** STRUCK OUT *** Need help to apply for CCJ to be set aside

[thonvh2017]

I am not sure if the CCJ has been set aside as I have not got a letter from the court confirming that.

Cheers

[Amethyst]

Happens all the time I'm afraid, I suppose it helps keep court costs down as there have to be fewer applications to overturn a strike out based on a court imposed deadline. It's not fair though, in my view, particularly where the defendant has complied religiously with all deadlines.
But we are where we are.

So yes when you receive those documents from the court there should be an order for you to defend the new particulars - although Cottams earlier suggestion was that you be excused from doing so as you had already filed a defence in the case, so it may be the court agrees with that. It really depends what the new particulars are and if they raise further issues as to what your next move is. So let us know when the new order from the court and new particulars arrive.

[thonvh2017]

Dear sir,

Please find the attached court orders since I last updated the forum. I am still waiting for a new order regarding the new claim form issued by the Claimant; I ll update as soon as I got it.

Cheers

[thonvh2017]

Sorry i thought i should have uploaded using URLs so that everyone could see. But they are not displayed directly.

Thanks

[R0b]

It seems odd that the order doesn't explicitly state that the CCJ was set aside and I think that is more of a procedural error on the Court's part. You should contact the court already to confirm this but logically, as Amethyst has said, the CCJ would appear to have been set aside otherwise Cottams would not have been ordered to file new Particulars of Claim nor would it have been allocated to the relevant court.

But for records purposes, it should be made clear that in the orders that the CCJ is set aside. If a judge finds in favour of Cottams on the day of the hearing, then an order confirming set aside is irrelevant except to the extent that no CCJ marker should be registered on your credit files or at the Trust Registry assuming it is paid for within one month of judgment. Either way, the claim number on your documents should tally up with the claim number of the CCJ so it should be traceable unless you didn't put the claim number in the box on your application?

As for the orders, you should sit tight as the case has been referred to a judge for further directions. Once a judge has looked at it, you will hear from the Court.

[thonvh2017]

Thank you R0b for your support.

I was advised by Citizen Advice Bureau a few weeks ago to log a complaint to Solicitor Regulation Authority (SRA) which I did not do earlier because I thought the court would strike out this bogus claim. After I phoned the court last week who told me that the trial hearing would be 05/11/2018, I prepared and submitted the claim form to SRA yesterday with all relevant evidences stated in my witness statement which is shown below:


======================= Start of Witness Statement Of Defendant to SRA ============================================

1. I was bitten by a dog on 15/03/2013 just outside of my gate. I then went to Slater & Gordon solicitors with No Win No Fee agreement.
2. Because the Defendant has not responded to their letters for nearly three years, Slater & Gordon Solicitors decided to drop my personal injury case in February 2016, only a few weeks before the deadline of 13/03/2016.
3. I was in a hurry to find a Solicitor or Barrister at that time, and obtained details of Cottam Solicitors from Law Society.
4. I contacted the firm and on 09/02/2016 I had an initial discussion with Mr Harry Cottam about my personal injury case. It sounds too good to be true that the firm charges only £90 for unlimited discussions. I believed I spent about half an hour telling Mr Cottam about my case. He advised me that he dealt with Personal Injury case. I asked him if the claim form drafted by Slater & Gordon Solicitors was OK to be issued to the court; he said “yes” and also gave me the address of the court so that I can send the form to the correct address – but I also searched on the Internet afterwards and spoke to the court myself to make sure the address is correct. He also advised me to get a police and medical reports at that meeting, and to trace the defendant. I also discussed a legal fee he would charge for drafting a particular of claims, giving an instruction to the Plastic Surgeon and general advice. During the meeting I asked Mr Cottam if he could charge a fixed fee for legal advice as I did not have money to pay per hour, and I did not want to owe him any huge legal fees. He confirmed that he could do a fixed fee, and his legal fee was a fixed fee of £600 (£500 plus VAT) which I still have that note in my file, and the cost of Plastic Surgeon was £600 including VAT. I agreed with the fixed fee he suggested.
5. On 10/02/2016 I managed to issue a claim form against Mr Lakhan Pal, the Defendant, in my Personal Injury Case, to the Small Claim Court, and received the sealed claim forms from the court on 16/02/2016.
6. As soon as I received the above sealed claim forms from the court, I phoned Mr Cottam to inform him of those documents while still waiting a medical report from Queen Elizabeth Hospital and a report from the Police and tracing agency to find the Defendant’s address. Mr Cottam required me to see him again, and I booked an appointment to see him on 22/03/2016. It was less than 10 minutes meeting, and Mr Cottam required me to pay another £90 which I paid to him in cash with a receipt. I could not remember what exactly he advised me to do at that meeting. But I did not think he advised me any more from what he told me in the first meeting which I already knew.
7. After I received medical report from Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and a report from a tracing agency, I phoned Mr Cottam who required me to see him on 11/04/2016. At that meeting, he had taken original copies of the Police reports and the medical report from Queen Elizabeth Hospital which he refused to return to me at my repeated requests afterwards. During the meeting, I did ask him again about his fixed legal fee before I paid another £600 using his payment machine ().
8. Because he did not issue me any letter or contract paper to say his legal fee was a fixed fee of £600 and the fee for obtaining medial record from a plastic surgeon was £500 plus VAT, on the same day (11/04/2018) after I arrived at home, I phoned Mr Cottam and asked for that letter. He was not available on my first call, so I had to phone him again on that day and managed to speak to Mr Cottam. Mr Cottam refused to provide that letter, and told me he would give me a contract letter afterward, and said he would not know how much it cost as he had not done any work (a draft of Particulars of Claim, and medical report from a plastic surgeon) for me yet.
9. Because of my repeated requests for the agreement letter of him, I believed on 29/04/2018 Mr Cottam sent me an email saying that he sent a letter to the Defendant (Mr Lakhan) and also wrote a letter to the Plastic Surgeon. He also sent me a contract letter to sign which he would charge me around £200 per hour and stated I paid him a deposit of £600 in that letter. I disagreed with his contract letter as it was not what I agreed with him verbally when I met him personally three times as stated above. (
10. On 03/05/2016, because I could not really afford to pay such an expensive legal fee which may results in huge legal bills I would need to pay him afterwards, I sent an email to him to dispute the content in that contract letter as it was not what he agreed with me on 09/02/2016, 22/03/2016 and 11/04/2016. If he had told me he would charge per hour fee on 11/04/2016, I would not have paid him £600 on that day in his office. There was no immediate response by email from Mr Cottam regarding my concerns. I strongly denied that letter and refused to sign it ().
11. I had been very worried as Mr Cottam had not responded to phone calls/emails at all. I was searching around for a new Barrister/Solicitor. I found one Public Access Barrister who would charge £420 plus VAT for a draft of Particulars of Claim and general legal advice. His clerk advised me that it would take only one day for his barrister to draft particulars of claims ().
12. I also made a number of phone calls to other plastic surgeons to obtain a medical report for my personal injuries which include the followings: johnmichaelporter.com, pollosurgery.co.uk, atulkhanna.co.uk, BMI The Park Hospital, etc. A couple of these surgeons advised me that it took only up to 3 weeks to get appointment to see a surgeon to produce a report instead of weeks advised by Cottams Solicitors. I also found out that Atul Khanna surgeon had not received a letter from Cottams Solicitors yet at that time. I believed I raised this concern with Cottams Solicitors by email. (evidence of phone call records)
13. After I made sure I found someone (a barrister above) to help me with my case and knew how to get a medical report, on 31/05/2016 I decided to phone Mr Cottam to give him the last chance whether he still wanted to take on my case as I did not want to instruct another Barrister/Solicitors without having talked to Mr Cottam. I believe I gave a deadline to Mr Cottam through his clerk to respond to my enquiry or I would have to move on to a different solicitors. His clerk took my phone number so that he could call me back. On 01/06/2016 he did call me back on that day. During that phone discussion, I asked Mr Cottam repeatedly if he kindly accepted the fixed fee agreement he made with me verbally as stated above; Mr Cottam kept replying in this way “yes, that was what I was saying”. I believed at this stage Cottams Solicitors had not done any substantial work on my case yet except sending a letter to a plastic surgeon. During that phone discussion, Mr Cottam also advised me to apply for an extension to the court deadline while waiting for medical record to be done by a plastic surgeon. With the help from the court clerk, I managed to file and submit an extension form and paid a court fee ().
14. If Cottams Solicitors or Mr Cottam was not satisfied to provide legal services for me, why did Mr Cottams just say he could not accept that fixed fee agreement he made verbally with me in his office on 09/02/2016, and let me move on to a different legal advisor? I believe Mr Cottam has a plan to cause me difficulty in pursuing my personal injury claim against Mr Lakhan.
15. Because there was no written letter from Mr Cottam regarding his agreement on phone call above, I was still doubtful of Mr Cottam’s reply (“that was what I was saying”). However, I still went ahead to stay at Cottam Solicitors and hoped Mr Cottam was kind to help me out. Therefore, I decided not to instruct the public access barrister after the above phone discussion.
16. If he had not accepted the fixed agreement during the phone conversation on 01/06/2016, I would have instructed the public access barrister as mentioned above who charged me less and could draft Particulars of Claim for me within one or two days. I believe that Mr Cottam tried to stop me from moving to a new solicitor/barrister when he phoned me on 01/06/2016 without giving any written agreement, or leaving any record of what he agreed with me on phone so that he could still claim per hour fees afterwards.
17. On 15/06/2016, Mr Cottam responded to me regarding the fee and his phone call above. He stated that he “already made clear as to the level of fees”, etc. which I thought to be £600 fixed (plus £600 for a medical record). I believe Mr Cottam may have tried to confuse me as he knew English was not my first language. But I have a good reason why I was still instructing him after I found a public access barrister; this was because he accepted a fixed fee agreement on the phone on 01/06/2016 when I asked him repeatedly, and he said “yes that was what I was saying” ().
18. I had been very distressed with the delay of my case and unclear agreement of legal fee with Mr Cottam as he did not give me a letter to sign that fixed fee agreement. Due to my permanent illnesses (Diabetes Type 2 & Hepatitis C with Cirrhosis), I have been very stressful and distressed by an unclear agreement of legal fee with Cottams Solicitors, and the delay of paperwork prepared by Cottams Solicitors whether either it failed to send a letter to a plastic surgeon earlier or the plastic surgeon failed to receive it from Cottams Solicitors.
19. After I got an appointment letter from Mr Atul Khanna’s surgeon, I went to see Mr Atul Khanna on 27/07/2016 so that he could produce a medical report for me ().
20. About two weeks after my appointment with Mr Atul Khanna, I had still not heard anything from Mr Cottam. I was worried again about my court deadline which was 30/09/2016. I believe on 11^th, 12^th and 15^th August 2016, I phoned Mr Cottam regarding my court paperwork, and the court deadline I had to meet by the end of September 2016. I believe Mr Cottams did not return to my phone calls until about the end of August 2016; he advised me that he would send me the draft of particulars of claim with a medical report soon ().
21. I believed at around the end of August 2016, Mr Cottam emailed me the particulars of claim and medical report from Mr Atul Khanna. He also detailed the total fee he would charge me in terms of hourly fees instead of fixed fee. I believed his claimed fee was much over £600 I had to pay him in addition to an amount of £600 I already paid on 11/04/2016. I believe Cottams Solicitors was based on the number of emails I had sent to it most of which were not responded by Cottams Solicitors to calculate the amount I had to pay it (). Based on the claim form I received from Dudley County Court, Cottams Solicitors claims an amount of £1358.74 against me ().
22. I initially thought both documents he sent to me were OK; but later on I wondered why there were no legal legislations quoted in the particulars of claim compared to the one I found on the Internet. At that time I did not notice that the medical report Cottams Solicitors sent to me was not signed which was found out by my public Barrister afterwards. In its email Cottams Solicitors outlined why it charged me that hourly rate fees; it counted the number of emails I had sent to him since April 2016 (.
23. I believe that I sent emails to Mr Cottam in response to his above email and stated that I disagreed with the fee. I also suggested that I would like to offer £100 extra on top of a fixed fee of £600 as agreed as I did not want to have unnecessary dispute with him; I have had two permanent illnesses, and just want to get on with them.
24. Because there were no responses from Mr Cottam, I believe on 31/08/2016 I phoned Mr Cottam who was not available and returned my call as usually on 02/09/2018. He stated that he had send an instruction to Mr Atul Khanna for a medical report and would give me a fax receipt of that letter as I complained about a long delay of getting a medical report. I said to Mr Cottam that it was not about delay in obtaining that medical record as I was concerned about his particulars of claim containing no legal arguments, and the legal fee he claimed against me which I had never agree with (.
25. I believe Mr Cottam emailed the copy of the fax he sent to the plastic surgeon, Mr Atul Khanna after the above phone discussion. ()
26. But that was not a main point of my dispute with Mr Cottam. I refused to pay him more because of the hourly fee Mr Cottam claimed which I never agreed and the particulars of claims he drafted containing no legal arguments.
27. I believe I informed Mr Cottam that I was instructing another legal representative to help write completely new particulars of claim for my case, and I stated that Mr Cottams was not entitled to more fees from me because I have already paid him an amount of £780 (£600 + £180). ()
28. Due to the court deadline approaching (30/09/2016) and unsettled ongoing disputes with Mr Cottam, I spoke to Mr John Meredith Hardy, a public access barrister, who kindly accepted a fixed fee of £600 including VAT. I believe I should have instructed the first barrister mentioned above who charged only £420 including VAT, but his clerk failed to respond to me early. Mr Hardy’s service included a draft of particulars of claim and general legal advice (.
29. During my discussion with Mr John Meredith Hardy, he found out that the medical report from Mr Atul Khanna was not signed. Mr Hardy advised me that that unsigned medical report would not be accepted by the court, and that I had to seek for a medical report from another surgeon.
30. At this stage I believe that Mr Cottam seemed to force me to pay hourly fees by sending this unsigned medical report. I believe the disputes were going on between me and Mr Cottam while I was instructing Mr Hardy to help with my court paperwork. Mr Hardy finished the draft of particulars of claim within two days. ().
31. I believe Mr Hardy also advised me to file a professional negligence claim against Cottams Solicitors. However, I informed Mr Hardy that I was not able to cope with another case due to my permanent illnesses (Diabetes Type 2 and Hepatitis C with Cirrhosis) which I had been diagnosed with since early 2015. (). Because of that on 30/09/2018 Mr Hardy advised me to write a letter to Cottams Solicitors to request a signed copy of the medical record. ().
32. I believe a few days later, Mr Hardy legally advised that I could submit that unsigned medical report with the particulars of claim he drafted for me and ask the court to give me some times to submit a signed one ().
33. Because of that I decided to move on and did not want to have more disputes with Cottam Solicitors although I had not received any reply from Cottams Solicitors after I sent the above letter.
34. I confirm that I paid a total amount of £780 to Cottams Solicitors, but I got no valid paperwork which I could use for my personal injury case.
35. On 26/11/2016, I moved out of my rented flat in Dudley to Stoke-On-Trent. I confirmed that at that time I still did not receive a response, by post, to my letter from Cottams Solicitors whether it was willing to resolve the dispute or file a case against me regarding the disputed legal fees above. I thought Cottams Solicitors no longer wanted to dispute with me.
36. On 15/03/2017 I instructed Janardan Kantilal Vyas, a Surgeon, to help write a medical report for my personal injury. Mr Vyas charged only £250 including VAT instead of about £600 charged by Cottams Solicitors. (
37. However, Cottams Solicitors filed a claim against me after I left a rented flat in Dudley. I confirm that when I started to use a legal service provided by Cottams Solicitors in April 2016, I was living in [Defendant's previous address in Birmingham]. I informed Cottams Solicitors when I moved to [Defendant's previous address in Dudley]. The tenancy agree was for 6 months.
38. I first became aware of the CCJ on 28/09/2017 when I logged into a free credit rating website at www.noddle.co.uk which I had not been to for months.
39. I was completely unaware that Cottams Solicitors had issued proceedings against me in relation, I believe, to a dispute with a legal fee. I did not receive the claim form or any correspondence from Cottams Solicitors referring to their claim.
40. As soon as I became aware of the judgment, I acted promptly by phoning the Court on 03/10/2017 to inform it that I would like to apply for the CCJ to be set aside; and on 04/10/2017 I called the court to request the claim form N1, judgment against me and all other relevant documents so that I could file an appropriate defence against the claim.
41. Now the case was transferred from Dudley Court to Stoke-On-Trent County Court. And the Claimant issued a new claim form which I did not receive yet. Last week I phoned Stoke-On-Trent County Court to find out about the claim against me. The court advised that the Claimant had filed a new claim form, and the court has set a hearing date for 05/11/2018 ().

I very appreciate your help.
Regards

Name of Defendant
Defendant
Date: 03/09/2018

======================= End of Witness Statement ================================



I also received the court order yesterday requiring me to negotiate with intermediary to resolve the dispute. This dodgy firm seems not pay a fee to the court yet based on that order below. Do I need to talk to that organisation even I dont owe this firm any money?

Cheers

[thonvh2017]

Dear R0b,

I sent all relevant evidences in Zip file to your private message box as I could not post them here due to privacy.

Thanks

[thonvh2017]

Dear all,

I have got a court letter last Saturday which struck out the case comletely as the Claimants failed to comply with the court order to pay a court fee. I dont believe it has anything to claim against me; instead it owed me some money. It is a really BOGUS claim intended to cause troubles to people who have limited access to legal rights due to their financial difficulties. Please see the court letter attached.

Without the support from here, especially from Mr R0b, who helped me with my witness statement and very strong Defence Statement with appropriate legal arguments, Cottoms Solicitors decided to give up this case and was scared off as the court warned that it may have to pay a legal fee to me if it cannot prove they have reasonable evidences. That was stated in the previous court letter.

The court advised me to phone this number 02073800133 to find out if CCJ against me has been removed. Indeed, it was removed on 01/05/2018.

I am very glad that I have beaten the corrupt system causing thousands of people hardship with CCJ.

I am going to leave the UK soon to live somewhere for a while, but still stay online. If other CCJ victims would like to ask me anything about my experience, please do so; I am happy to help.

Regards

Thon

[Amethyst]

Great to hear the set aside had gone through and the judgment's been removed... and it's good news the claim has been struck out - it is a shame it's on non-payment of hearing fee rather than getting to argue the case and have a ruling against them, but it's still good news.

Did you get a costs order from the court after the set-aside or did the consent involve 'no costs' ? Did you have to pay the £255 ?

R0b Well done xx

[R0b]

Well done, perhaps they felt it wasnt worth it since you put in a reasonable defence.

I'm curious though do you have the previous order from the court? Their recent template orders I have seen states that if the fee isn't paid and the case is struck out then you will automatically be awarded costs.

Even if there is no mention of this, the good thing is that it is over with and they cant bring a claim without the courts permission. Do hold onto that order because if Cottams try their luck in the future for one reason or another you can refer to that

[thonvh2017]

Hi sir,

I did not pay for the form or any court fee as I am on working tax credit.

And the court did not say I could claim that cost against the Claimant? If I paid, I could not claim that back, is it correct?

Cheers
Thon

[thonvh2017]

I also informed Solicitor Regulartion Authority of this case being struck out, and asked it to process my claim against Cottams Solicitors to prevent it from causing troubles to other people.

Cheers
Thon

[Amethyst]

If you didn't pay the app fee due to exemption then there's probably no wasted costs to claim but it was included in the order of 29th Aug.
order.png

[thonvh2017]

thanks for clarifying that.

Thon

[R0b]

Costs are not just wasted costs but in my eyes it also includes costs of defending the claim at the LiP rate of £19 per hour. The usual rule for small claims is of course that costs generally are not recoverable except for those fixed costs as stated. However, the Court has clearly stated that unless it orders otherwise the Claimant will be liable for costs incurred. I would think that would extend to everything you have done to prepare for the claim i.e. acknowledgement, defence, witness statement, legal research, evidence gathering, postage costs, printing costs etc.

Of course whether you want to chance yourself at that is up to you and you might just want to leave it as it is.