Terms & Conditions

[Anonymous]

Sorry I’m probably being a bit niave here but this is the first one I’ve seen. We have received a claim made via a Court in Wales for Housing enefit plus expenses for a period 2 years ago. No appeal was made at the time and he now states he should have been entitled to HB.

Our solicitors are looking into this at the moment but is this something that can be done and has anyone else dealt with these before? Do they just need defended like any other claim?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[peterdelamothe]

Hi Jenni

Recently had one claimant issue proceedings in three seperate courts, one after other. Quite amusing I thought.

Yes you have to defend them but best policy is for your lawyer to ask for them to be struck out on the basis that the Court has no jurisdiction and that this is a matter for the Tribunal Service rather than the County Court. You can ask for costs too. 8)

[Kevin D]

Although it’s English law, this case should be quite persuasive:

[b:1f22825d11]LB Waltham Forest v ROBERTS (2004) EWCA Civ 940 [/b:1f22825d11] (available on Bailii)

In danger of oversimplification, but I think this case could be used to support the argument that a Court has no jurisdiction where there are other channels through which a dispute should have been followed.

Regards

[markp]

I don’t know the legal system that well but the County Court, according to their rules, cannot reopen a correctly made decision. You don’t specify what level of court the claim came from but I would assume that Crown Court and Magistrates’ Court have similar rules.

Perhaps your legal team should look at this and then act as Peter has suggested.

Do I know what I'm doing? The jury's out on that........................

[Author]

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