Is this unprecedented or the norm?

[jmc5571]

Hello all, in helping a friend to claim back against Shabby, we received a letter from the courts, a Notice of Hearing of Application. The application for the stay to be lifted will take place on 28 December 2007 at Poole County Courts. Fine we thought. The Notice included a covering letter stating that District Judge Freeman has commented that there are cost implications in such an application. Ok.

Then we received a bundle, the covering letter states:

District Judge Freeman has commented that the claimant should give careful consideration to the enclosed judgments in deciding whether or not to proceed with the application to lift the stay.

We then have documents on:
Heynes vs HSBC
Crosdale vs HSBC
Pilliner vs Nat West
Garrick vs HSBC

Basic upshot is our judge is telling us to accept the stay as the test case is due and nothing could be achieved by processing this through the county court etc.

Wading through the sheets, it is plainly clear to me that the county court are hiding behind the high court. That they are happy for the banks to use the court protocol in this way and that we need to accept this to be the case.

What do we do? We are thinking the best course it to write to the court taking onboard his (lazy) comments and wait for the test case results, but under the proviso that the stay is not held indefinately, that a realistic time frame is set to be able to fight our corner.

Feels like we're fighting the courts as well as the banks. I also find some of the tone in the bundle offensive and patronising. The comments about the test case being "complex" - uurrrghhh It's not complex, you should not be making a profit from telling customers they have exceeded their overdraft limit.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

[Lula]

Hi there, sorry it has taken so long to get here, I will have to take this under advisement, but before i do, can you let me know, just how much of a hardship case this is? the thing is, wit the test case kicking off in about 2 months, you may not even get a date before the end of january.

[jmc5571]

Hi no this is not a hardship case as the account is closed. Although it is in as much as they desparately need the money! but probably not where they can prove hardship. Does this help?

[Lula]

Hi, if they cannot prove hardship then I am afraid that it is a non starter, your friend will have to wait like the rest of us, annoying and frustrating as it is