Hi @Andyorch the claim against me is for over £10k therefore I don't think it is a Small Claims Claim. Also, the claimant is claiming for all their legal costs, time, issue fees, photocopying etc. I am asking the court to make an order to award me the same. The worst that can happen is that the judge says, "This is being dealt with as a small claim and as such your request is denied." Now, what can I put in? I have spent literally hundreds of hours on this case, reading this forum, looking up case law, reading the Consumer Credit act. I've spent over £100 in postage. I've lost probably a weeks work in time that I've had to spend in libraries writing and typing up various responses. I want to submit a claim for these costs, even if it is refused.

Is that the date to send, or for them to have received? It's a small but important distinction.

On the previous court order it says "Costs reserved". I want to apply for them. How should I calculate them?

Also, how do I calculate my costs and how do I claim them should I win?

In court, can I "cross examine" their brief? Can I ask them questions relating to the loans etc and expect them to give an answer to the court?

Which is EXACTLY what they've done in this case.

In your last post you said that "There cant be a stay if a defence has been filed." Can you direct me to where is says that they "MUST" give a reason for a delay where a defence has been filed? This would be very helpful if I can quote it in my WS when I go to court.

Ok, but there was a stay on my case after a defence was filed. Here's the timeline - Early Jan 2020 Court proceedings issued against me through MCOL Late Jan 2020 Defence Submitted Then nothing happened and the case was posted as "stayed" on MCOL. Then suddenly in June 2022 they applied for a lift on the stay. Shouldn't the case have been struck out after they didn't respond to the defence after Jan 2020? If you go back and look at Post 80 in this thread you can see me asking about it back in 2020...I think it's on Page 3.

So, in response to my original question - MUST claimants declare the reason for a delay in their application for a stay to be lifted where a defence has been submitted?

I understand that, but from what I understand under Part 15 of the CPR link here - PART 15 - DEFENCE AND REPLY - Civil Procedure Rules WWW.JUSTICE.GOV.UK It says that in cases of a claim where either the amount has been admitted or not defended, or where it is claimed that the amount has been paid the claimant MUST submit a reason for the delay. I can't see where it deals with claims where any other defence has been submitted. I think the wording of "MUST" is important, which is why I'm asking.

Does there have to be a reason for a delay for them to apply to lift a stay? I can see that there if a) the defence is that the amount has been paid or b) if it is not defended or admitted then the claimant MUST submit a reason for the delay, but I can't see where it deals with this if a defence has been submitted?

So, say a case was stayed and then the solicitors submitted an N244 asking for an order that: 1) For the defence to be struck out, and/or 2) Summary Judgement on the whole claim; and 3) A costs order against the defendant But made no statement about requesting the stay be lifted, would that mean that they had done it wrong?

When you apply to lift a stay on proceedings, do you have to state to the court in your N244 that you wish for the stay to be lifted, or is it enough just to request a summary judgement?

Ok, here's where I'm at. Spoke to a free law advice clinic and they advised me to ask Drydens to consent to an amendment to my defence. Wrote out the defence and a draft consent order and sent it to them with a deadline to reply. Got no response. Emailed them on the deadline day and got no response. Got an N244 form and filled it in, sent it to both Drydens and Erudio but when I took it to the court I found that the court had closed 5 minutes before I got there. Just as I was about to go to the court the next morning I got an email from them saying that they had signed the consent order. The received date of the email was 6 days after the deadline I'd set. The following day, when they must have received the N244 forms, my amended defence, and a claim for costs, I got an email saying that they would be fighting the N244 as they had replied to my email in time - they enclosed a copy of an email that was dated 6 days before I actually received it...it's almost as if they had just manually changed the date. They also said that they'd replied in writing but to an "old" address - even though the address for reply had been clearly put on the form and has been the one that they've been sending all previous correspondence relating to the court case to. Funnily enough, I've not received this reply in writing, even though I have access to post at that address. It's almost as if they had realised that I was going to go through with this and then were trying to backdate everything to make it look as if they had replied in time. No matter, I was able to tell them that I had fortunately not submitted the N244 to court and would instead submit the consent order. They also offered a response to my amended defence and an offer to settle in advance of the court case. They have accepted that they have been served with the Amended Defence and today I received a copy of the order from the court allowing it. I shall be sending this onto Drydens and Erudio on Monday morning. I am minded to make an offer to settle in advance of the case. I have a figure in mind that would be worth paying simply for my peace of mind. I would appreciate your input on how to make this Without Prejudice offer. I'm fairly convinced that I will win at court but the amount that I'm going to offer, if accepted which I doubt it will be, is small enough that I can afford to pay it and won't even cover their initial court fee. It would purely save me having to attend court and it would mean that this isn't hanging over me for another month.

Hi folks, Not to be too paranoid, but I'm a month away from the hearing date and there's stuff that I'd rather Drydens didn't know about the case that I'm going to put to the court. I would imagine that if I put up specific details on here about what's been happening with my case to date it'd be easy for them to work out which case they refer to. Please reassure me that this is very unlikely.

Hi Pellegrino, Please could you direct me to the information about where they need a reason for a delay in dealing with the claim as this might affect my defence too. As for the Student Loans being written off after 25 years or when you reach 50, I'm pretty sure this is only if you have continually deferred the loans for that period. I still think you should include it in your defence/witness statement, just don't be surprised if they throw that back at you. I'm working on my own defence at the moment so will try and post some more info on my own thread - I hope that it will be of use.

Hi folks, got a new hearing date of 30th October. Have there been any new Doyle/Hart developments in the last few months? I have searched the forum but couldn't see anything relevant.

Hi Pelligrino, Is there anything else you can do in advance of the court date? I'd say there is. Did you originally send an CCA S.77 request? If so, what did they send you? When I sent my S.77 request they have only sent me the first page of my agreement. I would contend that because they've not sent the 2nd page that it means that Erudio are in breach of the CCA 1974 act. Which would also mean that until they fulfil the terms then the debt is unenforceable. DX may confirm, or disabuse me of this notion. I too am going through the process of fighting the Doyle/Hart argument submitted by Erudio so I will follow your case with great interest. My hearing is a week after yours.

I still haven't received anything from the court.

I've had an email from the court telling me it's inappropriate for the judge to speak to me out of court so that clears nothing up at all. I'm wondering if I can fit "Vigilantibus non dormientibus seccurit lex" into any argument to repudiate any skeleton argument that they may put forward? In particular with regard to Maritius Shipping v Employment Relations Tribunal where I believe that the court ruled that whilst within time, the application had not been made sufficiently promptly? I've still not amended my defence, although now I finally have the right forms. Do I need to put in the exact details if I amend my defence or can I just say something like "Due to not adhering to the requirements of the Consumer Credit Act this debt is unrecoverable"? I'll be honest, this is affecting me hugely. I'm full of anxiety, I'm losing sleep about it and having this hanging over me is really affecting my life.

I have dropped an email to the judge just to clarify if the next hearing is purely about their application for summary judgement or whether it will be a ruling on the whole case.

"to me it looks like once the amend their skeleton is done you can simply if you wish to respond to the judge with your new defence, no need to pay anything and same outcome" The lawyers I spoke to agreed, however they also said that the Judge had only stopped an inch away from directing me to amend my defence. They said that should I get the same judge (entirely possible) and the judge found that I hadn't applied to amend my defence, then at the very least the judge would be "cross" (they used another word I won't repeat) and that they might rule that my response constituted a new defence and as such disregard it. They thought the judge would be wrong to do so, but that rather than take that risk it would be sensible to mitigate this risk by applying to amend the defence. As yet the official court order hasn't been issued so, no haven't had any new hearing date or skeleton defence.

Ok, the overwhelming advice that I have now received from qualified lawyers is to apply to amend my defence, particularly given the comments made by the judge at the last hearing. I am going to go to the court and get an N244 Form this afternoon and intend to submit it on Monday so all help with filling this in would be appreciated. I know that you may not agree that this is necessary but I feel that it gives my case a better chance of success.

I spoke to a solicitor today about how to amend my defence and they said that IF Dryden's/Erudio consent I can use a Consent Order which will cost £108 or if they don't consent then I'll have to submit an N244 which will cost £275. Given that I will have to pay one or other of these fees, should I also submit a claim against Erudio for costs, and if so do I need to do that through a counterclaim?

The default notice can be seen on Post 132 of this thread on p23/37 of the docs I uploaded