Litigation
Somebody is suing me based on a complete fiction. Do I really have to defend this?
Yes. You ignore a Claim at your peril. Your Defence may well be that there is no valid claim and that it should therefore be struck-out, but you must file a Defence at the Court.
How do I start a claim?
Normally you would start a Claim by completing a Claim Form which can be obtained from your local County Court. You can also obtain a copy online. You will need to pay the appropriate fee which is calculated by reference to the value of your claim. Once issued the Court will serve it and you will be informed of the procedure.
What is an Acknowledgment of Service? What happens if I fail to file one?
If you receive a Claim which has been issued by the High Court or County Court there will be with it a document called “Acknowledgment of Service”. It is extremely important that you protect your position if you are intending to defend the claim by completing this fully (you will need to add in your date of birth) and returning it to the Court within 14 days of service. After that there is a time limit for filing a Defence. You need to make a photocopy. If you fail to acknowledge service within the 14 day period the Claimant can enter a Judgment on his Claim against you.
I have obtained Judgment. How do I get my money?
Once you have obtained Judgment then there are various means by which you can secure payment.
You could issue a Warrant of Execution for a Bailiff to attend on the debtor. You can make an Application that the debtor’s employer pays the debt by instalments out of the debtor’s salary. You could apply for an Order that the debt attaches to the debtor’s Bank Account or to a third party who owes the debtor some money so that you would receive the money owed to you direct from the bank or third party. One particularly powerful means of obtaining payment, though you may have to wait until a property is sold, is a Charging Order on the debtor’s property.
Bankruptcy or Winding up proceedings are also an alternative, although in that instance you would stand in line with the debtor’s other creditors.
A customer refuses to pay.
You should write to your customer and warn him that unless you are paid within 7 days you will take legal action. We will need to see all correspondence and invoices before writing a “14 day letter” to the debtor. Claims for less than £5,000 are dealt with by the Small Claims Court, which does not award costs, even to the winner.
Once Judgment has been obtained, we would discuss the various enforcement options.
Someone has registered a domain name with my trading name in it and asked me to buy it back.
These people are called ‘cyber-squatters’ and they have been particularly active in recent years.
Domain names present a problem in intellectual property law. The word ‘polo’ for instance can be used in the real world for cars, confectionery and designer clothing but polo.com can only be the domain of one website. Cyber-squatters can often be dealt with by the Domain Registrar in accordance with the dispute resolution policy. We can help you to make representations to the appropriate Registration Authority and ask them to register you as proprietor.
If there is a genuine proprietorship issue, the Registration Authority may not register you as proprietor and proceedings may need to be brought for passing-off or copyright/trademark infringement, compelling the domain holder to hand-over control to you.
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Haworth Holt Bell is the trading name of Haworth Holt Bell Limited, registered in England with Company No: 5038210
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