DRS Reply form help

The help section is intended to give practical guidance in how to complete the reply form. It is not intended to provide legal advice for specific cases, and you are encouraged to obtain your own independent advice if you are unsure how to complete the forms.IMPORTANT

This reply form guidance is for use in complaints made before 29 July 2008. If the complaint was submitted after 29 July 2008 then you need to log into your online services account to submit your reply.

What is the Reply for?

The purpose of a reply is to deal with any new issues which have arisen in the Respondent's response. You should therefore not seek to repeat any allegations made in the complaint, but should only address any new points raised in the response. Evidence should be submitted to back up any assertions that you make.

The content of the reply depends on what was said in the Response, so we cannot guide you what to say. The best thing to do is to consider whether the Response contains anything which is (a) untrue, (b) misleading, (c) raises new allegations against you which you should answer (provide evidence, where possible) or (d) indicates that you have a fatal flaw in your case that you must patch.

If you intend to file a reply, you must do so within 5 working days. This is calculated from when you are deemed to have received the Response. If the Response was sent to you by a number of means (e.g. by post, fax or email), the 5 working day time limit runs from the earliest date on which you are deemed to have received the Complaint (please see paragraph 2(e) of the DRS Procedure). The deadline will be set out in the letter/email sent to you.

Filling out the form:

Case reference and disputed domain name(s)

Please quote the case reference, which can be found in the top right-hand corner of the complaint, as well as the first domain name listed under the "Disputed Domain Name(s)" section of the complaint. This will enable us to match up your response to the complaint.

Filing the Reply

All replies should be submitted by filling in the online Reply Form AND posting a signed hard copy of the form, including any annexes, to:

Dispute Resolution Service
Nominet UK
Minerva House
Edmund Halley Road
Oxford Science Park
Oxford
OX4 4DQ

What happens next?

Since your case has got as far as a Reply (i.e. there has been a Response) it will go to the mediation stage once your reply has been received or once the deadline has passed.