County Court questions

[Langy03]

HI,

I made a contract with a supplier (CH) who gave me 7 days to retract if the software did not work. Within those 7 days, we agreed over the phone that the software was not suitable for our use and that he would cancel the contract. He also gave us the contact details for a different software that could be used.
He then came back on his word to cancel the contract and kept the money for the software we were not able to use. I had already paid £1500
He also invoiced us for a few hours to install the software. Invoice, that I did not pay. £150

After much wrangling, I eventually took CH to court. He never replied to the court summons so I obtained a judgement against them.
Unbeknown to me, a few days after our court summons, that he must have received, he took a similar course with us for the small invoice £150 and obtain a judgement against us. I only found out when I recieved a phone call from the company registrar saying that there was a CCJ against my company. I researched and found his CCJ against us. The county court summons was sent to our old address rather than our registred office....

In our original case ot the court, we recognised the cost of £150 that CH charged us so only claimed £1500 - £150 = £1350

Interstingly the judgemement against us was obtained a few days after we obtained the judgement against CH. I guess that he only asked for judgement after having received ours....

His tactic seems to have worked as my ltd company now has a CCJ and I have received numerous phone calls and letters from insolvency practionners....

Why didn't he just reply to our County court claim? I did recognise the fact that I owed him this money from the start.

I have asked for the judgement to be set aside and for a court hearing to take place. Guess what, he has now done the same!

The county court has recognised the fact that the two cases are linked as I mentionned both cases in my set aside letter to the court.

I am now waiting for the hearing date.

I am now wondering whether to bring a sollicitor with me to put the case or whether I can do it by myself. Any advice or experience?

What should I prepare if I go there by myself?

 

[LABJES]

In my experience the judges are quite leniant with people who are representing themselves, however I would always want a Solicitor with me. My Solicitor has got us out of a 'counterclaim' situation quite easily. We had one case where we refused to deliver an order to a customer who had bounced previous cheques on us, we agreed he would have the cash waiting upon delivery but when we got there he said he had no money. We promptly told the driver to come back with the goods and offered to re-deliver when he had the money available. He then would not take our calls. Obviously he had no intention of paying for the goods. Upon receiving the court claim he tried to counterclaim that we had affected his busines by not delivering the goods as agreed amongst other spurious claims!! He did make himself look like a bit of an idiot defending his claim as he talked utter rubbish for the most part, however the judge was very lenient towards him because of that. I suppose he thought we were alright as we could afford a Solicitor, despite being stung by the likes of this customer!!

Therefore, I would say pro's and cons but if you can afford legal representation then use it. However, it is likely to cost far more than the £150 in question but it may be a matter more of principle than money to you. Good Luck and keep us posted.

 

[Cicero]

Depends on the judge. Some are quite nice (LOL) while others aren't.

Remember that if the judgment against you is regular (i.e. proceedings were served properly) then you can only get it set aside if you effectively have a reasonable defence and then you will have to pay his costs. I trust you have identified to the court in your application what your defence is.

If the judgment isn't regular because proceedings were not served at your company's registered address then you can get it set aside as of right and recover costs (if you have no solicitor then you can ask for litigant in person costs). If this is your case, then you should demonstrate to the court that your company changed its registered address before he issued proceedings.

I suspect that if the court sets aside both judgments on the ground that there are defences, it will consolidate the claims, order defences to be served within 14 days and make no order for costs.