I love this stuff, the old County Court Claims from the PA, well I have to say its not a bad way of wasting the courts' time, spending money on solicitors fees and court fees with little chance of gaining a judgement.
Firstly, a potential creditor has an obligation under the Office of Fair Trading guidelines to prove a debt, I would suggest for a bit of fun a written request to the PA asking for a full breakdown on how this debt was incurred and a copy of any credit agreements that the courts would no doubt require should a claim be issued and an acknowledgement of service returned with a defence. Hell the Data Protection Act is always good for a giggle too, send them a written request for a copy of all stored information on yourself with the fee and point out they have a legal obligation to provide this.
Secondly, I think a paintball team is quite possibly one of the hardest legal entities to litigate against, its a group of people more often than not with no formal agreement between them. All it would take would be for the team to dispand and the case seems pretty pointless to me.
Thirdly, let them issue claims, they have to send a county court claim form to your address and all you have to do is file and acknowledgement of service to the county court which entitles you to a further 21 days to file a defence. File a counterclaim for damages incurred under breech of contract by the PA if you consider the rules/safety issues were an acceptable reason to breech the so-called 'contract'. I cant see how a CCJ against a team is likely to be enforceable even if a judgement is gained. Oh look my paintball team is blacklisted for 6 years! Thats a threat and a half. Even if a judgement is allowed by the court, the courts allow reasonable time for the debt to be paid within the means of the debtor. What are they gonna do if you default after a judgement... get a warrant to send in bailiffs? where would you send them?
Another one that would be fun if you really felt like paying the PA instead of going to court might be to submit a financial statement showing how much you can afford to repay (within the county court guidelines available from me at request) and pay them say £1 per month, I'm sure they would like that.
My company issues thousands of CCJs every year, but I doubt very much we'd even consider issuing a judgement against a paintball team on behalf of one of our major clients let alone an organisation like the PA, with no signed, written credit agreement it just makes no sense.
Nice to see the professionalism of the PA hasnt changed and they seem to think court action is a good idea against people who probably struggle to play the sport they love as it is... great way to encourage the growth of paintball within the UK. Obviously the league can't be as successful as some would have us believe if they're that desperate for money that they need to pursue customers who've left their custom as they believe the service wasn't up to scratch to make ends meet.
That said I haven't really bothered to read the whole thread so everything I say may be utter BS!
K
