If you receive a letter in the post from the court telling you that a claim has been issued how can you tell if the letter is genuine? There are several steps that you can take to assess this.
1. Court claims can be issued using a local court and can also be issued from one of two administrative centres. The administrative centres are the County Court Money Claims Centre, PO box 527, Salford, M5 0BY and the County Court Business Centre at St. Katharine’s House, 21-27 St. Katharine’s Street, Northampton, NN1 2LH. Local courts are also empowered to issue claims but, in our experience, clients who are defending money claims find that the claims have been issued from either the County Court Money Claims Centre (the CCMCC) or the County Court Business Centre (CCBC).
2. If you receive a claim form in the post, you have a limited time to reply. Check the ‘date of service’ as time usually runs from this date. If you are responding to a money claim you may be able to use a website called Money Claim Online and the link to the website may appear on the Claim Form itself with a unique passcode allowing you to log in and reply to the claim.
3. The Claim Form will have a Claim Number on it. This usually appears on the top right of the form and is usually a series of letters and numbers.
4. If the Claim Form has been issued by the Court, it should bear the court’s seal. This is a stamp that the court use and is usually a round stamp with a crown in the middle.
If you ignore the claim when it is issued/fail to respond in time, then the Claimant (the person/company who issued the claim) can obtain what is known as a default judgment. This means that the Claimant has obtained a County Court Judgment (a CCJ). The Claimant can then commence enforcement of the CCJ. If you do miss the deadline to defend the claim, then all is not lost. You could still potentially make an application to the court to set aside the CCJ explaining the reasons for not replying in time.
If you have received a Claim Form in the post do not delay as there is a limited time to respond. We can assist you in responding to the Claim and help with the preparation of your Defence. If you have missed the deadline to respond then we can provide advice on applying to set aside the County Court Judgment and assist you with the application to the Court to allow you the opportunity to Defend the Claim.
Summerfield Browne have offices in Leicester, Birmingham, London, Oxford, Cambridge and Market Harborough.
