DMBM665790 - Enforcement action: country court proceedings: the defendant’s response to the claim: transferring an action from the CCBC

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When cases should be transferred

The county court action must be transferred from the Bulk Centre to the local county court where an invalid defence/part admission is submitted prior to judgment. Or where, following judgment, you wish to enforce the judgment by:

  • third party debt order
  • attachment of earnings order
  • charging order
  • judgment summons.

You should also transfer the case if you wish to apply for an order to attend court to obtain information.

The local court

The ‘local court’ is the:

  • claimant’s home court for limited company cases
  • defendant’s home court in all other cases.

Transferring the case

Considerations

When you are ready to transfer an action from the Bulk Centre to the local county court use the PROCEEDINGS DETAILS function. It is important to remember that once you have transferred a case out of the Bulk Centre you can never transfer the action back.

If you are transferring a case pre-judgment you must ensure that the case has been moved away from the automatic judgment in default process before you attempt to transfer the case.

The guidance relating to the right of audience to appear in court is contained in DMBM666120.

Transferring a case

To transfer a case to the local county court:

  • highlight the master work item
  • click on [Proceedings Details] button
  • select the local Court from the drop-down list in the Court name field on the General tab
  • click on the [OK] button.

The following warning will then be displayed ‘You are about to transfer this case from the CPC/CCBC to a local court. Do you wish to proceed?’ ‘Yes/No’.

If you wish to continue with the transfer click on the [Yes] button.

Judgment obtained

If you have already obtained judgment you will need to complete a further field on this screen before IDMS will allow you to leave the function. The field is called ‘Enforcement options’ and you will need to specify how you propose to enforce the action from the options available from the drop down list. For post-judgment transfers you should allow 10 days for the case to be transferred before commencing enforcement action.

Judgment not obtained

For pre-judgment transfers you will need to set an appropriate B/F awaiting notification of the hearing date.

Post transfer

Following the transfer ‘Northampton - CCBC’ and the date of transfer will appear in the ‘Previous Court Details’ section on the PROCEEDING DETAILS screen.

The Bulk Centre will send the case details electronically to the defendant’s local court and send notice of transfer to both the defendant and the CCCU.

If you are transferring a case from the Bulk Centre to a court outside of your area:

  • transfer the case out of the Bulk Centre and then on the next working day
  • change the work item ownership on IDMS.