Tweet
Hi all,
I’ve got a set aside hearing coming up and wanted some views on my chances / any angles I may have missed.
This is not a default judgment. Judgment was entered after a small claims hearing that took place on 27 November 2025, which I did not attend because I say I never received the court’s Notice of Hearing.
The claimant is Cabot, solicitors Mortimer Clarke.
Timeline
Other issues
Their position
They are opposing the set aside and saying:
My original defence was basically that:
From the bundle, the agreement looks generic rather than obviously personalised, and what I can clearly see are default sums notices, not necessarily the actual statutory default notice.
My main argument
My position is basically:
Question
How do people think a judge is likely to view this under CPR 27.11?
Main concern is the claimant saying
“He knew the date because we told him.”
My answer is:
“That is not the same as receiving the court’s Notice of Hearing, and without the court notice I didn’t know the court details or how to attend.”
Do people think that is enough for a good reason for non-attendance, especially with:
Any thoughts appreciated.
I’ve got a set aside hearing coming up and wanted some views on my chances / any angles I may have missed.
This is not a default judgment. Judgment was entered after a small claims hearing that took place on 27 November 2025, which I did not attend because I say I never received the court’s Notice of Hearing.
The claimant is Cabot, solicitors Mortimer Clarke.
Timeline
- I filed a defence to the claim originally.
- Before mediation, Mortimer Clarke actually sent me someone else’s claim documents by mistake.
- I pointed that out, they admitted it and asked me to delete them.
- Mediation was rearranged to the next day.
- They then sent me the correct documents around that time, but I told the mediator I had not had time to read through it all properly.
- The mediator said there wouldn’t be another mediation call and I’d have to speak to the other side directly.
- In the claimant’s later paperwork, they mentioned the hearing date 27 November 2025.
- However, I never received any Notice of Hearing from the court.
- Because of the earlier document mix-up, and because the only mention of the hearing came from debt collectors / claimant solicitors, I did not treat that as proper court confirmation of a hearing.
- I also didn’t know which court it was in, the time, or how I was meant to attend.
- On 27 November 2025 I just went to work as normal. I have a roster showing I was rostered for work that day.
- I only found out judgment had been entered when I received a letter in December. The hearing had happened on 27 November, but the envelope for the judgment letter is postmarked 18 December 2025.
- I became aware on 22 December 2025, called Hastings County Court the same day asking what had happened, and filed my N244 on 23 December 2025.
- I also made a complaint to the court about not receiving the hearing notice.
- That complaint was never answered.
Other issues
- My proper address includes “Mobile Home at Leelands…”, but the court / claimant have not been using the “Mobile Home” part.
- There are two mobile homes on the site, so I think that may help explain why I may not have received post even if something was sent.
- Mortimer Clarke also had document access issues. I emailed them on 9 March 2026 saying one of their links was showing bad gateway 400.
- Their hearing bundle for this set aside hearing was dated 11 March 2026 but only emailed to me on 16 March 2026, and it was sent as a password-protected ZIP with the password supposedly coming by post.
Their position
They are opposing the set aside and saying:
- I knew about the hearing date because it was in their paperwork
- they won’t agree to a consent set aside / Tomlin order because that would be “credit washing”
- they are happy for the judgment to be paid by instalments, but not removed
My original defence was basically that:
- the claim had not been properly evidenced at the time
- I wanted proof of the agreement
- proof of the default notice
- proof of assignment
From the bundle, the agreement looks generic rather than obviously personalised, and what I can clearly see are default sums notices, not necessarily the actual statutory default notice.
My main argument
My position is basically:
- I did not receive the court’s Notice of Hearing
- the only date I saw came from the claimant’s solicitors
- because of their earlier admin error and the lack of any court notice, I thought it may have been pressure to pay rather than confirmation of a genuine hearing
- I did not know which court it was even in
- I acted immediately once I found out judgment had been entered
Question
How do people think a judge is likely to view this under CPR 27.11?
Main concern is the claimant saying
“He knew the date because we told him.”
My answer is:
“That is not the same as receiving the court’s Notice of Hearing, and without the court notice I didn’t know the court details or how to attend.”
Do people think that is enough for a good reason for non-attendance, especially with:
- same-day call to the court
- next-day N244
- wrong documents sent before mediation
- address issue (“Mobile Home” omitted)
- working normally on the hearing date
Any thoughts appreciated.