County Court Advice

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I can't help with the legalities for obvious reasons but what I will say is if you decide to get a Lawyer involved get the very best you can, same with tradesmen, absolutely no point in engaging a professional unless they are at the top of their game.

And, FWIW I get the feeling quite strongly there is an element of vindictiveness in the way they are proceeding.

Almost all international projects I have been on do not recognise emails in contractual matters. When push comes to shove the letter is the communication instrument.
 
In UK law emails can be used as evidence but in the same way as any documentary evidence is they can be subject to scrutiny
 
This is the real issue for us...

Ive been down this road too many times as a claimant and believe me the law always seems to be on your side. I dont mean to be rude to you, im just saying that ive had my facts right many times and only won twice. If you have your facts right and you know you dont own him the amount he is claiming then stick to your guns and dont be bullied. First off do not panic, these things take far longer than you think and you both have an offer to settle this outside of court via a mediation service offered by the court itself during the process. Secondly you can strike off his claim if you can prove its incorrect. ANY documents are legal, so emails count as do quotes on the back of a fag packet if its been written by him. Thirdly, as already pointed out, the debt amount is important. Its cost him an amount to bring this action and that amount is depentant on the size of the claim so you need to take that into concideration as to how determined he is. Fourth is the interest, ignor this part because even if the bebt is up to £10k (anything over this and he cant use this route) then one months interest isnt even worth my discussing yet. Fifth, the court is a room with a "judge" him and you in it, no other person or audiance. Sixth and most important if it does get to that room is do not ignor time scales of reply. Its an online service which counts down, he cant move this any quicker forward than the service allows. As a claimant i have lost thousands and all because the defendant has either gone bust between my claim and it coming to court or the court cant find the defendant after ive been awarded judgement. Ignore the comment about the bailiffs are coming, that programme is a biggest load of tosh :mad: Ive used there services and if the defendant isnt in on two occasions then it gets returned to the claimant to deal with. If you really do owe him 80% of the debt and want to pay no more, then pay him. Believe me it will work greatly in your favour and turn the claim on its head
 
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If you do get to the point of attending court to defend, ensure you let the court and claimant know you will be asking for all expenses to attend to be paid. We normally ensure these expenses outweigh the claim. Unless he's daft as a soup sandwich he should have picked a court local to your home/business address.
 
If you were owed £1,000:

the annual interest would be £80 (1000 x 0.08 = 80)
you’d divide £80 by 365 to get the daily interest: about 22p a day (80 / 365 = 0.22)
after 50 days this would be £11 (50 x 0.22 = 11)
 
If you do get to the point of attending court to defend, ensure you let the court and claimant know you will be asking for all expenses to attend to be paid. We normally ensure these expenses outweigh the claim. Unless he's daft as a soup sandwich he should have picked a court local to your home/business address.

You can only claim travel expense and you have to produce the receipt. This is added to your claim at the time of the award ie when the circuit judge is making his ruling
 
I don't understand why you are withholding the undisputed 80%, to my eyes it makes you appear vexatious.

Claiming its too much admin is a cop out.

You admit to owing 80%, so pay it. Then argue about the 20% and you will find he won't bother chasing it.
 
I do remember attending court for a debt owed to me of £1,700 when only me and the judge turned up, in my ignorance I was unaware that I could have asked for it to be dealt with in his absence, and I would have been awarded my claim, of course the judge didn't mention this to me, maybe he wasn't allowed. The case was adjourned, and some weeks later I got my money. On another occasion the judge awarded in my favour, and told the defendant to get his cheque book out and pay me there and then, which he did, much to his annoyance.
It always seemed to me, that those that you may have assumed to be the better off, were the most difficult when it came to the final invoice.
 
Spx,

Don't you know any women?
 
Spx,

Don't you know any women?

What does vexatious - "denoting an action or the bringer of an action that is brought without sufficient grounds for winning, purely to cause annoyance to the defendant" have to do with women?
 
Lee, I believe Neil is saying women can be very vexing...eg the big fridge freezer your good lady wanted has caused you quite a degree of vexation ;)
 
The defendant in our case had a team of solicitors work on the case over 6 months and hired a barrister for the day in court. I was way of my depth but had spent a stack of time learning & preparing all our evidence & case. Was good experience & fun being a barrister for the day ;)

As the county court hearing unfolded it was clear, although I'm sure the judge/court wouldn't admit but was on the side of the little man(me/us) in this case. Our big customer who didn't pay their bill ending up paying way over double than the original debt. Bonkers. I would not have done what they did in the same position. All I wanted was to be paid for the work & kit we had supplied and was not paid for. Nothing more nothing less.

I would say pay the 80% you agree you owe and let them argue about the 20%. Unless they are stupid, mental or blind rich it won't go any further.

Don't be afraid to stand up against being bullied around. First calI had from their solicitor partner/owner guy was funny. He talked over me & down to me expecting me to fall over. Obviously a well to do and academically educated man. I'm not well educated but broadly experienced enough & reasonably estute. I simply stated that I have no idea who you think you are but it isn't going to work that way. Pay your bill or I'll see you in court. It went to court!

Give people respect....but not too much if they don't earn it deserve it. I did even call the Director of the customer to tell him what was going on & advising him I would settle for a bit less prior to court. He ignored me & listened to his idiot solicitors who of course just sucked all his money up.
 
you said you've recieved a county court claim, solicitors, barristers, costs etc arent relevant here. Go on the money claim website https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome
and have a look at the claim process, see how much its cost him to put the frighteners on you and how to calculate the interest. As i said in one of my posts, dont ignore the claim esle he will get judgement by default.
From start to getting judgement to going to court it takes approx 6 months so theres plenty of time to explain why you believe your right to withhold 20% and show that youve tried to negotiate and make offers to settle.
 
you said you've recieved a county court claim, solicitors, barristers, costs etc arent relevant here. Go on the money claim website https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome
and have a look at the claim process, see how much its cost him to put the frighteners on you and how to calculate the interest. As i said in one of my posts, dont ignore the claim esle he will get judgement by default.
From start to getting judgement to going to court it takes approx 6 months so theres plenty of time to explain why you believe your right to withhold 20% and show that youve tried to negotiate and make offers to settle.

To be honest at this point I would rather pay the original invoice in full - it's a business, and it is really not worth our while to fight this. So he gets away with it - wrong, but that's life.

My main issue is that I suspect the chap might still try and have his day in court simply in order to inconvenience us as much as possible... he submitted the claim only two weeks after the unpaid invoice was due, and he refused to re-invoice as per our request which would have seen him receive the 80% immediately. His manner is far from that of someone trying to make a reasonable effort to avoid litigation and reach an amicable resolution.

Also, having the notice served just before Christmas is not a coincidence. He most probably again tried to inconvenience us as much as possible.

Additionally the amount he is asking for as 'interest' is peculiar to say the least - I calculated it to be 124%(!) pa. Not sure if he made an honest mistake when calculation the interest (which should have been 8% pa) or there is some other reason for this.

In short, my difficulty is that I am not even sure that simply paying him now the original invoice in full will see an end to this saga.
 
You need to rest easy MJ, go get a decent Lawyer and place the matter in their hands. You may be surprised how after Lawyers have a chat amongst themselves things like this tend to disappear.
 
Unless it is for a decent amount of cash then a solicitor/lawyer is pointless and a waste of money IMHO. Pay the 80% or 100% and move on. Life is too short.

No need to pay any late payment admin fees or interest though as that is unreasonable & not valid or enforceable. Let them be & let them think they have won. The time/money spent oposing it is often recouped in future earnings much quicker.
 
Lee, I believe Neil is saying women can be very vexing...eg the big fridge freezer your good lady wanted has caused you quite a degree of vexation ;)

When I first read it I thought it would have something to do with Vixen but I'd never heard of that exact word, it looks to be a word to describe exactly one process; "bringing a spurious case" just doesn't cut it.

Great word anyway...
 
How much does the 20% add up to? £100? £10,000?
 

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