Serving Claims - Too little time to respond

[nigel-9999]

Is there any recourse to be taken against the HMCS (MoJ) with regard to the absurdley short period of time allowed to Acknowledge a claim against you.

I've been away for 4 weeks and on return found that I had a claim from a court and that the time to respond had expired (being more than 14 days) - the claimant requested and was granted a default Judgement (also before I saw the claim) - subsequently told that I could apply for a "set aside" hearing at a cost of £75, which I was allowed - case is still to be heard.

How can the UK court claim that it is fair to only allow 14 days for the initial response.

Also how can it is acceptable to allow a default judgement where "service" is deemed to be valid simply by claiming that it waS POSTED ON A CERTAIN DATE, EVEN IF THE CLAIM WAS NEVER RECEIVED..

Who says we have a good legal system - even in 3rd world countries they insist on an acknowledgement of service (by signature or in person) before pursuing the claim.

[Guest]

Re: Serving Claims - Too little time to respond

No, there is no recourse. These are the new Civil Procedure Rules that apply to Small Claims and were brought in to simplify the claims process. They were implemented in 1999 to make access to justice simpler, faster and cheaper and in particular to help those not legally trained.

There is a procedure in place for failure of service and you have implemented it. Once the default judgment is set aside, you will be given an opportunity to submit a defence. In addition, you will be able to claim for any fees you have paid via an N9B, defence and counterclaim.