Help needed please, case settled out of court but now they aren't paying up

[Kelly1978]

dp sued a mobile company who refused to pay cashback, due to a confusion on their part over cut off dates. He filed a case with the small claims court, and then the evening before the case was due to be heard the company called up and agreed to settle out of court, paying the overdue refund, and court costs plus a little extra. They promised the cheque within a week but it hasn't turned up, and now neither the company the mobile contract is with, or the compnay he got it through know anythign about the cheque. He can't get through to their solicitors, and as far as the court are concerned they had a letter from their solicitors saying the case was settled.

What do we do now? Can we get the case reopened, or would we have to pay and file a case all over again?

How much was judgment for? If it was for £750 or more you can threaten to wind them up. Best and quickest way to get payment.

not anything near that unfortunately. We sued more on the principle of the thing, it was for nearly £200 in total.

Was there written confirmation of the settlement?

no, a phone call
Like I said it was the evening before the court case, sot hey really did leave it until the last minute so there was no way we could have anything in wrotong or a cheque before the hearing. It's a big company though, we expected that the cheque would come through.

Did either of you attend the hearing?

Usually, you should still attend the hearing, so that it can be put on official records that the case is settled should somethign like this occur.

If you didnt, it makes it doubly difficult. What feedback did you get form the court regarding your case?

No we didn't. dp never intended to, and submitted all the paperwork beforehand. It seemed all straightforward really, we had clear written envidence that the company had jsut refused to acknowlege beforehand so we weren't really worried about it. We hadn't heard back from the court, but dp called them today and they said they had recieved a letter from the other party's solicitor saying that it had been settled out of court.

weren't really worried about it - as in we were confident we would get the money back!

Write to the court, explain what's happened and ask for it to be re-listed.

If their solicitors have done that, then, you have grounds to sue them for non-payment.

Been on holiday but finally managed to get in touch with their solicitors, and they were amazed that the payment hadn't been paid. They are going to try to sort it out with their client. We enquired about relisting, and it costs a further £65 so we don't want to have to do that if we can avoid it. Thanks for the advice.

If someone agrees to settle normally you don't accept that until the second they sign a document you also sign saying they are going to pay and that it is in full settlement. Anyway it looks like they will pay up.