The Small Claims Courts are heavily stacked against the claimant

SchrodingersCat

Let me rant about a court case that I am involved with in the Northern Irish Small Claims Court.

I opened up a case with the Small Claims Court in Belfast against a previous housemate who withheld a rent deposit from me.
The court issued a "Court Application" to the housemate. Unfortunately, the court mixed up the defendant (him) and the prosecutors (me) addresses. This took two months to resolve. The correct letters were then sent out. The housemate ignored his letter in the post. As such, the court re-issued the application a total of three times, each re-issue taking ~2 months. Each letter was ignored in turn by the housemate. I was then asked by the court to provide evidence that he lived at this address. I contacted the landlord, who thankfully, obliged with a signed letter. Had he not, I would imagine that I would not have been able to proceed with the case. With this, the court issued a "Notice of Intention" to the defendant and I had to wait a further 10 days and then lodge an "Application Form of Enforcement". I had to pay an additional court fee of £30 and travel expenses of £20 for the defendant to come to the court. He did not appear at the court case, so the court automatically judged in my favor.

After another few months, the case was passed to the Enforcement of Judgments Office who sent a "Summons to Appear For Examination" to the defendant to come to court to see if he had the money to make the payment. The defendant ignored this letter and the subsequent follow up letters. Meanwhile, I understood from the landlord that he was still a tenant at that address. The courts then send me a "Conditional Order for Issue of Warrant of Arrest" that I had to present to the defendant myself.

At this time, I had moved back to the Republic of Ireland so this was difficult for me to do. Thankfully, I still had a known address for him from his landlord. From research online, I was able to hire a "Summons Server" for £60 to hand him the papers. I had to provide the Server with photos, known addreses and other information of the defendant so that they could find him. They said that they went to the house a total of three occasions. On one of the occasions, they said that they were satisfied that he was in the house, but the other housemate who answered the door was not helpful to them. They provided me with a report, and with this, I was able to make a claim of "Substituted Service". This is where the court could send the summons in registered post and be satisfied that he was served the papers, whether he ignored them now or not.

It turned out that he had read them because he did appear in court on the date for the "Summons to Appear For Examination". He was asked to disclose all his forms of income. He was on the social welfare at the time and claimed that this was his only form of income. As such, he would make the payments in very small (~%10) installment payments.

After two payments, the Enforcement of Judgement Office did not receive any further payments. They issued a number of "Demands of Information" to his bank and Social Welfare Office. After this, they deemed that he could not make the repayments, and applied to the court for a "Notice of Unenforceability". The court ruled in their and his favor. I was told that I would not receive any other repayments until he came off Social Welfare. They would notify me of when this would occur and the repayments could start again. However, three months later, I received a "Order Discharging Notice of Unenforceability" that stated that they would not enforce the repayments. As a result I would not receive the repayment of my money in future.

Coincidentally at this time, the landlord contacted me to tell me that the defendant would not be a tenant of his anymore, in case I still needed to know his address. When I asked why, he said that he was subletting the house on AirBnB for a year which was against the contract with the landlord. I was able to find his AirBnB profile online, and from the number of happy feedbacks and price of staying there, show that he had a substantial and additional form of income that he did not disclose to the court. Using this evidence, I was able to appeal the previous judgement by showing that he could have paid his debt to me a number of times over. This led to me winning the appeal in court, which again, he did not attend.

The case was passed back again to the Enforcement of Judgement Office for them to enforce the remaining payments. It looked like they started the exact same process again where they issued Demands for Information to his Bank and Social Welfare office. They issued another "Summons to Appear for Examination" to him that it looks like he (surprise, surprise) ignored.

Which brings us up to today. This week I received another "Conditional Order for Issue of Warrant of Arrest" that I have to present to him again!

Overall, three years have passed since I opened up the court case. In that time, I have completed everything that the court have asked of me. Much of which I would not have been able to do if I were not fortunate enough that he had a helpful landlord. I have put alot of time and energy into this through online research, phone calls, and checking up on the court on a monthly basis. Now I am being asked to serve a summons to someone that I have no idea where he lives. The last I heard from friends of friends was that he was on his way to England. I could pay for a "Trace Service", but these look expensive, and like the previous summons service and travel expensive for the defendant, I could be throwing good money after bad.

What really angers me is that during all of this, the defendant just had to ignore a load of letters and appear in court once. He has lied to the court by not disclosing his other substantial form of income. From that, he can get away Scott free. Even if I did manage to serve him this second summons, what is to stop him from coming to court a second time and lying again? He didnt get prosecuted for lying the first time, so I see no reason that they would stop him doing it again.

I am shocked that the court system is so heavily stacked against the prosecutor.

Would anyone have any advice on how I could proceed with this case? Is it worth my while paying for a trace and serve service to give him the summons if he can just lie again? Can the court just keep going around in circles like this and keep getting me to serve these summons until I give up?

endacl

How much are you owed, and how short is life?

SchrodingersCat

endacl wrote: »

How much are you owed, and how short is life?

I have kept the case going for a number of reasons: mainly it is two months of rent, plus expenses, plus out of principle, and plus to learn about how the court system works (it doesnt).

Is that how this system is designed? That we just give up?

hullaballoo

It's a different jurisdiction, so the level of knowledge of the workings of the NI SCC on this forum may be limited.

But it's notoriously frustrating trying to extract payment from a private individual who doesn't have any assets and deals in cash only. Deprivation of liberty is really a last resort and is extraordinary.

Carawaystick

hullaballoo wrote: »

Deprivation of liberty is really a last resort and is extraordinary.

While it is extraordinary in modern terms, the 6 counties has a much higher likelihood of Deprivation of liberty than than the rest of the uk, especially if you only consider the current uk since it was founded in 1923.