Court didn't tell me my claim had been acknowledged

[Dookist]

Hello!

Just a small thing but it's niggling away at me... people tell me I should just move on.

I made a claim against someone... didn't hear anything for 3 weeks so asked the court for default judgement as the defendant had not acknowledged.

31 days after I'd served the claim, the defendant provided a defence.

I phoned the court and asked what was happening and they told me the claim is now a defended one.
I told them there had been no acknowledgement and they looked in the file and told me that the claim had been acknowledged 8 days after I served it.

I don't think this is the case at all as I didn't receive a form N10 from the court to tell me about the acknowledgement of service.

What I think has happened is that the defendant probably sent his defence and acknowledgement together, backdating the acknowledgement.

Neither was the defence filed and served within the time limitation... unless it's the case that you don't count weekends or bank holidays.

I wonder, is it the norm that courts don't bother telling a claimant that the claim has been acknowledged?

Do I have any redress?

Dookist

[charitynjw]

Re: Court didn't tell me my claim had been acknowledged

Hi Dookist

Personally, I would lay the blame on Postman Pat & move forward.

[Amethyst]

Re: Court didn't tell me my claim had been acknowledged

The date for defence is 33 days after the date of issue ( 5 days is allowed for service - so issue date + 5 + 28 ) - so if the Defence was filed 31 days after issue it would have been in time.

Did you make the claim direct at your local court rather than through moneyclaim online ?

[Diana M]

Re: Court didn't tell me my claim had been acknowledged

I made a claim against someone... didn't hear anything for 3 weeks so asked the court for default judgement as the defendant had not acknowledged.

31 days after I'd served the claim, the defendant provided a defence.

I phoned the court and asked what was happening and they told me the claim is now a defended one.
I told them there had been no acknowledgement and they looked in the file and told me that the claim had been acknowledged 8 days after I served it.

I don't think this is the case at all as I didn't receive a form N10 from the court to tell me about the acknowledgement of service.

Does this issue relate to the claim which you made and posted about on your other thread here > http://legalbeagles.info/forums/show...171#post667171

If so there does seem to have been a bit of debate on whether the claim was served properly, with a suggestion that the Defendant wasn't served with the Response Pack enabling them to file their AOS. This appears to have been a claim issued and served by personal service not through MCOL.

The important thing is what stage has the claim now reached?

If a Defence was filed and accepted by the court, have you informed the court that you wish to continue with proceedings so that a Directions Questionnaire has/will be sent out, or is the claim now stayed?

the enforcement section at Queen's Bench has just informed me that they included a response pack when they sent a notice of issue and that I was expected to serve the claim form and response pack to the defendant.

The thing is, they didn't include the response pack and that's why I made the assumption that the court had served the documents to the defendant.

All the info I researched online told me that the court usually serves the claim and response pack.

They have messed up and I await their further advice.

I suppose I will have to download a response pack and serve the documents myself, but the court's mistake has delayed my claim by a month.

Di

[Guest]

Re: Court didn't tell me my claim had been acknowledged

Even if you had got your default judgment, the defendant could still apply to get it set aside arguing they didn't receive the claim form and submitting a prospective defence as happened to me once when I tried to recover some money and they were out of the country when the claim was sent. We then had to start again because they put forward a defence arguing the basis of the money owed. You have to look at their defence and do your best to beat it, a default judgment doesn't guarantee you your money.

[Dookist]

Re: Court didn't tell me my claim had been acknowledged

Does this issue relate to the claim which you made and posted about on your other thread here > http://legalbeagles.info/forums/show...171#post667171

If so there does seem to have been a bit of debate on whether the claim was served properly, with a suggestion that the Defendant wasn't served with the Response Pack enabling them to file their AOS. This appears to have been a claim issued and served by personal service not through MCOL.

The important thing is what stage has the claim now reached?

If a Defence was filed and accepted by the court, have you informed the court that you wish to continue with proceedings so that a Directions Questionnaire has/will be sent out, or is the claim now stayed?




Di

Thank you. I ended up serving the claim & response pack myself... I know they received it as I send everything by special delivery.

They may have been in time to file a defence, but not without acknowledging.

When I requested defauly judgement, the court didn't write back to let me know the defendant had acknowledged... neither have I ever set eyes on his acknowledgement... the court is supposed to send that document within 7 days of it being filed.

It's a bit fishy.... But I've heard of this kind of thing happening at Queen's Bench before...

I'm being carried along with the process for now and have served and filed the DQ.

Thanks again to everyone who has replied, and sorry about the confusion with my name... the site told me I had the wrong sign in details so I had to do it all again with a different name.

D. (TB)