Yes that's very true, but being a humble carpenter it's not always that straightforward, we've both been overwhelmed by all the legal protocols and jargon. Must try harder next time. Thanks to all for their input

Thanks for that Andy, I wish I'd known that on Wednesday as I could have spent another day preparing ours and saved £13 in the process:lol:

Hi Andy, Yes DJ directions are on the Notice of Allocation as you say, my wife has complied with this by filing on time as directed but the Claimant has not, subsequently I can't see why the Court shouldn't be true to their word in the aforementioned letter.

Hi, thanks for your input, the envelope is post marked the 16th which I have kept.

Hi, their letter is dated the 14th but most of their correspondence to date has been dated well before it has been received.

Hi, Thanks for the reply, I tried to copy the letter into the post but for some reason I can't, but the wording is exactly as follows: 1. Unless the Claimant files and serves it's witness statements by 4.00pm on 16 October 2013 then the claim will be struck out and the hearing on 25 October 2013 will be vacated without further order. 2.Unless the Defendant files and serves her witness statements by 4.00pm on 16 October 2013 then the Defence will be struck out and the Claimant shall be at liberty to request judgement and the hearing on the 25 October shall be vacated. 3. The Court has made this order on it's own initiative pursuant to Rule 3.3 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998. Any party affected by this order has a right to apply to set it aside, vary, or stay it, by application made not more than seven days after this order was served on the party making the application.

Hello again, I could do with a bit of advice on an issue with my wife's forthcoming court case, she received a letter from the court ordering her that if she didn't file and serve her witness statements by 1600hrs. on the 16th the defence will be struck out, this caught us by surprise so much that I had to race home from work the day before and quickly type them up, (not very well) but we got them done all the same, we then posted copies to Sygma Bank and Drydensfairfax solicitors paying for guaranteed next day delivery and my wife hand delivered a copy directly to the court office. We didn't receive Sygma's witness statement until the 17th and after phoning the court office they confirmed that they received theirs on the 17th also but it had been accepted which is contrary to the courts letter which clearly states that if the deadline is not met the claim will be struck out, not might or maybe but will. Therefore can we not insist that it is struck out as the letter states? it seems to me that if we could take measures to ensure we met the deadline so could they. any advice on this will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks

Hi again, Following the court demand in January and my subsequent defence the claim was stayed. I had a second demand on the other debt from the same company Sygma which was also stayed after following the same principle in creating a defence. Since February I have had no contact and no response to my earlier offers of payment. However I received in the post a letter from Sygma's solicitors claiming that they have applied to the court to have the stay removed. The paperwork to the court states the following reason for the the stay to be lifted: " The claim is issued in respect of an outstanding sum due to the Claimant from the Defendant under the CCA regulated agreement. The claim was issued on the 1st Nov 2012 for the sum of £xxxx and a Defence was filed to the claim. The Defence disputes the full amount claimed and states that she was not behind the repayments that the Claimant has failed in its responsibilities under s 140a of CCA 1974. The Claimant has made enquiries into the issues raised and has been unable to resolve the dispute. As Such the claimant respectfully requests that the stay be lifted and the matter transferred to the Defendants home court to be dealt with as a disputed case." I am not sure what enquiries they have made because they have not contacted us or responded to my previous repayment offers? They have paid the £45 to the court and I have now received notification from the court with a questionnaire to be completed within 7 days. The pack from the court also includes a General Directions Order, and from what I understand the court will deal with the application to lift the stay without hearing under CPR 23.8©. Moreover it states that: "It is ordered that the Application to lift the stay and for allocation questionnaires to be issued is granted" The Order also explains that: "You may within 7 days of the service of this order apply to the court to set aside or to vary the order under Part 23 Rule 10. You must file with the Court, and serve on the other parties, an application that sets out your reasons for objections. A fee is payable upon the filing of the application. When your objection is received the matter will be listed for hearing unless you ask the Court to vary the order without hearing: I am really confused by this and options available to me, my questions are as follows: 1. What is the difference in having the matter to transferred to my local court? 2. I see no evidence of how the Claimant has made any enquiries, they have not contacted or responded to my offer of payment? 3. Can I apply for the court to set aside or vary the order and what exactly do these mean? 4. The questionnaire looks like it is confirming where and when I will go to court. 5. There is a section for other information - is this where I put my defence. I am really not sure how to approach this so would appreciate help. Thanks.

Hi Andy, Thanks for your help with this! Should I continue to write to them offering the £1 month payment or should I wait for them to contact me? I have also received a second court claim from the same company for the other debt my wife has with them. I have followed the same approach as the last one and submitted my defence but changed the dates and references where appropriate. I will keep you posted on any response to my defence but hopefully it will be stayed like the last one. Thanks again for all your help!

How long does it usually take to get a response from the court? I submitted my defence on the last day which was the 3rd Dec. and the reply says that Sygma have 28 days to try and come to an agreement, they obviously don't want to do that as there has been no contact, it's now getting on for two months and not heard anything from anyone and I can,t actually see a hearing date on the claim form.

In post no.70 I said the response had been from Tesco which was wrong, it was from Barclays (egg) but I don't know how to delete/edit the post.

Many thanks Andy that's marvellous, I'm going to spend a little time today to familiarise myself with the points of reference in the defence and then I will submit this evening. I would like to have mentioned the due diligence part as I really believe that this card should never have been authorised in the first place due to the other card already being in operation, but realise that I'm only defending the particulars of claim. With regards to the other point mentioned about having no responses to my request for bank details I'm wondering if we should telephone them or is that not a good idea? we've only had one response from Barclays (egg) acknowledging the request and saying it will be passed to the relevant department, the four creditors that accepted our offer of payment have all been asked to supply bank details for the standing order but not replied, it's now about a month since the request so we're a little concerned that they will say we haven't kept to the agreement by not having made a payment yet. Thank you very much for the invaluable assistance you've given to date regards steven

Hi Andy. re. Court Defence Draft [ATTACH]39674[/ATTACH]

Hi Andy, re. Court Defence

Hello Andy, should I draft up a mitigating defence and post it here to be looked at? time is now becoming an issue. Also with regards to the other creditors who so far have all been reasonable in accepting our repayment offers, although I'm now a little concerned that having requested their bank details so that we can set up the standing orders, the only one to have responded to that request has been Barclays (Egg) who sent an acknowledgement letter saying our request would be handed to the relevant department. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Regards Steven