Thread: maryt v lloyds - trying to get it right

Hi there - I'm just beginning the small claims stage and just seeking a bit of reassurance.

To date, I've gone through my bank statements and come up with about £1400 worth of charges, so sent off prelim letter, then lba. Have received two standard letters from Lloyds (although I noticed that they dropped the OFT paragraph in their letter, because I didn't include it in mine - so they are reading them individually).

The county court is nearby, so chose that rather than Money Claim On-line, and am now filling in the N1. I'm using Lloyds TSB registered office address (25 Gresham St, London EC2V 7HN) to identify the defendant. And I use the spreadsheet in the library here to list all the charges I'm claiming and caculate the 8% interest that the court allows.

So, anything else I should be aware of right now? I've tried to read around the site - brilliant information, you're an awesome lot!

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Hey Sharon - a big thank you! Hope to get the N1 done (and double checked!) this week. all the best, maryt

Hi folks - I just got my "Notice of Issue" from the county court. I seem to recall I should send my Claim Number to someone in this forum for the records but can't find who that is right now...

Thanks again, such great information here!

Hi folks - I just got my "Notice of Issue" from the county court. I seem to recall I should send my Claim Number to someone in this forum for the records but can't find who that is right now...

Thanks again, such great information here!

Hi Mary,
You need to PM (send a Private Message) one of the Moderators with your details, maybe Olliebear who has posted in your thread.
Barty

Thanks Barty! will do

Ouch - I've been sent a copy of Lloyds' defence (standard); but NO allocation questionnaire, instead a notice of "Pre-trial Review" (below is what I found out on the internet but I'm not sure it's v helpful, seems complicated!). The court clerk says that the judge is not sending out AQs at this point, they have a lot of bank charge cases (no doubt many thanks to this forum WELL DONE!). So, what next?? [I had been hoping to strike up correspondence with [problem] at the point I got their aq asking for a month to settle, but with no AQ that plan is out the window.

Can I politely write to the court asking for some other track, pointing out that Lloyds is still settling out of court so that this delay just favours them and disadvantages the out-of-pocket consumer... ? Or any other suggestions?

And anyone else with this court date?
Best of luck everyone! maryt


9.1 When the court fixes the date for a pre-trial review it will send each party a pre-trial review questionnaire.
(The pre-trial review questionnaire is in the form set out in Appendix C to this practice direction).
9.2 Each party must file and serve on all other parties completed copies of the questionnaire not less than two days before the date fixed for the pre-trial review.
9.3 The parties are encouraged to agree directions to propose to the court.
9.4 If any party fails to return or exchange the questionnaire by the date specified the court may –
(1)impose such sanction as it sees fit; and
(2)either proceed with or adjourn the pre-trial review.
9.5 At the pre-trial review, the court will give such directions for the conduct of the trial as it sees fit.

bump... still hoping for some words of wisdom, maybe someone else's thread with this sort of problem that I haven't found?

and also here is what Adamski told me:
"Cambridge have amassed all claims for this date it is a directions hearing being heard by Judge O'brien. ie they will decide wether or not these claims will stay on small claims or go to Mercantile court.
All the Banks will settle before this point except Citicards who i have an ongoing claim with Citicard will be at Cambridge on the 27th Feb, as they are defending all claims until the outcome of a test case on the 12th December."

And note that I was not sent a "pre-trial questionnaire", but will call the court this week and ask further about that. Looking again I see that parties are "encouraged to agree directions to propose to the court..." so I guess that gives us the excuse to be in touch with [problem]?

cheers, maryt

This is one of the new ways in which the courts are attempting to deal with the massive backlog of claims.

Have you received a pre-trial questionnaire then?

As for directions, I would suggest you propose these -

Dear Sir/Madam,

YOU v Lloyds BANK PLC
In the ***** county court
CLAIM No:*******

Re: Pre - trial review **/**/**

In advance of the pre-trial review in the claim as detailed above, I hereby propose the following directions for your due consideration. In the interest of expediancy I beleive it would be beneficial to the court if directions are agreed between both parties in advance for proposal at the review. I trust the following will be deemed appropriate.

Please advise by return that you either; agree that these directions are appropriate and should be proposed at the review, or; object to these directions stating the grounds on which you do so object.

l.The claim is allocated to the small claims track.

2.The claimant shall by [14 days] file and serve:

a)a schedule setting out each charge repayment of which is being sought,showing the date,amount and alleged reason,if any,for that charge;

b)copies of any statement or other document relied upon as showing that each and every such charge has been made;

c)a statement of his evidence,if such is to be relied upon as tending to show that the alleged charges have been made,or that they are irrecoverable as penalties or otherwise.

d)decided cases and other legal materials

3.The defendant shall by [28 days] file and serve a response to the claimant's schedule,stating in respect of each item claimed:

a)pursuant to what contractual provision such charge was made,producing a copy of the contractual document relied upon;

b)whether such charge is accepted to be a penalty or otherwise not payable and if not, why not;

c)if such charge is alleged to be a pre-estimate of the defendant's loss incurred by the claimant's actions (whether or not such action is to be treated as a breach of the contract between the parties), all facts and matters intended to be relied upon as showing that such is a proper estimate of such loss,and all evidence to be adduced at trial as to what the true cost of dealing with the matter was.

d)decided cases and other legal materials

4.Each party shall file and serve by [28 days] a copy of all documents upon which they wish to rely.Each party shall be entitled to inspect such documents by [28 days].

5.The hearing of the case will take place on [date] allowing 2 hours at the ***** county court, street, town, postcode.

I look forward to your prompt response.

Yours faithfully,

(YOU)

Copy to ****** County Court

Send it to SC&M by fax and post. You can also follow it up with a phone call. Don't forget to copy it to the court as well.

Yes, please do keep us informed, I'd be very interested to see what SC&M's response is. They will struggle to justify an objection to those directions so my guess is they'll either agree them or ignore the letter completely and settle.

What was the date of the reveiw BTW?

Date for pre-trial review: 27 February 2007 (15 minutes only)

We did manage to call the court this week, not hugely helpful though! The clerk said that the judge was not sending out pre-trial questionnaires, that it hasn't been assigned to any particular track, that we wouldn't receive any more directions and no more information available about the process. Pre-trial review is not covered in the Patricia Pearl's small claims procedure handbook btw. (unless it's called something else...) Guess we just go armed with everything (if it comes to that).

And have just watched the "Bank Robbery" Money Programme on line (from 12 December) - if anyone missed it and needs some encouragement it's at:
BBC NEWS | Business | Are penalty charges bank robbery? for the news item, with a link to the video on the right hand side of the page. It's so striking how straightforward the customers speak, and how the banks duck and dive and don't answer questions! And with helpful barrister comments, definitely cheered me up!

thanks again garyh from maryt

Any response from SC&M yet? If you put a bit of pressure on them to reply to your proposed directions, I'm sure they'll offer a settlement fairly soon.

Did you copy the court as well?

well... I've been very slow, but finally faxed and mailed [problem] this week (cc'd to county court), will start to press next week if don't hear anything. Finally figured out that garyh's suggested text (THANKS!!!) was text that a court might well propose, so went with that pretty much as you wrote it. Have proposed small claims court, submission of evidence etc, by the looks of other cases guess they won't want to do that!!

Good to see successes mounting up here!

quick update - no response from [problem], not too surprising I guess since the pre-trial date is still about six weeks away.

yippee, yippee, yippee - the money has appeared in my account, two weeks before the court date (fees, interest even updated from my initial claim, plus 220 costs). I'm thrilled to bits and want to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to everyone who has helped - garyh, I'm cheer leader for your fan club, and reading loads of others' threads has been a huge help too. Stick with it everyone!

btw, no letter from [problem] with any conditions, though they seem to have contacted the court. Reckon Lloyds understand they don't have a leg to stand on now.

I'll hit the donate button next. all the best, maryt

Congratulations!!!
Don't forget to let the courts know they have settled, there is a letter in the link below if you want to use it:
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...st-487345.html

Barty

Thanks Barty and leeshare! I'm writing to the Court, and I'll make sure i get in some comments about this disgraceful behaviour of the bank and its solicitors. Meanwhile I'm grinning like a demented cheshire cat!

Keep up the good work!