Advice please - claim made against non-legal entity

[lewey]

Hello, I'd appreciate any advice on how we can best handle a claim received against the wrong name.

I'll try to summarise as briefly as I can:

We are a limited company. As part of that we operate a couple of brands or trading names, covering a couple of different websites. However all our formal dealings are done under our proper company name.

We've had a dispute with an advertising company (over some advertising which they have never actually provided).

Now they have lodged a claim against non payment, however they have made the claim against one of our trading names / brand name, not our company name. Even though they are fully aware of the correct company name and the relevant earlier correspondence was in our actual company name.

If the claim had been made against the company, I would still be determined to defend it as they mis-sold the advertising to us and also have never actually delivered or performed the advertising. However I thought that an easier way to dismiss the claim would be based on it being made against a non-legal entity.

What I had done is lodge a defence against the claim via the moneyclaim online website (it is a very small claim, circa £120), per the documents we'd received from the court.

I carefully and importantly pointed out in the defence that the claim has been made against a non-legal entity / against the wrong name, as well as outlining why I believe the claim was without basis anyway.

Now we have received an allocation questionaire from the court for things to proceed to the next step - still made out to the wrong name, the brand name.

I don't know how the moneyclaim online works, but I got the impression that no one actually read the defence, and that just because we submitted a defence online it has automatically triggered the next step of sending out allocation.

I am not sure how I should proceed next. Another bothering part is that the claim has been allocated to Southampton court when we are based on London, and the travelling costs of going there are going to be higher than the claim amount, let alone that the claim is unjustified.

Who do we have to point to that this claim is being pursued against an invalid party?

Hope that this explains enough, and appreciate any useful suggestions. Thank you.

 

[M-C Hoare]

Yes you do have a point but this can be easily corrected by the other party, it does not completely invalidate the claim.
Even if the defence had been read, the court office staff cannot simply make the claim go away - it has to follow the procedure and only a Judge can decide to dismiss the claim on the basis it has no merit.
Sadly Judges are very loath to do that - they want to hear evidence from the parties so you will have to continue to defend the claim.
You can ask that the case be transferred to London on application but the fee for that is £60 so for the amount in dispute it is not worth it. On the plus side, you should only need to attend the Court for the trial so will only have to travel once!
Feel like I am the bad new fairy today.
Marie

 

[simon field]

Feel like I am the bad new fairy today.
Marie[/quote]

Better than being the bad OLD fairy Marie!

 

[M-C Hoare]

This is very true!! Meant to say "news" of course but works either way

 

[globes]

I would like to suggest you to claim under their jurisdiction as in order to get your claim amount... Under companies Act it will be registered as fraud agreement and you can claim your amount back...

 

[lockyer]

Once you receive the notice of hearing there is a spot on the paperwork to make an application to transfer it to a court nearer to you.

As the defendant it is free to do as long as you have valid reasons (costs of travelling), and delays the whole process by around 3 months which will annoy the party claiming off you.

 

[lewey]

Thank you for the comments. Will fill out the allocation questionnaire then and wait to see what happens next.