DCBL Private parking (eurocarparks)

[b789]

This is not really about whether you are likely to “lose” in the ordinary sense. The point here is that judgment should never have been entered in the first place because you had already filed an Acknowledgment of Service and a Defence. On the facts you have shown me, the prospects of the court refusing to set aside the judgment are extremely low. The real issue is not whether the application is strong, but how quickly the court will deal with it.

It is simple… if the court has entered the judgment in error, they MUST set it aside. CPR13.2 is a MANDATORY set aside. As you can see from the application I have advised, the fee for application is also being requested because this is not your fault. You have done everything by the book.

In practical terms, the N244 is the only formal route that puts the matter before a judge and gets you an order setting aside the judgment. If you do nothing, the CCJ simply remains there. Filing the N244 does not make the CCJ disappear immediately from your credit file. It is likely to remain showing for now unless and until the court makes an order setting it aside. Once that happens, it should then be removed.

So, if paying the £313 would not cause you serious financial difficulty, my advice is to make the N244 application now rather than lose more time. The CCJ is still likely to appear on the register in the meantime anyway, so there is little to be gained by further delay. What matters now is showing the court that you acted promptly as soon as you discovered the judgment, and that any further delay has been caused not by you, but by the failure of the CNBC and the claimant’s solicitor to correct an obviously wrong default judgment after being put on notice.

If the £313 fee would cause hardship, you should check whether you qualify for Help With Fees. If you are eligible, the fee may be reduced or you may not have to pay it at all. So that is worth checking before deciding that the application is unaffordable.

Apart from the N244 itself, there are other steps you can and should take, but they are secondary and they do not replace the application if your aim is to get rid of the CCJ. You should continue pressing DCB Legal in writing and make clear that they already knew this was a defended claim, that they should have consented promptly to a set-aside, and that if they force you into an on-notice application you will seek the full £313 fee from their client.

You should also make a formal complaint to HMCTS about the conduct of the CNBC, because judgment appears to have been entered despite the Defence having been received and acknowledged. That complaint will not itself remove the CCJ, but it is still worth pursuing and they are likely to also offer compensation.

You should also report DCB Legal to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), because they were plainly on notice that the claim had been defended and yet the matter still ended in default judgment on the false basis that no reply had been made. I would also get your MP involved, because that can add pressure, particularly in relation to HMCTS failings, even though it is not a substitute for the court application.

So the position in short is this: if the fee is manageable, issue the N244 now and pursue the complaints in parallel. If the fee is a problem, first check Help With Fees. But do not assume that complaints alone will get the CCJ removed quickly, because only the court can actually set it aside.

Even if the CCJ is registered on your file, once it is set aside, it is completely expunged from the record. It may take a couple of months before it clears, but it will disappear.

I will assist you with all the steps through this process.