Installment order error

[kenny99]

Hi,

My wife owed over 2,000 euro to our former family doctor and after a major fallout with him he decided to sue us both for the money. We were going to contest the amount and the whole issue but decided in the end that it was probably better to settle the issue and save ourselves a day in court and the whole washing our dirty laundry in public thing.

Anyway when the matter had reached the stage of where a summons was issued my wife approached the doctor and they agreed to settle the outstanding debt. Now some six weeks later we received by registered post an installement order from the district court.

My wife rang the solictors concerned and while their apologies were fulsome she felt that their tone on the phone was condescending to the point of them telling her "not to worry her pretty little head" and that it was all just a "computer error" he also stated several times on the phone that it was not dealt with in "open court" and she shouldn't worry about it.

Her former doctor was also full of apologies but pretty much just pointed the finger at the solictors concerned.

Subsequent to my wifes telephone conversation with the solictor we did receive by post a letter to the effect that the matter was resolved and that the debt was cleared in full, it did not apologise for their mistake however or give any reassurances such as those she received by phone.

The reason for my post is that we are unsure what we should do next, I mean the whole point of clearing the debt was to avoid having the case go to court, the fact that it still did and we were not present to defend ourselves refelcts poorly on our character, it also defeats the purpose of paying it off in the first place.

Any readers have similiar experience or advice they can offer, thanks in advance.

Cheers

K

 

[bond-007]

If you got a summons for an installment order, that means that the doctor has already gone to court and has got a judgement against you. So when you thought you had settled, he went ahead anyways and got a judgement.

You should check with the district court clerk if this is the case as it could ruin your credit rating. If there is a judgement against you you will have to get it set aside.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[davidoco]

The message here and from experience

If you in a legal dispute with X who has a solicitor you DO NOT BELIEVE a word either X says or the solicitor tells you. You get it in writing. You attend the court no matter what.

On the other hand if you had a solicitor and X’s solicitor promises them something it is usually trustworthy, so it always seemed to me that two solicitors cancelled out each other, ie they generally don’t screw each other.

It is unlikely that they issued the summons, received the judgement and then got the instalment order all within 6 weeks and you should check the papers – did you possibly get a summons for examination with a view to getting an instalment order.

If your have a letter dated prior to the date of the instalment order or the judgement acknowledging that the matter is settled, write to the solicitor concerned and state that that you are going to take the matter to the Bar Council, unless you receive a satisfactory response from them, as to what they proceed to obtain a judgement and/or instalment order when in fact the debt had been settled.