Scottish jurisdiction - from Mike Dailly, Govan Law centre

[Gerz]

I am in court in Scotland. I have asked for 8% interest and no they havent paid anything or even acknowledged my letter to them in the first instance.
What does POC stand for?
I think i will feel more comfortable presenting myself when i have a better understanding of procedure and content of discussion. Does the Sheriff ask you to speak then the banks lawyer then make a decision or is there a discussion? Can you describe what happend in your experience.
Thanks

[debt_mountain]

Originally Posted by Gerz

I am in court in Scotland. I have asked for 8% interest and no they havent paid anything or even acknowledged my letter to them in the first instance.
What does POC stand for?
I think i will feel more comfortable presenting myself when i have a better understanding of procedure and content of discussion. Does the Sheriff ask you to speak then the banks lawyer then make a decision or is there a discussion? Can you describe what happend in your experience.
Thanks

POC is part of the english claim form - particulatars of claim, basically what are you asking the court to consider, what is you claim.

I have not used the Scottish process yet (although I live in Scotland) so can only comment on the county Court process.

We both went in to the court room (no audience in attendance thankfully) Mr judge then asked the bank to explain why the felt they required to defend this claim as they had already paid out the charges so indirectly aknowledging the penelty aspect of things.

I kept thinking this was a business meeting and trying to butt in but Mr Judge kept SSHHing me.

Once the defence were finished he then asked why I beleived they should pay up.

He then asked each side a few questions allowing us to add to our argueement and then gave his judgement.

I guess the process would be similar but Mr Judge knows the wee man need guidance in the process so seemed to lead it.

Just remember not to be smart or overly confident and address Mr Judge as sir.

[nel3336]

does anyone know if there is an exemption path to take if on benefits within the scottish court?

many thanks
nel

[mjg]

I was wondering... I have got print outs of my statements for the last year. Just computer print outs from my local BoS branch not the normal statements. Over christmas I could only face checking one month to find out how much my charges were. I checked May and it was £450! ... so I suspect over the year its going to be a substantial amont ofmoney.

I really don't want to limit myself to £750 in a claim. So I wondered can I break upmy claim into 4 for example and claim it that way eg 1st quarter of 2006, 2nd quarter 2006 etc?

thanks for anyhelp in advance

[nearlyoldwoman]

hmm, thats what i would want to do too! maybe for each year etc, as one year alone is over £1,000. me and other half took this so far last year (well we actually took it as far as getting the summary cause) then we hit our big hitch! we needed a solicitor/or sherriff officer to serve the papers. whats the problem you ask?? we are in shetland, no sherriff officer here on island and i personally went into every solicitors on the island and they wouldn't touch it!! they said they were busy etc etc (not unusual for small island community to act like this-no-one ever wants to rock the boat etc) so with so much other stuff going on and time running out we stopped it in its tracks, but now we are ready to start again, i mentioned to the sherriff clerk about splitting it into smaller claims (£750) at a time but he said we couldn;t do that? i'm really not sure tho? seems nobody else here has done this yet, even the sherriff clerk told me at the time that we had prety much no chance (ha he has not been on this forum then!!!) any suggestions? could raise it in english court, but my expenses would be way over £400 to get to england from here, as you cant get off the island for less than £80! .....or i could arrange for a solicitor in aberdeen etc to serve it? which i would have to find first! any thoughts?

[debt_mountain]

these are the 2 main reasons I went to an English court. If you split a claim the defendant could complain that the 2nd claim you made should have been included with the first and the judge could prevent you from doing a 3rd against that bank. If it is a joint account you could do 2 in each name.

The other reason for England is you can do a claim for upto 6 years totalling £5k all as an individual no solicitor required. Only problem is you may have to attend court and the nearest is eiher Carlisle or Berwick.

I have claimed over £10 k from both nationwide and HBOS in an English court without too many issues but they could challenge jurisdiction as you are in Scotland, but I do have a plan should that happen.

[kbruce]

Hi i live in scotland and sent letter to RBS 3 weeks ago asking to refund bank charges totalling £1,400.00 stating that they had 14 days to reply. I have still not heard from them. Please could anyone give me advice on what to do next as i am confused about how the scottish court system works and what the next stage should be!

[RedDeath]

Originally Posted by kbruce

Hi i live in scotland and sent letter to RBS 3 weeks ago asking to refund bank charges totalling £1,400.00 stating that they had 14 days to reply. I have still not heard from them. Please could anyone give me advice on what to do next as i am confused about how the scottish court system works and what the next stage should be!

I take it that is your prelim letter to them. Send them Letter Before Action next. Here is a link, good luck.

3. Letter before action - Consumer version - asking for it back

[MY money!]

Hi everyone

Just gone through 6 years worth of statements from BOS and have arrived at a grand total of £8915 before interest!!! Obviously going to progress to the next stage but, despite the FANTASTIC advice on here, I'm still a bit confused. Obviously living in Scotland and having a bank with its head office in Edinburgh I'd rather not pursue things through the small claims here, because of the £750 limit and the fact that some sheriffs seem to have cottoned on the the 'trick' of making a few claims to get round this limit.

I have family living in Cumbria and don't think it would be a problem to use their address for legal correspondence, or for me to travel to Carlisle for court dates if necessary etc BUT......do I have to change to English address with bank NOW and maintain my account 'from there' from now on or can I wait until I'm starting proceedings (hopefully won't come to that, fingers crossed!) . I'm going to be sending my initial request for payment letter in the next couple of days....so can I continue with my own Scottish address for now then change to English address if necessary?

Hope that makes sense.....it does in my head but not so sure now I read it back!!!!

Thanks guys....really helps knowing there are SQUILLIONS of us fighting back!

Jacqui

[Stornoway]

You only need a correspondence address in england for court documents so i've just opened an account with "mail box etc" in preston whose address you can use when filing your claim with MCOL and they then forward all mail up to you. You dont have to change your address details with the bank.

[MY money!]

Thanks for that Stornoway....I had a feeling that would be the case but it's always better to check I think. Don't like to leave anything to chance with these guys!!!

Jacqui

[debt_mountain]

Originally Posted by MY money!

Thanks for that Stornoway....I had a feeling that would be the case but it's always better to check I think. Don't like to leave anything to chance with these guys!!!

Jacqui

At this point I would just use my scottish address, but serve the papers on the Halifax head office in England. I did this and so far they have sent my half (£5000) of what they owe me. They had no issue with my scottish address or me picking the head office (that is where most of my communications came from anyway).

I have set up a postal address in England for £50 and the firm send me a scanned copy of any letter I receive (50p) per page of a letter. You are more than welcome to use this address (so long as you pay the scanning costs ) should you actually have the jurisdiction challenged (which I doubt) .

My opinion is just go for it.

[nickleeson]

Hey, guys im about to send off my request for Subject Access Request to halifax. Is it standard for people to ask for the 6 years of charges to be reimbursed only to drop to 5 if it goes to court? And is this permissible to change this half way through your request? Just want to get it right first time! thanks for any help

[Hungrydoug]

Evening all. First time post, found this excellent forum through moneysavingexpert. I'm about to embark on the process to reclaim my charges and this is how I think I'll need to go about it, please correct any omissions. Claiming against Abbey btw. I have my statements from 1999 and a quick scan of them leads me to believe I'll have about £6k of charges to claim back Abbey are based in England and I'll check which the ruling law is for the account. - First letter requesting payment of six years of charges along with details of all the charges. - If nothing, 14 days later second letter threatening legal action - If nothing (or unsatisfactory offer) set up mail box in England and serve papers from there. I'd be willing to travel for a court date in England if I could offset the cost against the full amount I can claim back. Have I missed anything/any other advice? I'll keep you posted and probably be back for more advice along the way TIA Doug

[Jinky63]

Hi I'm new to this forum and desperate for advice. I have sent the correct letter requesting statements to lloyds tsb (recorded delivery) and reckon I'm due about £4000.00 in charges. What's my best way to go about claiming them bank is it via court here or England and how do I do it?

[RedDeath]

I am claiming against LTSB, however their T&Cs state that for accounts opened in scotland then scottish law applies.

Does this preclude me from taking them through the English systems?