The counterclaim

[charitynjw]

Hi all

I was in court last week as a McK Friend.
Parking charge claim......we won, so claim dismissed. (But by the skin of our teeth, lol!)

But there was a counterclaim filed with the defence (& paid for at that time)....DPA breach.

Now, the DDJ dismissed the claim itself, but never even mentioned the counterclaim.

So would the counterclaim still be 'live'?

(We really did not want to bring it up in the hearing as we got the distinct impression we were personae non gratae....DDJ even apologised to the Claimant's legal rep for "having to dismiss it, but given the defence evidence which the defendant had 'accidently stumbled upon' while 'flailing about in inept & misconceived legal argument', his hands were unfortunately tied. He even threatened awarding costs against us for unreasonable behaviour vis-a-vis daring to use legal argument eg. legislation & precedent case law.
I mention this bit to give you guys an idea why we thought it best not to raise the counterclaim issue in the hearing)

[ostell]

Re: The counterclaim

So the PPC did not respond with a defence to the counterclaim? So ask the court for a default judgment against them. I think it's possible.

[charitynjw]

Re: The counterclaim

So the PPC did not respond with a defence to the counterclaim? So ask the court for a default judgment against them. I think it's possible.

Good point, I'll have to check on that.

The whole court management of the claim was rather messy.
After the defence/c-claim was filed, & after filing the DQ, the Claimant was ordered to produce better particulars, which they did & an amended defence was then filed.
From there things went to pot.
The court misplaced the hard copy files (not sure whether it was NCCBC's or the allocated court's fault), & the allocated court had no record of the plethora of phone calls & emails we had made to try & sort things out. My friend didn't receive an allocation notice, or any disclosure by the Claimant until we chased it up by ringing the Claimant's sols (G'stones). This being 3 or 4 days before the hearing date. (I found about the exact date/venue during one of our many calls to the court).
All in all, not very impressed with the current state of play with case management.

[ostell]

Re: The counterclaim

I think this situation happened on PePipoo, with the claimant "forgetting", via their solicitor, that there was a counterclaim and the counterclaim was successful by default. Don't ask me to find it though. It could even have been Gladstones.

[des8]

Re: The counterclaim

Found this "If the main claim is settled, the part 20 claim does not stand struck out." here;https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/part-20-survival-guide/36576.article

So presumably one can apply for a default judgement, especially so if the original (losing) claimant did not enter a defence against the counterclaim

[charitynjw]

Re: The counterclaim

[MENTION=39710]des8[/MENTION] [MENTION=39331]ostell[/MENTION]

Cheers folks

I'll check the link & the court record & post back.

[charitynjw]

Re: The counterclaim

Ok

First thing
Phoned the court to see if they had any info re the hearing.
They are currently 2 weeks behind with admin, so no joy yet.
I guess notification will be sent in the fullness of time.

Second thing.
I had a word with one of the transcription services.
They reckon it would probably cost about £140 + vat.