Claim has been struck out

[Guest]

Hi, sorry for bothering you but we do have a problem. We received a letter from the court that our claim has been struck out because of a failure to comply with a rule. We do not even know what does it mean. It is all about unpaid salary. We made a claim and send our statement to the court. The defendant made a counterclaim and send his defence. Since then we have been waiting for the court hearing and recently we have received the letter about strucking out our claim and we were told to pay the counterclaim. Is there anything we can do now? Do we have to pay? Do we have to make a new claim? I know that we have a lot of questions but we will be very greatfull for any help. Regards Jiri

[Amethyst]

It may be that you did not defend the counterclaim and failed to return a Directions Questionnaire - the order from the court should give the rule / reason that the claim has been struck out - would you be able to type the full order received from the court out please? ( you'll need to register to be able to reply to this post)

Usually with strike order you have 7 days to apply to set aside / vary the order.

How much was your claim for against your ( ex?) employer ?
What was their counterclaim for?

At the moment it sounds like there is a default judgment against you on the counterclaim and your claim has ended. So if you do nothing, you will have a CCJ against you, and you would have to pay the judgment amount.

[Jiri]

Thank you for your quick response. Because we did not know what to do, we asked for help Citizens advice and follow their instructions. We made the claim online and waited for the response. We received the counterclaim and waited for the hearing. Instead of hearing we received a letter from the court saying this. The full order is follow: 1. The claim is struck out. 2. The defendant/part 20 Claimant on the counterclaim recover against the claimant the sum of 389.95 GBP. It is ordered that the claimant pay to the defendant the sum of 389.95 GBP on or before 20 June 2019. The problem is we were on holiday for couple of weeks while receiving this letter and we also moved house.

Our claim was about 7000 GBP. It contains unpaid salary and the value of personal belongings from the van reposed by the employer. We reported the van and our stuff as stolen to the police. The counterclaim was about 389 GBP because we were supposed to pay monthly for the van provided by employer. They are saying we working for them about 4 weeks but we can prove we were working for them 8 weeks. And many other things. It is a little bit complicated.

[Amethyst]

Hmmm okay. Could you call the court tomorrow and ask why your claim was struck out pls - tough to know what to do without knowing the reason -could be non return of the directions questionnaire, application of the claimant or the judge deciding your claim had no merit ... the counterclaim should have been defended at the same time you returned the directions questionnaire - and if it wasn't should have been a default judgment .... there should have been something from the court in between you receiving the defence and counterclaim and that order you received - but if you moved house things might have gone to pot with post going astray before you informed the court of your change of address.

Did CAB help you with your particulars of claim? and did you go back to them after receiving the defence? Sadly court processes aren't really their area of expertise beyond the most basic.

We'll likely need to see your claim, their defence and counterclaim and anything else you d had from them or the court since starting the process, but see if you can find out the reason for the strike first.

[Jiri]

Hello, we really thank you for your help. Together with the court order came a letter from the defendant and we think that it explains everything. So the letter is:

Case number F4QZ062T Dear sirs, I write to the court as a representative of the defendant & part 20 claimant One Motion Logistics, Ltd in the above named case. I wish to inform the court that despite a clear reminder regarding the courts overriding objective under rule 1.1 of the civil procedures rules being contained within the Notice of allocation to the small claims track (hearing) dated 3rd April 2019 along with details of the sanctions the court may impose as a result of non-compliance the claimant has failed to comply with the order set out in the Notice of allocation to the small claims track (hearing) dated 3rd April 2019 whereby in the first instance the claimant was required to file a defence to the counter claim submitted by One Motion Logistics by 18 April and in the second instance the claimant was required to send both a written statement of evidence and copies of all documents he wished to rely upon the final hearing by 15th May 2019. Due to the claimants repeated failure to comply with the orders imposed by the court I would kindly requested that the court consider using the case management powers granted to them within the practice directions to make an order striking out the claim bought before the court by the claimant and awarding judgement by default in the amount of the counter claim to One Motion Logistics. Kind regards ......

But we did send (to the court and also to the defendant) our statement with all documents (we have only data from the company show how long we have been working for them) and also the crime reference number when we reported the stolen van. .... Thank you. George

[Amethyst]

When did you send your statement to the court ?
Probably need to see a copy of what you sent and when.

You returned your directions questionnaire but failex to file a defence to the counterclaim - in the notice of hearing the directions ordered you file a defence and submit your witness statement and evidence/documents.

So it is whether you had attempted to comply with that order, even it you didn't do a brilliant job of it, or did nothing after receipt of the order - as to whether you can apply for relief from sanctions and to set aside the judgment against you.

[Jiri]

Hi, I just checked some dates. We created online claim 24.2., a few weeks later we received a letter from the court and it said we have about 2 weeks to send both sides our statement. The statement was sent 26.3.2019 according my bank statement. The only problem is I can not find the letter we sent to the court and to the defendant. Can I get that letter from the court or it is visible if I log in to the account on gov.uk?

[Amethyst]

Contact court tmw and tell them you filed ( sent to court ) and served ( sent to other party) your statement on xxx date and ask them to check if it was received.

If you just wrote a letter rather than a proper defence and witness statement as ordered you might, MIGHT, be able to rectify things. Do you have the hearing date order? If you re read it does it sound like what you did could be considered complying with the instructions ?

[Jiri]

Hi, sorry it took me so long. They received our statement but we did not protest against the counterclaim so they accepted the counterclaim and struck out our claim. We did not know we have to make any comments to the counterclaim. We have been waiting for the hearing and we thought it is up the judge to decide who is talking the truth. No, they have not set up the hearing date yet and that is why we are a little bit confused.