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Hi – Please, should I ask for a default judgment in these circumstances (see below) or let the whole thing go to sm. claims court trial?
The Defendant in our case is doing the whole thing himself –and essentially totally ignoring CPR rules.
As background,
We have a badly defective caravan, bought new – the internal wooden structural frame was made too big causing outer plastic panels on the Caravan to crack under abnormal stress from the defective frame i.e. a major fault. The manufacturer made a whole batch of faulty caravans with same inherent frame defect, including mine. The Defendant attempted a repair but did not correct the underlying fault so the new replacement panels cracked just as badly as before – in fact the panels cracked when the caravan was simply parked so we were not even using it. The Defendant is refusing to do any more work. The caravan’s top 4 corners are now stuck together with waterproof tape - if water gets in it could rot and seriously weaken the structural frame; this is potentially dangerous to us.
We have a damning Expert Report that basically says that the Defendant was wrong to wash his hands of this serious, well –known matter.
The Claim form and POC were issued 12th June 2023.
The Defendant apparently filed a defence on ~20 June 2023, but failed to serve the Defence on me (actually I thought he hadn’t responded and I put in application for default judgment – but that application subsequently failed).
I only knew about the Defence when I received the N180 form on 12th Aug 2023. I emailed the Defendant on ~16th Aug 2023 and asked for the defence immediately; I even gave permission for him serve the completed Defence by email.
Instead all that happened was his employee just found a few draft files (the Defendant was on extended holiday!) and emailed those across – none of these docs had a statement of truth at the bottom nor were they the correct Defence forms etc.
To compound matters, the Court also did not send a copy of the Defence with the N180 to me. I chased the Court too, but nothing arrived.
I filled out the N180 and filed it correctly by the 24th Aug 2023 deadline and served it also. Needless to say the Defendant did not serve the N180 form on me either - and I only found out that the Defendant had filed his N180 when we were both sent an appointment for the sm. claims court mediation service.
So in summary – the Defendant hasn’t served anything to date correctly.
btw: The mediation was useless as the Defendant doesn’t think he did anything wrong. The mediator is setting the case down for a hearing. But I still haven’t seen the full Defence and his N180. Maybe the Defendant will not bother sending me his bundle of witness statements and evidence if, and when the time comes.... who knows?
What do you advise in the circumstances, please? Should I put in an application for default judgment in view of the defendant’s total no-compliance? Or let the whole thing go to trial because any application could hold things up anyway ? And would a judge just give the Defendant yet more time to comply in any event? Alternatively, should I simply go and get copies of the Defence & the Defendant’s N180 myself from the local court, once they arrive there?
All advice most welcome and thanks.
The Defendant in our case is doing the whole thing himself –and essentially totally ignoring CPR rules.
As background,
We have a badly defective caravan, bought new – the internal wooden structural frame was made too big causing outer plastic panels on the Caravan to crack under abnormal stress from the defective frame i.e. a major fault. The manufacturer made a whole batch of faulty caravans with same inherent frame defect, including mine. The Defendant attempted a repair but did not correct the underlying fault so the new replacement panels cracked just as badly as before – in fact the panels cracked when the caravan was simply parked so we were not even using it. The Defendant is refusing to do any more work. The caravan’s top 4 corners are now stuck together with waterproof tape - if water gets in it could rot and seriously weaken the structural frame; this is potentially dangerous to us.
We have a damning Expert Report that basically says that the Defendant was wrong to wash his hands of this serious, well –known matter.
The Claim form and POC were issued 12th June 2023.
The Defendant apparently filed a defence on ~20 June 2023, but failed to serve the Defence on me (actually I thought he hadn’t responded and I put in application for default judgment – but that application subsequently failed).
I only knew about the Defence when I received the N180 form on 12th Aug 2023. I emailed the Defendant on ~16th Aug 2023 and asked for the defence immediately; I even gave permission for him serve the completed Defence by email.
Instead all that happened was his employee just found a few draft files (the Defendant was on extended holiday!) and emailed those across – none of these docs had a statement of truth at the bottom nor were they the correct Defence forms etc.
To compound matters, the Court also did not send a copy of the Defence with the N180 to me. I chased the Court too, but nothing arrived.
I filled out the N180 and filed it correctly by the 24th Aug 2023 deadline and served it also. Needless to say the Defendant did not serve the N180 form on me either - and I only found out that the Defendant had filed his N180 when we were both sent an appointment for the sm. claims court mediation service.
So in summary – the Defendant hasn’t served anything to date correctly.
btw: The mediation was useless as the Defendant doesn’t think he did anything wrong. The mediator is setting the case down for a hearing. But I still haven’t seen the full Defence and his N180. Maybe the Defendant will not bother sending me his bundle of witness statements and evidence if, and when the time comes.... who knows?
What do you advise in the circumstances, please? Should I put in an application for default judgment in view of the defendant’s total no-compliance? Or let the whole thing go to trial because any application could hold things up anyway ? And would a judge just give the Defendant yet more time to comply in any event? Alternatively, should I simply go and get copies of the Defence & the Defendant’s N180 myself from the local court, once they arrive there?
All advice most welcome and thanks.
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