Waiting for a response from the defendant
After the claim is filed, you will get a paper copy of your
claim sent to your address by First Class post. The company you are
claiming against will also be sent a copy of the claim by First
Class post, and it will be deemed to be "served" on the company 5
days after the claim was filed, to give them time to receive
it.
All the deadlines start from the date the claim was served on
the company.
You can log in to Money Claim Online at any time to see the
current status of your claim. You can also download a copy of your
claim as a PDF file for your records.
Once the claim is served, the company has 14 days to acknowledge
the claim. If they don't do this you can log in to your account and
in your claim details you will see a "Start" link
in the "Judgement" column, click the link and you
then have two options:
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Option 1. The defendant has not filed an admission or
defence to my claim
(Judgment by Default)
You will need to decide, how and when you want the defendant to
pay. You can ask for the Judgment to be paid by installment or in
one payment.
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Option 2. The defendant admits that all the money is
owed
(Judgment by Admission)
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You need to select the first option "Judgement by
Default"
If however, the company acknowledges the claim, then in the
"Claim" column you will see
"Acknowledged" and the date that the company
acknowledged it. If this is the case, the company has another 14
days to submit a defence, giving them a total of 28 days from the
date the claim was served on them. You will receive in the post
confirmation from the court that the company has acknowledged and
intend to defend the claim.
If after 28 days of the claim being served, no defence has been
entered by the company, then you can again go to the
"Start" link in the "Judgement"
column and select "Judgement by Default".
If they do file a defence, then you will be sent an
"Allocation Questionnaire" to fill in by the court, so
that the court can allocate a hearing. It your claim is for over
£1500 you will need to pay another free of £100, which again will
be added on to the total amount of your claim. Hopefully you won't
get to this stage, as the company may make an offer before then.
However, don't worry if you do get a hearing allocated as the
company can still back out soon before the hearing date, or won't
turn up the hearing, and the Judge will rule in your favour.
At the hearing, both sides will be called into court to put
their case to the judge. The judge will give their decision, which
will be confirmed in letter from the court a few days later.
If you have had a ruling in your favour, then the company should
pay you - this amount can include expenses such as your court fees,
reasonable travelling expenses, the cost of staying overnight if
relevant, and up to £50 for loss of earnings if you had to take
unpaid time off work to attend the court hearing.
If the company doesn't pay up you can apply to the court for a
"Judgement of Enforcement", which you have to pay for, but
again it's added on to the amount of money the company now owes
you. This forces the company to pay and enables bailiffs to enter
their premises and seize property to the value of your claim!
What happens if the company settles after you have filed
a claim?
If the company settles your claim before a hearing has been
allocated you MUST inform the court so that the proceedings can be
stopped. If they offer you the full amount of the claim you also
MUST accept it.
The court expects you to act reasonably, and to have made your
best effort to settle the claim before the hearing. If you don't
act reasonably and refuse to settle just to have your day in court,
it will be frowned upon by the judge as you are effectively wasting
the courts time.
Claims Financial
Testimonial
"I just had to put pen to paper and write to say I'm more than delighted with my settlement that you won me back from my PPI I had with Lloyds TSB. The Claim Forms were simple to fill in. It was a breeze"
Mr R Evans 11 Nov 2010