The tool assists you in submitting your case to court and takes what can be laborious admin out of your hands.

If you want to contest your case, the website requires you to:

• Describe the situation surrounding the money you owe, and
• Upload any documentation you have been sent relating to the CCJ

After that, the AI tool – called ‘Allen’ – will send drafted letters, advice and forms you will need to submit to the court.

Those could range from an N244 letter, the application form to ask a court to ‘set aside’ or vary a judgment, to a subject access request form, which opens up key information creditors hold on you.

All of the relevant details will be explained by the AI tool, but the customised forms and documents are then reviewed by the ChallengeCCJ team, who send them back to you with an explanation of the next steps, and all within 24 hours.

The service also offers support through email or WhatsApp, plus guidance on fee exemptions to keep your costs down.

ChallengeCCJ also offers ongoing support after you’ve submitted your documents to prepare you for your court date. Pollen had recently had his court date and was unaware he would have to explain his case to a judge in such detail after submitting his forms before.

He said: “I’ve never done that before and it was another one of those where, actually, people need support in that as well, because I turned up just thinking: ‘I’ve already submitted my evidence, I’ll just go in and the judge will rule based on what I’ve submitted’.

“I was in there for about 45 minutes in the dock having to argue over the points I had put into my witness statement.”

The number of people who contacted Citizens Advice for help with a CCJ due to energy bill debt doubled in 2023, according to the charity’s data.

Pollen hopes the AI creation will give customers confidence when they have their own court dates.

His was one of a million CCJs issued in the last year, 93% of which are default judgments, where the defendant doesn’t turn up to the court order because they refuse to or – as in Pollen’s case – was unaware.

Of those CCJs, around 200,000-250,000 are defended by the recipient, but it is rare for firms to send a representative to defend every case due to the number of cases.

Pollen added: “When you think of the numbers, it’s just such a waste of time as well. Not my time personally, but the court’s time, the judge’s time, everyone’s time in this for 250,000 cases a year.

“You’ve got all of these little things going through that should not be anywhere near a court, in all honesty.”

Pollen’s case wasn’t struck off with no fees to pay. Like many in a similar position, it ended with a ‘set aside’ verdict, where the case goes back to the position where he was told by the enforcement firm that if he does not pay the fine, the CCJ will be placed on him.

Hopes for change

The enforcement firm was ordered to pay back the court fee of £303 Pollen had to pay to submit and file the document.

So what does the website creator want to change with ChallengeCCJ?

He said: “If you think about top blue-sky goals, what you want is legislation change on this.

“[The enforcement firm] didn’t turn up [to] this court here because they don’t turn up for most of them, because they just can’t. You’re thinking about, what, 200,000 of these a year. They just physically cannot.”

He added: “So, my question obviously then to the people that set the rules is why is it not an automatic default ‘set aside’ if these people don’t turn up to defend the fact that it was there?

“That should just be a standard case, because then they wouldn’t raise resources trying to do this.”