Why is a claimant allowed to serve a claim himself?

[Eclassy]

Last week I received a judgement in default against me for £4000. This was the first I was hearing about this claim (I know everyone says that). Maybe I missed the letter....damn!

I called up Northampton and it didnt take too long to work out what was going on.

The claimant probably in an act of revenge for a judgement I obtained against him filed a claim against me but provided a wrong address (wrong door number) to the courts. He knows the correct address so I suspect he did this thinking the letter will be binned by the house it went to and a judgement will be entered against me in default.

Luckily claim form was returned to the courts by the occipier at wrong address and I guess the court contacted the claimant. It is at this stage he provided my correct address but the court then let him serve the claim form himself and he provided the court with a certificate of service but he obviously didnt serve a claim to my correct address.

He wouldnt have dared serve to the correct address as I would have defended it. Having got some details of his claim from Northampton, it is so ludicrous it would have been thrown out in 5 minutes.

My question is why is a claimant allowed to serve a claim himself?

This is obviously open to abuse in a situation like this where it looks like the claimants sole aim is to obtain a judgement in default which I would never have known off thereby a CCJ is registered against me.

I have applied to have the judgement set aside and requested a hearing. This cost me £155. Is there anyway to recover this cost and is there any chance he will be punished if I can prove to the courts he has abused the system?

[XCP]

My life doesn't half seem boring sometimes.

[tenpenceshort]

XCP said:

My life doesn't half seem boring sometimes.

It would, if you adopted the phrase "It's someone else's fault" and applied it to every single situation you encounter.

[SV8Predator]

10 penceshort said:

It would, if you adopted the phrase "It's someone else's fault" and applied it to every single situation you encounter.

Ah, but sometimes it is someone's fault...

[Jasandjules]

You will need to make an application to set aside. You will need to set out the circumstances.

[Eclassy]

Jasandjules said:

You will need to make an application to set aside. You will need to set out the circumstances.

I have. I am just wondering why the court allows this self certification of service by the claimant when it is so open to abuse.

By not serving me with the claim, he has avoided paying hearing fees and I have had to spend £155 which I wouldnt have had to as I would have succesdfully defended the ridiculous claim.

Can/Will the courts punish someone who is proven to have abused the system in this way?

[kowalski655]

It may depend on the contents of his confirmation of service.. If it says he posted it to you then the court may feel it was lost in the post,if it says he delivered it by hand and he is shown to be a liar then he could be in trouble.
Service in person is allowed as some defendants can be tricky to serve and so need a specialist process server

[JustinP1]

Eclassy said:

Jasandjules said:

You will need to make an application to set aside. You will need to set out the circumstances.

I have. I am just wondering why the court allows this self certification of service by the claimant when it is so open to abuse.

By not serving me with the claim, he has avoided paying hearing fees and I have had to spend £155 which I wouldnt have had to as I would have succesdfully defended the ridiculous claim.

Can/Will the courts punish someone who is proven to have abused the system in this way?

In terms of costs, yes.

What you need to do is this:

Request in writing to the Claimant that as you never received the PoC that you'd like the judgment set aside by consent. Then, there's no need for a hearing.

If he doesn't, then you just draft a witness statement exhibiting the letter, and file that with the court, and the other party.

Then, when the hearing comes around, the Judge will be well aware of the situation in that the other party is basically abusing the processes of the court.

With a bit of luck he'll waste his court fee, and you'll get an order in your favour for the court costs and your hearing costs. In a similar situation with the other party playing silly buggers I ended up with an order for £75 - the maximum for a litigant in person, plus parking costs and mileage at 45p a mile.

Look at CPR 13.2. That's your grounds to set aside.

[Eclassy]

JustinP1 said:

Look at CPR 13.2. That's your grounds to set aside.

Thanks for this. It looks like I will get my money back if it is set aside on amandatory ground or the case goes to trial and is successfully defended.

Not bad. Guranteed to be one of the two. Actually getting my money back is a completely different story.

[JustinP1]

Eclassy said:

JustinP1 said:

Look at CPR 13.2. That's your grounds to set aside.

Thanks for this. It looks like I will get my money back if it is set aside on amandatory ground or the case goes to trial and is successfully defended.

Not bad. Guranteed to be one of the two. Actually getting my money back is a completely different story.

13.2 is open and shut. That's the mandatory grounds to set aside. The rebuttal of that is he provides 'proof' of service.

So, just to make sure, it wouldn't hurt to also apply under 13.3 that's the discretionary grounds.

You need to show that you've acted promptly, that you have a reasonable chance of defending the claim, or, there is 'another good reason' to set aside. From what you've said, the fact that the other party is deliberately abusing the processes of the court in this way would be one of those reasons.