Court hearing
Advice
Before attending the court hearing
Assuming that the matter is financial you will need to prepare a financial statement before attending court. This allows the debtor to see what you can afford to pay back. The financial statement must include:
- How much money you have coming in;
- Whether you have any assets, such as a house or savings;
- What you need to spend on everyday living;
- How much do you need to support other people in your family; and
- How much you have left to pay your debts.
You will also need to collect evidence of your financial situation. This will include evidence of:
- Bank and credit card statements;
- Credit agreements;
- Rent books or mortgage statements;
- Proof of any other debts; and
- Proof of other court orders.
At the court hearing
Firstly, it should be noted that the creditor may not be at the hearing. There will be a standard list of questions that you may be asked, most of these are aligned from EX140 which can be downloaded here. You must answer the questions on oath or affirmation, thus swearing that the information that you are providing is true. After the questioning, you will be asked to sign a written record of the information that you have provided. Make sure you check closely that there are no mistakes before signing.
Unable to attend court
If you cannot attend the court hearing, you should contact your creditor to ask them to agree on a new date. Consequently, if it cannot be agreed upon you may apply to the court for a change of date. Please see applying to the court for a change of date, using a court form N244, accessible via GOV. The UK and the link provided.
How we can help
Lestons can review and correspondence regarding a claim being made against you, we can, if instructed appoint one of our excellent third-party independent financial advisors who can prepare a financial overview to support a proposed repayment schedule. The court would fully expect such a financial breakdown if you are planning any sort of worthwhile challenge, obviously the need and quantification will depend on the sums owed. The ultimate aim would be to determine what you could fairly afford to pay towards your debt.
Please note we make no commission from these referrals but do need clients to open a case so that we can prepare a financial brief for them. To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by taking advantage of our free consultation service, activated by the link at the top of the page, should you wish to start a case the caseworker will send you the suitable payment link.
Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our legal team and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.