N244 "Unless" Order - Number of Days?

[MarathonPaul]

I am a Defendant looking to file an "Unless" Order along the following lines:

 

"The Claimant has introduced new evidence at a late stage of proceedings therefore unless the Claimant is able to substantiate this new evidence with (list of things eg credit card number, name of payer, bank ac number etc. ) within a period of XX days then the Claim be struck out and a wasted costs order be made in favour of the Defendant"

 

My question is - What is the lowest XX can reasonably be so that the Judge grants the order: 21, 14, 10 or even as low as 7 days?

[andydd]

I dont know but the court process is very slow these days, Im sure if it was 7 days, they wouldnt receive it untill after the deadline had expired, they would then have a perfect reason to ask it be set aside.

 

I'd think 14 would be more reasonable.

 

Andy

[MarathonPaul]

Thanks Andy.

 

Am I required to serve the Order on the Claimant, or do I leave that to the Court?

[andydd]

Court should do it. But cant hurt to serve it yourself, Ive been in situation where the other side claimed not to receive stuff so i made sure it was emailed and hand delivered.

[MarathonPaul]

Thanks once again Andy.

 

So can the Unless Order really be just a very simple paragraph as in my first post, or must it be something a lot more wordy and structured?

[andydd]

From, what Ive seen they normally are short and sweet..ones issued by Judges are nearly always short n simple.

 

Of course its then upto you to argue that it should take effect.

 

Andy

[MarathonPaul]

From, what Ive seen they normally are short and sweet..ones issued by Judges are nearly always short n simple.

 

Of course its then upto you to argue that it should take effect.

 

Andy

 

Are you saying Andy that a District Judge will merrily issue an Unless Order and at a later point, when the time specified on the Order has elapsed, still need persuading that the Order should take effect?

[andydd]

I'd overlooked the fact you are asking for an Unless Order, to be honest I dont know. I would of thought there would be a hearing to decide whether it would be justified for there to be an Unless Order but the actual order to strike out if not complied with shouldnt need further persuading..it should follow naturelly, after all that not the absolute end of it, the other side could still apply for a set aside.

 

Andy

[Andyorch]

When you state filed evidence at a late stage Paul what exactly is late? What stage are you at Witness Statements or n265 Standard Disclosure?

 

Regards

 

Andy

[MarathonPaul]

Thanks guys

 

I have decided not to file an Unless Order. From what I can see they seem to be pretty toothless anyway, with a whole number of reasons as to why the other party can have one set aside.

 

I'll let the proceedings take their natural course, as I don't feel the Claimant can produce evidence to defeat my statutory defence anyway.

[andydd]

Sometimes its useful to get cases struck out early using strike out and summary judgments, but as this is often pre-allocation it carries a cost risk, sometimes its just as well to wait till main case especially if you are very confident other side will fail.

 

Andy