Application & Witness statement received one working day before hearing - IS THIS LEG

[The Tinkerman]

Hi All

Revived a letter from Court last year with hearing date on it, but nothing appertaining to what the hearing was about.
emailed the court and sent them a letter asking for information concerning the hearing, what it was about etc and to have the hearing transferred to my local court as it would have meant me doing a 500 mile round trip for a 15 min hearing.

Most of which fell on deaf ears, then literally on Saturday the 9th Jan before the hearing was about to take place the following Tuesday the 12th Jan I received the Claimants application and witness statement from the court which gave me no time at all to form a defence.

I rang the court in a blind panic on the Monday explaining this and that I had sent emails and letters concerning this matter all of which they said had received, and I asked in the circumstances for at least the hearing to be adjourned to give me time in which to form a defence, and they said that they would make a note of it in my records for the Judge to see.

About two weeks later I received a letter from the Court to say that the hearing had gone ahead in my absence and that the Claimants order had been granted,

Surely this cannot be right, surely their must be some sort of protocol in place to give the defendant the opportunity in which to form a defence.

I am in the middle of a set aside application at the mo to do with their witness statement which I had to pay for

My question is do I have any grounds here to get this case struck out or dismissed before it is started so to speak, due to the lack of time given in which to form a defence and should that hearing have taken place given the circumstances.

[Amy]

Re: Application & Witness statement received one working day before hearing - IS THIS

Did you apply formerly to the courts at any time and did you write to the Claimant to ascertain what this hearing was for? Or did you only make informal requests to the court over the telephone?

[The Tinkerman]

Re: Application & Witness statement received one working day before hearing - IS THIS

Hi Amy

I emailed the court, sent a letter to the court, rang the court all of which they acknowledged to, thought that was the correct thing to do because the letter for the hearing date was from the court,

But then again the claimants name on the hearing date was still the OC as this was an old CCJ that was bought by the now CLAIMANT/DCA back in 2002 all payments bang up to date from the date the CCJ was granted. and yet they only just applied to be substituted as the new claimant 8years on! and now have also applied for a variation order so no I did not write to the now claimant, thought that was their job anyway to make sure the defendant received all the relevant documents well before the hearing date.

[Amy]

Re: Application & Witness statement received one working day before hearing - IS THIS

I'm afraid I don't understand at all.

Are you trying to set-aside a judgment that was awarded against you last year?

[The Tinkerman]

Re: Application & Witness statement received one working day before hearing - IS THIS

Yip

the hearing in Jan last year was for them to be substituted as the new claimant / DCA Although they bought the CCJ debt 8 years ago.

But my point is I only got the claimants application and witness statement from the court literally one working day before the hearing date which informed me that it was an application for the claimant to be substituted and a witness statement that had a shed full of inaccuracies in it, but gave me no time in which to form a defence before the hearing.

Then after the hearing went ahead in my absence and was granted in favour of the claimant I applied for a set aside ( which I have to pay for) on the grounds that I was given no time in which to form a defence to the claimants application and witness statement and that I had emailed , sent a letter to the court manger and that I had asked for the hearing to be moved to a local court before the original hearing had taken place,

So what I am saying is surely that hearing should have not taken place given the

fact 1, That they confirmed all my correspondence had reach the court.

fact 2, That I was given no time in which to form a defence before the hearing took place, as I stated earlier surely their must be some sort of protocol in place to let the defendant know what the hearing relates to and given the time in which to form a defence (but to only given one working day?) and then through no fault of my own and to add insult to injury I had to pay for the application for a set aside!!! surely this cannot be right.