Money claim online? Any one used the service?

[silverback mike]

Hi folks,
I'm claiming against a car dealer, and as the value is under 5k I'm using the small claims court, via money claim online, which is the government online service.

It seems pretty good, and has largely been painless for me so far (apart from the £120 fees - however, these can be included in the refund costs by defendent)

I presume all contact is via email, and also presume the defendant is served a summons via the information I have provided.

I was just wondering whether anyone has used this service, and if anyone has seen a claim through it would be handy to know what's the procedure.

I'm also going through his local trading standards, who are very interested to hear about him, so I guess it's a waiting game.......

[magic torch]

Yep, used it a couple of times, fairly straightforward but there's a lot of waiting between each part of the process.

Defendent 'pleaded guilty' both times, so don't know what the procedure is outside of that.

It's not all on-line, there is some paperwork involved.

[silverback mike]

Thanks.

[pies]

Mike im not sure which has surprised me more,the fact that money claim online exists or you sold/bought a car from a dealer

[silverback mike]

Indeed Colin, I use a dealer and look what happens... morals of a sewer rat.

disclaimer:Not all dealers/disclaimer

[Piglet]

If the otherside just gives in and/or ignores the claim then it's straight forward, either you settle it privately and withdraw the proceedings or you'll be issued with judgement against them after a set amount of time has passed. Althought it's worth being aware that if you get judgment you'll still probably need to enforce that in some way against them. I'm guessing you might have the ability to do that? They can also apply to the court to have the judgment overturned if they have a "good" reason why they ignored the claim.

If they serve a defence then the claim will come out of money claims online and be allocated to a "normal" county court (prob your local one if you and the Defendant are in the same area). I'm not sure if you've said the value of the claim but if it's under the current small claims track limit and fairly straightforward then you'd expect it to be allocated to the small claims track in which case neither side have the ability to claim costs (with some exceptions). Prior to allocation you and the D will both get sent an allocation questionnaire which gives details of the claim and allows it to be allocated to the right track.

I'd wait and see what happens of the next few weeks and then post again once you know what their response is?

[jamesuk28]

We ( www.debtrecovery.tv ) use money claim online for all our clients claims. Its simple, straightforward and quick assuming the debtor pays up. Otherwise you will have to pursue other means to recover the debt / enforce judgement.

[anthonyc]

I am also going through the same process, claim issued 7th September, I'll let you know how things go.

Anthony

[silverback mike]

Thanks, that would be handy. I received a letter saying that my defendant has until the 27th to respond to the court...

[anthonyc]

My defendent has today emailed me to say that she has transferred funds into my account, can't see them yet but from a response point of view, so far seems to have done the trick.

Anthony

[silverback mike]

No contact from mine....

[Piglet]

silverback mike said:

No contact from mine....

That's good. With any luck they'll just ignore it, you'll get given judgment in default and then you can enforce it swiftly! They've then got to go through the ballache of instructing a solicitor to explain why the judgment should be overturned because they didn't bother to deal with the proceedings when they were issued!

[silverback mike]

He has until the 23rd I think before he has to respond.....so time is going by. I suppose I will be emailed if he responds, is that the case? And if he doesn't how do I go about taking things further, or is it an automatic thing if the dates are missed?

all advice appreciated, not having done this civil law thing before..

[glassman]

used MCO to try and recover money from dirty Kurd who knocked me with a moody cheque.

He's since been arrested (pleaded not guilty and now awaiting trial) and while all that was going on I forgot my log-in details. When I go to answer the secret question (for password reminder) my answer is rejected.

[jazzybee]

silverback mike said:

He has until the 23rd I think before he has to respond.....so time is going by. I suppose I will be emailed if he responds, is that the case? And if he doesn't how do I go about taking things further, or is it an automatic thing if the dates are missed?

all advice appreciated, not having done this civil law thing before..

My old company built Money claim online - but I have not used it personally. You, the claimant make a claim. The defendant recieves a paper pack to respond to the claim. As part of that pack, they are sent a login and password to Money Claim Online if they wish to respond online. In theory, an online dialog takes place. They submit their defence, you counter argue etc. until you feel the case is at an impass. You can then select to make a judgement. A judge then logs on to the system, evaluates the claim, may ask further questions of either party then makes his judgement, either online or call you to his offices. Once the judgement has been made, the process can be progressed to issue warrants and baliffs IIRC. I said this is the theory, as I think around 80%+ of the cases never make it that far. Either the defendant pays up or ignores the defence pack sent out to them, and automatically loses the claim. Money Claim Online was designed for individuals to claim for amounts upto £100,000, however the majority of the 50,000 claims processed by the system are managed by large organisations such as credit card and debt financing companies and collections depts. of local councils. Money Claim Online in 2004-5 became the biggest court in the UK turning over more cases than any other court, with the majority not needing to use courts or court staff. I think its the closest thing the UK Govt. has had to an online success.

I will caveat my understanding of the processes again, as I have never used it through the full process and its been 3 years since I last read the process documents. But I did draft the updates to the site to meet the corporate user needs. Don't kno if it was ever implemented though

[silverback mike]

Thank You Jazzy, very helpful and informative post. The amount I am claiming for is £3500 so not a massive amount but it's the principle of it..Lets hope he doesn't respond over the next few days and then he forfeits his right to a response.

[pies]

Mike police officers pay must have gone up alot lately cos £3.5k is alot of dosh you need to earn £5k to spend £3.5k

best of luck with the case

[Piglet]

As an addition to Jazzy's useful post, my understanding of the reality is that if the defendant puts in a defence and conterclaim the claim is automatically bounced out of MCO and into the normal claims system. The system may have the ability for contested claims to be dealt within it but I don't think that this happens.

Let us know what happens after the 23rd Mike.

[silverback mike]

Thanks chaps, will do, I'll report back after the 23rd.
And yes indeed Pies, for me £3500 is a lot to lose, but my point being that in the great scheme of claims it is probably at the lower end of the scale, especially if most of the claims are from the commercial world.

Edited by silverback mike on Wednesday 20th September 10:24

[kwacker]

We used it to try and collect £2000. And won by default but if they can't find them you don't get your money. But we have a year to try and find them and reissue the summons.

Good luck