Getting Legal Results
What options will the defendant have when the claim is served?
Serving a claim is a waiting game. That is, when you serve a claim it is given to the court and they serve it on the defendant. The thing that happens next is that the court gives a time duration of 14 to 21 for the defendant to get back to you. When the court sends your claim form to the defendant it also provides a response pack which contains three forms - defense, admission and acknowledgment. The defendant can use either of these forms to respond back to the claim. For example, if he wants to defend the claim he can then use a defense form and if he accepts your claim he can then go for an admission form. Once the time period given to the defendant is over and he hasn't responded back, you can go back to the court requesting judgement to be entered in default, in which case a order is issued against the defendant and he has to pay the money back to you.
What is a judgment in default?
A judgment in default is an order against the defendant, a formal order, that says, "You the defendant now owe a certain sum of money to Joe Bloggs down the road who took a claim out against you. Because you didn't respond. You didn't file a defense. You didn't ask us for more time. You didn't even say, actually, hands up, I do owe this money." This is a judgment in default. What is very important to take note of, if you are the person making the claim, is that the road doesn't stop with a judgment of default, because actually, the courts will do nothing. A judgment in default is just a statement that somebody owes something, a legal statement. They won't do anything to enforce that judgment. So it's very much down to you, as the individual, if you get that judgment in default, to then go down, if you want to, that enforcement route, which means taking proceedings out against the defendant if he doesn't pay after that judgment's been entered.
How important are time scales in litigation?
The key if you're going to be a litigant in person and be in the driving seat is really to take note of your time period. Litigation is just a bunch of time periods, and what you need to make sure is that you're sitting there every day counting the minutes until the 14 days or the 21 days where the case is up. As soon as it's up, get your self down to court and get your request for judgement entered because until you do that, even if the 14 days is over, it's always open to the defendant to serve a defense late or to serve an acknowledgement of claim. That will take precedence over anything else, so you've lost your window of opportunity. If he hasn't reponded within the requiste time period, take advantage of that and get your request in straight away. Also, don't sit around and think "Oh, okay he is just not going to do it, I've got a lot of time to do this", because if you don't get a request in within six months of the expiry of that 14 day period, then you'll be stopped from bringing that claim. The only way that you can start it again is to go to court to pay some fees and to try and get this stay lifted.
What happens if the defendant admits my claim?
Today the defendant are submitted their claim to have been drive that's quite not the case if the defendant admits your claim okay well his going to do is to going to look through the response spank that the court sent him and he going to pick out the admission form and that's the form that he says okay hands upon for your sects. Now he wills too admission form is he can offer to you that count to pay that money. Now I think all of us instinct with pay if we'd mix the climb of money straight back the way in the through line which is the saw effect. Now I would suggest that you might think about if the defendant says to you that can I pay installments you might will think about taking up because you know if your defendant that's the sects a little caplet of money you stand a law of a chance you getting your money back if you got it in installments so he will put an offer to you. You don't have to accept it we need to think cough about it. If you accept it tell the court. The court control the author for nice thing fully if you don't accept it tell the court so the court again look a things around that he will look the defendants has to say and walk for saying a little make a determination a line of judgment after a determination for the claims so we will say wouldn't this things use is reasonable. Now if you still don't like it you can bring a claim against the court, you can appeal against par determination. Par means is a term you case if you like if par to cross to you a judge you will have it your teach it look at it and then his determination his decision will be final.
What if the defendant doesn't pay?
Ok now, there are limitations to litigation. You might well get your formal order from the court that says "Yes, Joe Blocks owes you ten pounds", but what do you do if he doesn't pay? Now the court won't help you. The court is certainly not proactive on this front. What you need to do then is you need to consider whether to take enforcement proceedings. Now there are lots and lots of different enforcement proceedings you can take. And really what we mean by this in a nutshell, is attaching to anything that defendant has and grabbing it while you can. Because what we're really talking about is the defendant might be bankrupt or something like that. If he isn't and he owes you 750 pounds you might very well be able to put him into bankruptcy. Which is an awful thought, but that avenue is open too. There are things called attachment of earnings orders, where if there's an income stream, if this chap or lady has a job, you can get an order that means that part of his salary comes over to you before it hits him. Garnishing orders, where third parties owe money, you might be able to attach onto that too. There are the conventional routes like warrants for execution which people will see in action as bailiffs knocking on the front door and pinching the television and selling it to pay off the debt. And then there are things like oral evidence, somebody can be ordered to go to court to talk about what assets they've got and the court will determine accordingly. So there are lots of things, lots of routes that you can go down to get your money, but again you need to look at the expense of that and determine whether you're going to get your fees back. Whether it's really worth it.
What if the defendant disputes all or part of my claim?
Now, when the defendant gets a claim form, he'll have a look through and it will say you need to respond to the court within 14 days, or sometimes 21 days. Now, the defendant will do one of three things. He might think, well this is ridiculous; you know I have a reasonable case, and I'm going to defend this case. In which case he will fill in a defense form, which is in the response pack that the court will send him. If he thinks, oh my goodness this is ridiculous, I've got a great case but how on earth do I manage that within 14 days. He might serve what's known as an acknowledgement of service form, because what that does is it gives him another 14 days; so effectively 28 days to get his defense in. If he thinks okay well, you're bound to rights, he might well serve you with the admission form which means, okay, I do owe you the money and we've already talked about what happens then. So, that's what, that's what happens if the defendant defends a case, he will send in a defense form.
What is the process for a defended claim?
Well for a defended claim, what'll happen is the defendant will serve a defense. The court will tell you about it and will give you the necessary papers, which you'll be horrified when you see it. The court will also send out allocation questionnaires to both you and your opponent; the defendant. The purpose behind the allocation questionnaire is to get as many different facts about the whole story, so that the court can then determine which track or avenue that the case needs to go down. Whether this is to be a small claims court, the fast-track or the multi-track. If your a litigant person with a low-value case it's likely to be the small claims track. The thing that you need to remember though, if you receive one of these allocation questionnaires is that you don't just put it aside for a rainy Saturday afternoon. You need to fill in that form, you need to concentrate, you need to get it in on time, because if you don't there may well be cost implications for you.
Will the court contact me over a defended claim?
The court will contact you directly with a copy of the defense form and the annocation form. It will also issue what we call directions, and that means instructions. It will determine what needs to be done in the case, when it needs to be done, whether there needs to be any hearing or whether it thinks it's got enough information at its fingertips to be able to determine the case on the facts that it has already.
What happens if the claim goes to court?
Hearings in the small claims court set up for individuals are set up to be very low intimidation. They're very informal. The judge will, if there is a hearing, ask questions of witnesses, he'll ask questions of the defendant and the claimant, and there will be an exchange of documents. Everything will be quite low key. It shouldn't be intimidating. If you feel a bit intimidated by court proceedings, and many of us do, then there are rules about that too. You can take in a lay representative if you like, and that lay representative can be anybody that you like. That person can speak on your behalf if you think that you know your case but you couldn't tell a judge about it, then that person can do it for you. You can also take somebody in just to hold your hand, not physically, but just to sit by you, to give you the confidence. They're set up to be very constructive and very informal. You should note that they are public, unless there's a really good reason for them not to be. If you have that good reason, then you need to apply to court to get the proceedings to be made private.
What if the defendant enters a ridiculous defence?
In some circumstances of course, particularly people who aren't advised, defendants could enter a defense which is called vexatious, or a defense which is defamatory in some way, or something like that. A defense which, really, on its own facts, is worth nothing. It's rubbish. In those circumstances, if you are confident in your claim to do so, you can ask the court to strike that defense out, and the process is pretty similar for any other application, but you need to make sure that you have you're facts right. You don't want to be a vexatious litigant, but there are circumstances where you can cook the whole thing dead, if you're sort of flogging a dead horse.
