responding to a claim

Question 1

TIME LIMITS FOR RESPONDING TO A CLAIM

Answer 1

1. The defendant must respond to a claim** within 14 days** after the date of deemed service of the Particulars of Claim.
2. Remember that a claimant can serve the Particulars of Claim with the claim form or within 14 days after service of the claim form. Until the defendant has received the Particulars of Claim, they are not required to respond.

Question 2

Deemed Date of Service

Answer 2

Question 3

There are a number of ways for a defendant to respond to service of the proceedings. They can:

Answer 3

*Admit the claim;
*File and serve a defence to the claim (and possibly with a
counterclaim); or
*Acknowledge service and indicate that they propose to
defend the claim.
If the defendant does not respond within 14 days of the
deemed date of service, the claimant can obtain judgment.

Question 4

EXTENSION OF TIME

Answer 4

Time limits can be extended** by agreement **between the parties, but only for a further 28 days (and 56 in total) from the deemed date of service of the Particulars of Claim in acase where the defendant has filed an acknowledgement

Question 5

Admitting the Whole Claim

Answer 5

1. If the defendant admits the whole claim and the amount of the claim is a specifed sum, the court will issue a judgment order to include accrued interest and fixed costs, which the defendant is then required to pay.
2. Note: If a defendant admit-ted the claim during the protocol, they will be bound by the admission in claims worth up to £25,000.

Question 6

Claim for an Unspecifed Amount

Answer 6

If the claim is for an unspecifed amount, the court will stay
the case and will set the case down for a disposal hearing,
to enable the court to determine the appropriate level of
damages.

Question 7

Minors and Protected Parties

Answer 7

If the defendant is a minor or a protected party, the court
must approve an admission or any offer to pay.

Question 8

Partial Admission

Answer 8

If the defendant admits part of the claim only, the defendant will need to file a defence to the part that is in dispute.

Question 9

Admitting Liability But Disputing Quantum

Answer 9

A defendant may admit liability but dispute quantum–that is, they may accept responsibility for the breach, accident, or event but deny that it caused injury, damage, and loss to the extent claimed by the claimant.

Question 10

Withdrawal of Admission
Admissions can be withdrawn with permission of the court. In deciding whether to permit this, the court will consider:

Answer 10

The prejudice to the parties;
The reasons why the admission was made;
The stress that a party was under when they made the admission;
The interests of the public; and
The time when the application to withdraw the admission was made (for example, pre- or post-action).

Question 11

In Personal Injury Claims
In personal injury, clinical negligence, and disease and illness claims, if the admission came after a letter of claim, a person may withdraw a pre-action admission:

Answer 11

*With the consent of the person to whom it was made; or
*After commencement, with permission of the court.
If a claimant issues a claim after a pre-action admission, a
party can apply for judgment on the strength of the pre-ac-
tion admission or a party who made the admission may apply to withdraw it.

Question 12

Acknowledgement of Service and Time for Service of Defence

Answer 12

1. If a defendant is able to file a defence within 14 days of service of the Particulars of Claim, there is** no need to file the Acknowledgement of Service.**
2. However, in many cases, particularly if they are complex, the defendant will want more time. In this case the defendant should file the **Acknowledge-ment of Service **within 14 days, as this extends the deadline for service of the defence to 28 days from service of the Particulars of Claim.

Question 13

The Acknowledgement of Service form
allows the defendant to:

Answer 13

*Indicate an intention to dispute but seek an additional 14 days to file the defence;
*Admit some of the claim but ask for time to pay; and/or
*Dispute the jurisdiction of the court.

Question 14

Calculating Time

Answer 14

1. A period expressed as a number of days means** ‘clear days’**.
2. In computing the number of days, the day on which the period begins is not included, and if the end of the period is defined by reference to an event (such as a court hearing, but service of the defence is not an event), the day on which** that event occurs is not included**
3. If the time doing an act ends on a day when the court offce is closed (weekends and bank holidays), the time does not expire until the end of the first day on which the Court Ofce is next open.

Exam Tip
Remember that it is the date of deemed service of the claim form of Particulars of Claim which is the starting point for calculating when the defence is due. This is a highly testable issue on the SQE.

Question 15

DISPUTING THE COURT’S JURISDICTION

Answer 15

1. **The response pack includes a box that can be ticked to indicate the defendant wishes to dispute the court’s jurisdiction. A defendant who wishes to do so must tick the relevant box and make an application, supported with written evidence,
   within 14 days of fling an acknowledgement of service.
2. The defendant must not file a defence until after the court has
   heard the application.
3. Filing a defence is likely to be taken as submission to jurisdiction that would negate the challenge.
   4
4. If the defendant’s application fails, they will be required to file a defence at that point, probably within 14 days.

Question 16

Default judgment

Answer 16

1. If the defendant fails to file a defence within the specifed period, the claimant can** obtain judgment in default (of trial). **
2. If a default judgment is granted, the defendant is not permitted to defend the claim further and is required (in the event of a specifed claim) to pay the specifed amount or (in the event of an unspecifed claim) to pay a sum in damages to be decided by the court.

Question 18

Application to Set Aside Default Judgment

Answer 18

To succeed on an application to set aside a default judgment, the court must be satisfed that:
*The defendant has a real prospect of successfully de-fending the claim; and
*There is some other good reason why the judgment should be set aside and the defendant allowed to defend the claim.

Question 19

Judgment WronglyEntered
The court must set judgment aside if the defendant can show that it was a judgment wrongly entered. For example:

Answer 19

*Judgment was entered too early;
*The application for judgment was made after an applica-
tion had been issued by the defendant to strike out the
claim or dismiss the claim summarily and the application
has not yet been considered by the court;
*The claim has already been paid or the claim settled; or
*The defendant had already submitted a request for time
to pay which has not yet been considered.

Question 20

The Defendant Must Act Promptly

Answer 20

1. The court will consider whether the defendant acted promptly in issuing the application to set aside the default.
2. If the court agrees to set aside the judgment, it can impose conditions on the defendant (such as the defendant paying a sum of money into court).
3. If the court grants leave to the defendant to defend the claim, it will provide for the defence to be served, probably within 14 days.
4. Alternatively, it may order that the defence annexed to the application stand as the defence in the action without the need for formal service.

Question 21

Discontinuance

Answer 21

1. At any stage in the proceedings, the claimant may discontinue their claim. They do this by filing a Notice of Discontinuance,giving formal notice to the defendant that they do not intendto proceed with their claim.
2. Notice of Discontinuance does not need to be served pre-issue. Once served, this will bring the claim to a conclusion save for the question of costs.
3. The defendant will argue that they should be able to recover thecosts that they have incurred in defending the claim, as the claim has not been successful.

Question 22

Settlement

Answer 22

1. at this stage that the parties can reach agreement at any stage in the action,
2. but that agreement will not carry legal weight unless and until it is embodied in a court order setting out the terms of agreement and specifying time for payment.