Defendant says the service of claim form is not correct

[CreamSoda]

Defendant says they live in Spain and have done for over 3 years. I am told I need to provide strict proof they are an English resident. Why? surely they have to provide strict proof they are a Spanish resident. The onus is not on me? I'm so confused. Other points as well but this is the most important to prove. What would I need?

[jaguarsuk]

Have you filed a claim?

What are you claiming for?

[Amethyst]

Defendant says they live in Spain and have done for over 3 years. I am told I need to provide strict proof they are an English resident. Why? surely they have to provide strict proof they are a Spanish resident. The onus is not on me? I'm so confused. Other points as well but this is the most important to prove. What would I need?

Where have you served the claim to ?

[CreamSoda]

Sometimes, it is nice to know the ending. It was over a child and unpaid upkeep of the child claiming through the small claims court, which escalated to the court court!

I engaged solicitors who said my claim was difficult to prove; they made lots of noise about court cases to the defendant. They asked if he wished to settle out of court, and eventually, he agreed to 25K. A Tomlinson order was drawn up.

[R0b]

When you issue a claim you have to follow the Civil Procedure Rules. You don't get to choose your own rules as to what suits you and if you don't comply, there could be serious consequences as well as financial costs awarded against you.

Rules on service of the claim form say that you need to serve it to the defendant's last known or usual address. If you have reason to believe that the defendant doesn't live at the address then you have to take steps to ascertain their current address. If you confirmed their current residence then you serve it at that address. Failing that you need to consider alternative methods of serving the claim form e.g. email, social media, text message and you have to make an application to the court for consent to serve using the alternative method. If all else fails only then can you serve at the last known address.

Typically, serving a claim form outside the UK will normally require you to seek permission from the court. If you fail in any of these steps or processes, then the claim form will be considered defective. Once the defendant has given sufficient evidence as to why the address on the claim form is not correct, the onus shifts to you to show why the claim form has been validly served per what I have described above.

You haven't given any information around the claim other than the defendant disputing the address. If the address is wrong, you could make an application to the court to amend it at your expense. Equally, the defendant might make an application themselves to strike out the claim or seek some other order, with costs incurred at your expense.

Also just as an FYI, your terminology is incorrect. There is no such thing as a small claims court nor is there a thing called the court court, whatever that is supposed to mean. Small claims is a track that cases are allocated to which are usually under the value of £10k. The County Court is the court that hears those types of claims as well as other claims up to a value of £100k. Claims made over £10k are allocated to another track which has a specific set of rules and procedures as well as legal costs being in play if one party loses (cases allocated to small claims track are not subject to legal costs).