Hi! This is my first public posting so please bear with me. My GP practice removed me from their patient list without warning and, while not yet re-registered I had a severe stress reaction directly as a result of that sudden change in my circumstances. I receive a disability allowance for my anxiety-depression. I asked the surgery for further information under the Data Protection Act and Freedom of Information Act for access to my health records and certain policy details at the surgery. All my requests were refused. Items were sent which I had not asked for, other items were forged in an attempt to pass them off as the documents I wanted. Reasons for refusing access (the confidentiality of other patients' information) were not to be believed. I wrote letters between May and December trying to extract any clue to explain the grounds for the termination of my care. I made repeated requests for three health care documents in particular, but all was in vain. I applied to the small claims court against the practice for what I termed "specific performance" of my Data Protection rights of access to the three documents. I had no interest in any compensation cash. This was to be the first action to give me information for further action against the practice for breaking NHS regulations and clinical negligence in the way the GPs had taken me off their list. I now find myself on the brink of disaster with an order for costs already against me which the defendants have put provisionally in the sum of £3000 claimed and more costs likely unless I can get my head around this can of worms. I consider myself reasonably intelligent, diligent and cautious in my way of proceeding. I bought a book "Small Claims Procedure in the County Court" which was not cheap and read it and re-read it before making my claim. The book said I would need to make a claim under Part 8, adding that it might be allocated to the small claims track at allocation stage. I proceeded under Part 8 because it was the only action I could find for claims not involving a claim for a debt of money. It turns out that a Part 8 claim is not classed as a small claim, whereupon by proceeding I unknowingly opened myself up to liability for costs. So much for protection from costs boasted by the said book. However, there is also the technical aspect of the rules which I find are becoming increasingly fraught and beyond what is reasonable to expect of a lay litigant. Between the issue of the claim and the date of the hearing the GP practice had a further six weeks in addition to the 8 months already elapsed to provide me access to the documents I sought. However, they continued to withhold, even withholding the legally due confirmation whether or not the documentation actually existed. There really was no defence available to them for this obstructive behaviour but at all times their representative has used a tone of warning to me that all their costs would be due from me, which he emphasised by sending a bill for £ks. At the eleventh hour certain documents were supplied and, while I had reason to believe they were not authentic, I decided to withdraw my claim to avoid the potential for increasing costs. That is because I did not feel confident I could explain to the court why for purely practical reasons (such as the difference between "minutes" and "notes" of a meeting) my claim would appear not to have been satisfied. The defendant's representative had written me that I could avoid hearing costs by withdrawing the claim by a deadline they set for two days before the hearing, but had not sent me the documents in question until the day before their deadline. I did not get them on that day but the day after. I withdrew my claim on the eve of the hearing, rushing the withdrawal which I had not familiarised with, never having thought I would be using that procedure. I have now found out that the defendants' representative claimed the withdrawal was not all it should be and sent a barrister to attend the hearing knowing I would be absent. Counsel had my claim struck out and costs, including those of his attending on that day, ordered against me. From my point of view, he attended for no reason other than to claim his costs for attending. He knew I had withdrawn the claim and that his clients had the benefit of an automatic entitlement to costs up to the day before the hearing. It appears to me he knew there was little if anything in the way of costs coming their way due to their abysmal and vexatious conduct of pre-trial issues, so he acted to extort costs by exploiting my lay status and the fact that the judge would not have in the court bundle my withdrawal filed only the day before. I am preparing an application to have the striking out and costs order set aside. I would like to hear from anyone who can help me with technical info about what makes a withdrawal (discontinuance) effective. Does it have to be in the proper form (I sent a letter) and what is the effect if it does not state it has been served on the other party? The court phone clerk told me I would need the court's permission to withdraw, but there were no undertakings or other complications needing to be settled before withdrawal. However, in view of what she said, while I opened by saying "I write to withdraw my claim under the above reference", I asked overleaf for the court to “communicate this motion to withdraw to the defendants” . In the event I took the precaution of faxing this letter to the defendants’ solicitor and phoning and discussing my withdrawal with him. He had replied he was under a court order to attend anyway. If it turned out the court's permission to withdraw was not needed, would not my withdrawal have taken place when I took these actions? I cannot think of any other reason why the judge would agree with Counsel that the withdrawal was not effective. As the saying goes, HELP!