[Sunnytime]

Thank you for your help*Please see recent letters . I have photographed them for your reference as you requested. Please note I have NOT paid the £106 on 9th February 2015. Despite asking them for proof of this I have not received anything. Also I sent them a postal order for £1 requesting info but they never replied to that either. They keep saying the account is not statue Barr but it is. No payments have been made for years. I cannot understand their jargon. I also do not want anyone coming to my home. I have not replied to this last letter. I thought I’d wait until I heard from you. I would be grateful for any *you can offer. Thank you*

[Sunnytime]

I have emailed you all the documents as requested. Thanks GIR your help*

[ploddertom]

Thank you for your helpPlease see recent letters . I have photographed them for your reference as you requested. Please note I have NOT paid the £106 on 9th February 2015. Despite asking them for proof of this I have not received anything. Also I sent them a postal order for £1 requesting info but they never replied to that either. They keep saying the account is not statue Barr but it is. No payments have been made for years. I cannot understand their jargon. I also do not want anyone coming to my home. I have not replied to this last letter. I thought I’d wait until I heard from you. I would be grateful for any you can offer. Thank you

Have you checked your Credit History to see if a CCJ is mentioned - if it is them I'm afraid your £1 PO is superfluous & the account will therefore probably not be SB.

[Amethyst]

I've got the letters you sent by email, thank you.

Cabot are saying they already have a CCJ against you, which they attempted to enforce ( hence the transfer of proceedings letter and then the calling card )

The CCJ was obtained in October 2016 by default as you didn't respond to the claim form. This may be because you didn't receive the claim or just had other things going on and just didn't do anything with it.

In March 2019 you wrote to Mortimer Clarke solicitors ( presumably they had written to you to ask for payment of the judgment ) to say the debt was statute barred, and they responded to say it wasn't as there was already a judgment in place. For the debt to be statute barred you would need to have defaulted /last paid the Vanquis account before September 2010. As the account wasn't opened until April 2010 that seems unlikely, so although you dispute the last payment was made in Feb 2015 the account didn't default until September 2015 so was only a year old when the CCJ was applied for.

It doesn't sound like the communication got anywhere and Mortimer Clarke applied to court to enforce the judgment by attachment of earnings.

The court would have sent the attachment of earnings form to you - it is a legal requirement to complete and return that - and that explains where the mention of prison comes from in your first post.

Anyway you then wrote a complaint to Cabot - I'm not sure what you said in that letter but the letter you've sent me on email is their response to your complaint. They are aware of your circumstances and ask that you send them a letter from your GP or evidence of your health issues, a completed income and expenditure form, and if you want someone to deal with them on your behalf, a letter of authority. Once you've sent those the case will be looked at by their support team.

It seems quite likely that once they have your information they will either offer to accept a token payment each month until such time as things improve for you, or just walk away. I think responding to that letter with the info they have asked for is your best option.*

If for any reason they don't accept a token payment you still have the option to apply to the court to set a payment amount based on your income and expenditure.*