I fostered an elderly rescue dog and the rescue have sent me a £3k county court form?

[LostforWords2021]

On the 8th April 2020 a friend sent me a message asking if I had room to take in an elderly dog who's owner had died. He was poorly, overweight and due to be pts if a foster place couldn't be found.

I hadnt heard of the rescue before, a FB msg group was set up for us all to talk about the process. The rescue knew nothing about the dog, hadn't met him but did send a driver to collect him and drive him to us during the first lock down.

Apart from messenger I had no other contact for the rescue. I spent over £1200 on vet bills, food and comfort toys inc orthopaedic beds and natural remedies. I did sign a foster agreement.

It was agreed I would adopt him but I didn't receive a contact. Unfortunately the poor boy took a turn for the worst and the vet advised pts, which we did in Aug. During April and August they had a vet nurse on the group chat advising against the vets treatment, urging us to complain and sending us treatment cards via msg of what she would be doing at her surgery, it was very stressful.

I received a solicitor letter which I responded to - apparently, I wasn't authorised to get treatment or make decisions even though we agreed I had adopted him 1 month prior to becoming so poorly and kept them all up to date with what was happening.

Today I've received a county court money claim form and I don't know what to do next, I've attached a picture of the claim for a dog the rescue never met, never assessed or paid for anything towards his day to day care for the 5 months I paid for everything because I wanted to.

I do have some screen shots of conversations but the have deleted the main group chat and the vet is refusing an information request due to being to involved - we disagree with some of the comments made as we weren't made aware of what treatment they carried out due to lock down and not being able to be present with our dog.

My goodness....That 'Rescue' group sound like utter scammers.

I'd NEVER go via any ''rescue'' that wasn't bona fide these days.

The big, recognised animal charities are generally ''safe'' to adopt from.

A lot of small 'Rescues' are set ups these days as almost money makers..Importing strays from overseas in reeking vans and selling them on , it's quite an industry.

You need legal advice.

Glad you've got some puppy cuddles, it must be so upsetting.

Seems dodgy on all sides with rescue, law firm and now with the vets backtracking. I don't see how they can claim that much as a loss given a senior dogs market value would be negligible and hadn't even had the dog in their care so you foot all the costs.

Might be worth contacting Trevor Cooper as specialist solicitors in Dog law
www.doglawsos.co.uk/doglaw-sos-benefits/
doglaw.co.uk/

Googling the law firm brings up some more information:

www.lincolnhousechambers.com/sarah-magill-richard-dawson-prevent-defendants-case-going-trial

forum.champdogs.co.uk/topic_show.pl?tid=152141

Have you checked to see if there are any connections between this Animal Protection Services and the charity that is chasing you?

Your name change hasn't quite worked this time OP which means anyone who uses 'see all' on the OPs posts to check if there are recent updates won't see anything you posted yesterday.

Reading this, I had a feeling it was the 'charity' mentioned in the article. Sadly not the first time I've heard of this organisation and the questionable methods employed.
Hope you get this sorted OP, you sound lovely. glad your old boy found you and was able to know love in his last weeks.
I've PM'ed you

Just a small update and some more advice as I don’t know what the next stage means?

I’ve received a letter letting us know the information we all sent in is going to a local court to be seen by a judge (sorry about the wording, I don’t have the letter with me this evening)

I did counter claim, I had to pay a fee. I’m just wondering what the above means and what time frame to expect if possible please?

I still have voice notes and messages from a vet nurse working with them the RCVS need, can I send these in to court or wait for a date? I didn’t send them before as I would have missed the deadline but now RCVS are wanting further info I’m wondering if the court should have this additional information as well?

I would send the additional evidence as it backs up your position.

Good luck!

Thank you

The RCVS will be looking at whether the vet nurse overstepped her position and attempted to diagnose or suggest treatments without vet involvement. There's a very strict set of rules as to what they are allowed to do and share etc but they are different to criminal law. So they may be irrelevant to the court but there's no harm sending extra evidence in as it shows what a difficult position you were put in between the vet and the charity if nothing else.

Good luck op

@Catinacupboard

The RCVS will be looking at whether the vet nurse overstepped her position and attempted to diagnose or suggest treatments without vet involvement. There's a very strict set of rules as to what they are allowed to do and share etc but they are different to criminal law. So they may be irrelevant to the court but there's no harm sending extra evidence in as it shows what a difficult position you were put in between the vet and the charity if nothing else.

That’s a good point that I hadn’t thought about, thank you, it was difficult and the vet mislead us as well which is another whole part of it, I included all evidence of that in the initial response though.

@LostForWords2021

Just a small update and some more advice as I don’t know what the next stage means?

I’ve received a letter letting us know the information we all sent in is going to a local court to be seen by a judge (sorry about the wording, I don’t have the letter with me this evening)

I did counter claim, I had to pay a fee. I’m just wondering what the above means and what time frame to expect if possible please?

I still have voice notes and messages from a vet nurse working with them the RCVS need, can I send these in to court or wait for a date? I didn’t send them before as I would have missed the deadline but now RCVS are wanting further info I’m wondering if the court should have this additional information as well?

It looks like your case has been handled so far in the Money Claims Centre in Salford. The MCC is purely 'back office' and doesn't hold hearings, so if the case makes it this far (many, for various reasons, don't) it has to be sent to a local court. When it arrives there, it will be reviewed by a judge who may decide that the MCC have sent it to the wrong place and pass it on, but more likely will confirm that it should be processed as a small claim. The judge will then give instructions to the parties on what they should do to prepare everything for a trial, the court office will book it a slot in the diary, and the instructions and date will be sent to you and to the claimant. At the moment this seems to be taking about two to three weeks to happen - unfortunately, most civil cases are still managed as paper files, so the file has to be packed up in the MCC, sent by courier, and booked in at the court it is sent to, and generally there are queues of cases at both ends.

Thank you, so stressful. Trial sounds scary?

I'm sure it will seem scary if you've never been to one before, but the small claims system is designed to be as informal as possible. There aren't any wigs, gowns or oaths. Depending on how the judge sees the case, they are likely to ask ther claimant to give their evidence first; if they have a witness appearing in person you will be allowed to ask them relevant questions. Then you will give your evidence and the claimant can similarly ask you questions. The evidence will be based on your written statement and the documents attached to and referred to in it, so it's important that you put this together carefully. Then the judge will ask the parties to make final comments and give a decision. Most small claims take between an hour and two hours.

Thank you so much. I promise to update.

How are you doing @LostforWords2021 ?@LostforWords2021 ? I hope things are sorted and that sense was seen and the poor old boy can rest in peace now? ❤️

Thank you for asking.
Unfortunately not, we have a court date now for the end of the year.

It's over the phone and we have to submit all of our evidence again. I think about our boy a lot, I miss him although I know we did the right thing for him, he was old and suffering so we made the right decision for our boy.

It's still very stressful.

I'm so sorry to hear its not settled yet 😕 I had hoped to hear that the other people had had their backsides handed to them for being all about the cash rather than care but I live I hope that it'll be coming soon for you x

@LostforWords2021 This situation is nuts. I am positive you will not loose the case. Keep backup copies of everything, including the voice messages. Heresay is useless but physical proof or witnesses are everything. You've got this.

I can't believe this has even made it to trial. Sorry op for all this stress you absolutely did the right thing ending the poor pups suffering. Get all vets receipts and any evidence you can get and submit it but keep copies of anything gets waylaid.

It’s today, 10am via a phone call

Keeping everything crossed for you, but I can’t see any way they can win

I hope it goes well, I honestly can't believe how badly you have been treated throughout this.

Thank you, I have everything written down but I am a bag of nerves though!