claim for Protection from Harrasment

[deadbeatdads]

I am looking to submit a claim for Protection from Harassment at the County Court. Any ideas which is the correct claim form to submit the claim, is it the N1 form or is there a particular form for Protection from Harassment?

[jaguarsuk]

You should be aware that claims of £1,000 or more for Harassment are treated akin to Personal Injury claims and therefore allocated to the Fast Track. There is a large potential cost issue if you do not succeed in your claim and may be advised to limit the claim to keep it in the Small Claims Track with it's limited costs implication.

Therefore you'd be wise before you go issuing a claim to post up the details of what has happened, what you are claiming and why here?

[deadbeatdads]

To get to the reason of why I’m making a claim started the middle of last year 2017, when there was visit from my local constabulary at my property as there was a warrant out for my arrest for non appearance at court for alleged culpable neglect and wilful refusal to pay child support. I was out at work, but my wife was in at the time of the visit from the local constabulary, the two police officers didn't believe my wife that i was not at the property and was out at work, and so they barged passed her to inspect the property, only to find my wife was correct all along.

When my wife contacted me at work to tell me of what had happened i contacted a local solicitor who informed me that as i was not aware of the court proceedings in the first place, a simple statutory declaration could be issued to the court under section 14 of the Magistrates Court Act, which was drafted up by the solicitor witnessed and posted off to the Designated officer at the Court, by way of signed for delivery to which the court signed for.
Visits from the constabulary continued whilst I was out at work, and so after finding a telephone number for the court I contacted the court to ascertain the reasons for the visits to continue with the arrest even after a Statutory Declaration had been served and all proceedings to that case should have been null and void. The answer from the Designated Officer was that they were unsure about the Statutory Declaration in Child Support cases and that they had contacted a member of staff at the Agency who informed the court to ignore my Statutory Declaration;
I tried in vain to ascertain from both the court and the Child Support Agency where such a law existed that authorised Statutory Declarations to be ignored in Child Support matters that came under criminal proceedings seeing as the CSA wanted to remove my driver’s licence or committal to prison, non of the two bodies could provide an answer;
Fast forward a couple of months and I was stopped by the police whilst out in my company van, arrested and put before a district judge to answer some questions. I had plenty for him, and one was relating to the Statutory Declaration which the District Judge confirmed my Statutory Declaration should have been accepted, so at least I knew this arrest and held in the cells for the night was unlawful, and the other question to the judge was how can this be a fair case if I have no paperwork to go on from the CSA in order to put a case together. The District Judge agreed with me and stated it was a breach of Human Rights and order the Child Support Agency to give me full disclosure no later than the 5^th December 2017, the trial was set for 16^th January 2018
No paperwork arrived from the Child Support Agency, and so I put in a few simple notes to the court that no paperwork was received by the Child Support Agency and that i had not heard from the Child Support Agency since 2010;
On the day of the case culpable neglect was ruled out as it was found the Child Support Agency had lapsed their focus on me for over 7 years, so it was wilful refusal to pay child support i was found guilty of;
The Magistrate stated that he would not revoke my drivers licence as I need that for work and to bring in money and so he ordered me to serve six weeks in prison. I questioned the Magistrates logic on that, or should I say his lack of logic and that was if you aren’t taking my drivers license from me because need it for work and to make money, how can I do that if I’m in prison? He realised his error and changed to six weeks prison sentence suspended for two years and I was order to pay £325 cost; I was asked if I could pay the amount in full which I refused but made an offer of £5 per week. That amount was refused and so I opted to stretch to £10 a week which was accepted
A written Notice of fine and collection followed a few days later from the court which clearly stated the £10 per week to be paid to the court only and not to the prosecution as record of the payments could not be recorded with the courts and could result in the further enforcement for failure to pay and so I have been paying every week without fail.
Since February 2018 I have been sent threatening letters from the Child Support Agency that states I have failed to pay them £10 per week off the arrears for child support that was ordered at the Magistrates Court and that if I did not pay then they would ask the court to send me to prison for the six weeks for failure to pay. I wrote back to the Child Support Agency informing them that I was not aware of any order to pay them direct and that I have complied with the court order to pay the court the £10 per week for the costs and if the Child Support Agency had a copy of this order to pay them £10 per week off the arrears they alleged, then please provide a copy, this they could not do and they told me to contact the court to obtain the order.
Despite the court only issuing one order which io have complied with, I am constantly being threatened by these people at the Child Support Agency with being sent to prison. This has been ongoing as I say from the beginning of February , and they refuse to provide any proof of this so called order which is why I wanted to put in a protection from harrassment claim in

[jaguarsuk]

Firstly if you wanted to make a Small or even Fast Track claim you are going to have to pay application and hearing fees long before you see any potential award. You need to weigh up the cost against the risk, as I said in my first post the Fast Track carries a heavy costs risk (we're talking thousands of pounds, potentially tens of thousands) and the CSA have deeper pockets to fight a claim than I assume you have given the offer accepted by the magistrates court.

The fact that the CSA are behaving in the way they are suggests they might be referring to the original order they obtained and were seeking enforcement of at the Magistrates court. It seems the amount you are paying £10 a week for is the £325 costs of the Magistrates Court proceedings and not the original outstanding child maintenance, although by failing to provide the original order they're not making it easy for you to understand. If it were me I would make a complaint to them about their conduct, detail everything that has gone on and that you feel you are being harassed. You could mention the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 along with Ferguson v British Gas [2009] which established that an entity (corporate in this example) is able to harass an individual. Also, Potter v Price [2004] established that anonymous phone calls and emails do constitute harassment. Their website tells you how to complain here: https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance...ts-and-appeals

In regards the unlawful arrest, it was lawful as far as the Police were concerned as they were acting on a warrant issued by the court. I really don't think you can fault them for the court's idiocy in blindly believing what the CSA tell them. The "Proper Officer" of the court is supposed to research if they are unsure how to proceed or put the matter before a judge. However, you don't have to go making claims to get redress for this, the Ministry of Justice has a complaints procedure and I personally would simply make a complaint. Include the whole story, including what the judge said about the arrest/detention being unlawful along with it breaching your Human Rights. Tell them you want a grovelling apology and compensation in monetary terms for the actions of the court; info how to complain here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organi...ints-procedure

The reason that I am suggesting making complaints is that they are free, but also if you have to instruct a Solicitor later to file a claim on either party it stands in your favour that you have tried all reasonable methods to settle the matter without need of litigation.

Equally if they try to send you to prison via new Magistrates Court proceedings you can show that you have tried all reasonable methods to deal with them and that they are the ones in the wrong.

[deadbeatdads]

Many thanks for your answers there and yes i will proceed down the complaints route for both the Courts and the CSA.
I have adhered to the court order that was sent to me which was to pay the Courts £10 a week,. As far as the Police were concerned they knew they were breaking the law by the arrest as a copy of the Statutory Declaration was also posted to then signed for delivery along with a copy of section 14 of the Magistrates Court Act 1980 and the Statutory Declaration Act 1835,i also instructed them to seek their own legal advice on the matter after all the Police cannot say we were only following orders from the court, remember the Nuremburg defence?

Many many thanks for the heads up your advice is invaluable

[jaguarsuk]

Many thanks for your answers there and yes i will proceed down the complaints route for both the Courts and the CSA.
I have adhered to the court order that was sent to me which was to pay the Courts £10 a week,. As far as the Police were concerned they knew they were breaking the law by the arrest as a copy of the Statutory Declaration was also posted to then signed for delivery along with a copy of section 14 of the Magistrates Court Act 1980 and the Statutory Declaration Act 1835,i also instructed them to seek their own legal advice on the matter after all the Police cannot say we were only following orders from the court, remember the Nuremburg defence?

Many many thanks for the heads up your advice is invaluable

In which case also a complaint either to the service via their website or your police and crime commissioner along the same vein as the court complaint.

[warwick65]

There seem to be two potential issues about the money here
1) You have agreed to pay £325 court costs at £10 per week which you are paying
2) Were you ordered to either start to pay child support or to pay the arrears - or maybe both . These would likely have been on top of any court costs

[deadbeatdads]

Nope there wasno mention of paying the arrears it was a criminal case for committal to prison or removal of drivers license for culpable neglect or wilful refusal to pay child support, i understand that the Magistrates could not order me to pay arrears tot he CSA as that would have to come under a civil matter at county court;
I even obtained my data prints that clearly show the court presenting officer for the CSA wasnt exactly the sharpest tool in the box, in his report it states that i was ordered to pay the CSAs arrears firstly of £150 a month but then changed to £10 per a week; He also states that i was given a 6 weeks suspended sentence and bound over to tkeep the peace for 2 years, how is not paying the CSA £10 a week a breach of the peace and whose peace are we talking. The Magistrates asked for my income and expenditure and when that was given they said i only had £10 spare per week to pay, it wasn;t £20 spare £10 CSA and £10 CSA costs. The only paperwork that came from the Magistrates corresponds with what was said at court £10 per week for the costs which have to be paid to the Court and NOT to the prosecution;

[deadbeatdads]

an update to this case, an odd summons was issued for committal to prison for failure to adhere to the court order, what better witness did i need than all the receipts from the court showing payments paid to them as described on their order. Also on the summons it stated that i had to bring my drivers license, which i couldn't understand why, if as they say i breached a suspended sentence order, then surely it would be automatically direct to prison you go.

So they are now trying me under double jeopardy, so because i failed to adhere to the court order they dont want to send me to prison they want to take my drivers license off me. The summons also stated that i had to state to the court why i should not be sent to prison

I put some notices into the court, that states i have had no statements to examine, and i found a High Court ruling Karoonian vs CMEC and it states in there that i must have adequate time and facilities to prepare my case, and that all i had received was a summons and nothing else, that was my basic fundamental Human Rights and it is not up to me to state why i should not be sent to prison, the onus is on the accuser to prove this not me.

On the day of the case the District judge stated it was a civil matter, the Judge ignored High Court rules when presented to her "Karronian Vs Cmec All penal cases are Criminal
Enforcement by commitment to prison must be seen as achieving a reasonable relationship between the legitimate aims of the legislation and the means employed to achieve those aims.
13. That said, it cannot be overlooked that, as is now common ground in this appeal, commitment to prison is a penal sanction and as such the proceedings are to be treated for Article 6 of the ECHR as criminal in their nature. On established principles of construction the statute must be strictly interpreted. As Lord Steyn made clear at [38] in R v A (No. 2) [2001] UKHL 25 [2002] 1 AC 45:
"... the guarantee of a fair trial under article 6 is absolute ."

The Judge apologised and stated that i was ordered to pay the CSA £10 a week, even upon production of the Notice of Fine and collection order the Judge dismissed that and said no you were ordered to pay the CSA direct; The Judge could not produce any order to support what she was saying, The Judge then ordered the monies paid into the court account to be paid back to the CSA; and was told to pay the CSA not the court.

Two days ago i received a Further Steps notice from the court threatening me with all sorts such as prison taking funds from my income, you really couldnt make this up

[jaguarsuk]

an update to this case, an odd summons was issued for committal to prison for failure to adhere to the court order, what better witness did i need than all the receipts from the court showing payments paid to them as described on their order. Also on the summons it stated that i had to bring my drivers license, which i couldn't understand why, if as they say i breached a suspended sentence order, then surely it would be automatically direct to prison you go.

So they are now trying me under double jeopardy, so because i failed to adhere to the court order they dont want to send me to prison they want to take my drivers license off me. The summons also stated that i had to state to the court why i should not be sent to prison

I put some notices into the court, that states i have had no statements to examine, and i found a High Court ruling Karoonian vs CMEC and it states in there that i must have adequate time and facilities to prepare my case, and that all i had received was a summons and nothing else, that was my basic fundamental Human Rights and it is not up to me to state why i should not be sent to prison, the onus is on the accuser to prove this not me.

On the day of the case the District judge stated it was a civil matter, the Judge ignored High Court rules when presented to her "Karronian Vs Cmec All penal cases are Criminal
Enforcement by commitment to prison must be seen as achieving a reasonable relationship between the legitimate aims of the legislation and the means employed to achieve those aims.
13. That said, it cannot be overlooked that, as is now common ground in this appeal, commitment to prison is a penal sanction and as such the proceedings are to be treated for Article 6 of the ECHR as criminal in their nature. On established principles of construction the statute must be strictly interpreted. As Lord Steyn made clear at [38] in R v A (No. 2) [2001] UKHL 25 [2002] 1 AC 45:
"... the guarantee of a fair trial under article 6 is absolute ."

The Judge apologised and stated that i was ordered to pay the CSA £10 a week, even upon production of the Notice of Fine and collection order the Judge dismissed that and said no you were ordered to pay the CSA direct; The Judge could not produce any order to support what she was saying, The Judge then ordered the monies paid into the court account to be paid back to the CSA; and was told to pay the CSA not the court.

Two days ago i received a Further Steps notice from the court threatening me with all sorts such as prison taking funds from my income, you really couldnt make this up

This is an utter shambles, but you are going about it in the right way and you are winning. Don't lose heart and keep pressing with the proof you have.

[deadbeatdads]

Well i cannot believe how such simple procedures can be ignored and overruled by inferior Judges. I mean it is supposed to be a criminal matter, as stated in a case law and to be shown how blatant a District Judge can be at ignoring case even when presented to her;
The next part is where she stated an order was made to pay the Child Support Agency direct, when in fact there is no such order, and that is supported by the fact of a Further Steps Notice for failing to pay the court after that case, you really really couldn't make it up