For those interested, I understand that Friday's ITV 'Tonight with Trevor McDonald' 23 Feb 8.00 pm features bank charges. (I assume the programme has been timed to tie in with the major banks announcing their annual results this week).

Does anybody know what happened at the hearing on 20 February?

See the judge's views on contractual interest at the recent Directions Hearing at Leeds (Mercantile Court) 7 February 2007. See thread 'Directions Hearing Leeds', start at page 15 onwards.

Which court is your directions hearing in? Is it Mercantile? If so see the thread 'Directions Hearing Leeds' held on 7 Feb 2007. It's a large thread, so home in on page 14 onwards to start with. The directions hearing was a means to an end, about 94 out of the 99 cases listed were settled in the days before the hearing and the remaining 5 settled at the hearing or just after. I assume the judiciary fully expected that to be the way it was going to go - there was no way that they could have dealt with 99 cases in the half day hearing. All that was required before the hearing was the case management information (CMI) sheet (filed with the Court and served on the defendant). I think those who prepared a Court bundle wasted their time, buy I can't say categorically that that would be the case in respect of every mercantile directions hearing. If yours is Mercantile, have you seen the thread 'Sticky: Mercantile Court Guide' and my post on that thread - it takes you to CPR 59 Mercantile Courts and from there you can get into the Practice Directions for CPR 59 which explains what is needed and when.

See the thread 'Directions Hearing Leeds' in the sub forum 'Mercantile Court cases and stays ...'. The directions hearing was held on 7 Feb 2007 and there is some very interesting information about the Judge's view on claiming for contractual interest. (Start at page 15 of that thread).

See the thread 'Directions Hearing Leeds (7 Feb)' in the Mercantile Cases and Stays sub forum. Its a big thread, so go straight to the last 2 or 3 pages to see what happened at the hearing and most importantly how the judge has tackled what you are calling 'contractual interest'.

Sorry, I thought there would be a means of retrieving the article on the Yorkshire Post website, but there does not seem to be.

On this theme, Yorkshire Post (Newspaper) 17th January 2007 (Yorkshire Post Today: News, Sport, Jobs, Property, Cars, Entertainments & More) published an article which you may find interesting, entitled 'MP accuses banks of mugging customers with illegal charges'. Reported that Mr Taylor (Truro & St Austell), in a Westminster Hall debate, said that the banks' illegal charges were a major contributor to the UK debt crisis and to social exclusion. Also said that the banks are using poverty as a source of profit. (Ed Balls, Treasury Economic Secretary, is also mentioned in the article as referring to the current Office of Fair Trading (OFT) inquiry into bank charges).

Veb, Suggest you look at the threads 'Mercantile Hearing 20th Feb' and 'Vs Barclays in the Mercantile'. You should find them interesting and informative in relation to your case.

Roboraver, before you rush into getting the court bundle ogether, see my message dated 9 Feb time 09.27 on thread 'Vs Barclays in the Mercantile'. (I posted 2 messages that day so make sure you see the right one). Regarding the accumulating interest did you not say in your claim that interest would be charged at the rate of 0.00022 per day up to settlement? If you did then there is nothing to do at this stage, it will be calculated at settlement.

Roboraver, It may be sooner than you think. Suggest you phone the Court.

Bank Fodder, your link at Post 1 on this thread does not seem to provide the correct document for Mercantile Court. Your link does not deal with CPR (Civil Procedure Rule) 59, which is specifically for Mercantile Courts. I hope the following may be of use for those who have had their claim for bank charges ransferred to the Mercantile Court and wish to know more about CPR 59 (Mercantile Courts) and the Case Management Information Sheet (CMI Sheet) etc. Firstly, do not be frightened if your case has been transferred to the Mercantile Court. The Courts will have made the transfer to make it easier for themselves as they have been inundated with hundreds/thousands of claims for repayment of bank charges and this is their way of pulling several claims together for a group hearing all on one day. At Leeds Mercantile Court for example, they listed 99 cases for a 7th February directions hearing (not a trial) and another 77 cases for a 26th April 2007 directions hearing, with many of those cases actually being settled by the banks in the days before those planned hearings. Experience has shown that the Mercantile Court route should turn out to be easier and quicker for you than going down the County Court individual claims route. See the various threads on this Mercantile forum to see what has happened at previous Mercantile Court hearings. A word of warning. If your case is transferred to the Mercantile Court and you are invited to attend a group directions hearing, it is imperative that you inform the Court as soon as possible if you will be unable to attend. (Telephone the Court to discuss with them and confirm in writing).They are usually very understanding. They will either agree to you not attending or they will give you a new date to attend. The Civil Procedure Rules CPR 59, CPR 18, CPR 31 etc are obtainable by clicking here Department for Constitutional Affairs - Home Page (web site dca.gov.uk). They come in the form of the actual Rule eg CPR 59 entitled 'Mercantile Courts' and a separate 'Practice Direction' document (clickable in the top right of the CPR front page). Either use the 'Search' facilty on the DCA web home page eg search for 'CPR 59' or to get straight in, forget the home page and click here PART 59 - MERCANTILE COURTS (web site justice.gov.uk/civil/procrules_fin/contents/parts/part59.htm) Change the 59 to 18 in the www. address to get to Part 18 and change to 31 to get to Part 31 etc. (Once you get into the relevant 'Part', don't forget to click on the top right of the page to get into the 'Practice Directions' document for that Part). (Changing the number to 27 will give you info about the Small Claims Track and changing the number to 29 will give you info about the Multi-Track). You might also find the HMCS guidance booklet EX305 for the Multi-Track useful, click here www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/ex305_0806.pdf . (The Multi-Track is normally the only track used in the Mercantile Court. The Mercantile Court does not normally use the Small Claims track, but see the note below). Note: some Mercantile Courts up to now have dealt with the bank charges cases slightly differently depending on which Mercantile Court. For example Leeds Mercantile state in the letter of invitation to the Hearing that the claimant is to send a CPR 59 Case Management Information Sheet (CMI sheet) to the Court prior to the hearing. Other Mercantile Courts (eg London) do not make any mention of a requirement for a CMI sheet. If in doubt, I suggest you phone the Court to ask what they require to be sent prior to the hearing. Also Leeds Mercantile mention the Multi-Track (see CPR 29) which is the normal method in the Mercantile Court, whereas London Mercantile mentions the Multi-Track but has specifically stated the intention that the 'Small Claims' rules for costs will apply even though it is the Mercantile Court. PS 7/6/07: since writing this post 3 and the other posts/threads about the CMI sheet, to make life easier, those posts and threads have now been brought together complete with example answers for the CMI sheet on one sticky thread Case Management Info Sheet in this Mercantile forum so I suggest you go there for the CMI sheet rather than taking the CMI sheet from here. In particular see Post 15 of that thread. [Anybody wanting the Case Management Information sheet, I have extracted the CMI sheet, see below, and you should be able to lift it from here. Alternatively if you have any problem doing so, you can get it from 'Practice Direction to CPR 59' at Annex A of that document. (If you download it from Annex A, save it on your pc as a pdf file. Then open the saved pdf file on your pc, then save it again as 'editable text' or 'save as text' (eg this will be saved on 'Notepad'). Then open Microsoft Word. Choose 'all files' and you should be able to open the Notepad file. Then save as a 'Word' document and you can fill in the answers and alter the font/layout). Note that on the CMI sheet that CPR 18 is entitled 'Further Information' whilst CPR 31 is entitled 'Disclosure and Inspection of Documents'. Therefore if you want the bank to provide information, I assume this is under CPR 18. If you want the bank to disclose documents that it has in its possession then I assume it comes under CPR 31. If a CMI sheet is required by the Court, you should also serve a copy on the defendant. Case Management Information Sheet Insert Title - v - (Claim No. ) Party filing: The Claimant Solicitors: Advocate(s) for trial: Date: Substance of case 1. Parties 2. Are all parties still effective? - 3. Do you intend to add any further party? – Statements of case 4. Do you intend to amend your statement of case? 5. Do you require any “further information” - see CPR 18? - Disclosure 6. By what date can you give standard disclosure? – 7. Do you contend that to search for any type of document falling within CPR 31.6(b) would be unreasonable within CPR 31.7(2)? - 8. Is any specific disclosure required - CPR 31.12? – 9. Is a full disclosure order appropriate? - 10. By what dates could you give: (i) any specific disclosure referred to at 8? - . (ii) full disclosure? - Admissions 11. Can you make any additional admissions? – Preliminary issues 12. Are any issues suitable for trial as preliminary issues? - Witnesses of fact 13. On how many witnesses of fact do you intend to rely at the trial (subject to the court’s direction)? - 14. Please name them, or explain why you do not. - 15. Which of them will be called to give oral evidence? - 16. When can you serve their witness statements? - 17. Will any require an interpreter? - Expert evidence 18. Are there issues requiring expert evidence? - 19. If yes, what issues? - 20. Might a single joint expert be suitable on any issues (see CPR 35.7)? - 21. What experts do you intend (subject to the court’s direction) to call? Please give the number, their names and expertise. - 22. By what date can you serve signed expert reports? - 23. Should there be meetings of experts of like disciplines, of all disciplines? By when? - 24. Which experts, if any, do you intend not to call at the trial? - 25. Will any require an interpreter? - Trial 26. What are the advocates’ present estimates of the length of the trial? - 27. What is the earliest date that you think the case can be ready for trial? - 28. Where should the trial be held? - 29. Is a Pre-Trial Review advisable? - A.D.R. 30. Might some form of Alternative Dispute Resolution assist to resolve the dispute or some part of it? - 31. Has this been considered with the client? - 32. Has this been considered with the other parties? - 33. Do you want the case to be stayed pending A.D.R. or other means of settlement - CPR 26.4; or any other directions relating to A.D.R.? - Other applications 34. What applications, if any, not covered above, will you be making at the conference? - Costs 35. What, do you estimate, are your costs to date? - 36. What, do you estimate, will be your costs to end of trial? - Signed: (Claimant) Before proceeding any further, ignore the next paragraph and see the PS at the bottom of this post. If you want to see how a CMI sheet has been completetd, go to the thread entitled 'Mercantile Hearing 20th Feb'. In particular see Post 12 to 14 of that thread. Also see my additional notes at Post 5 of this Mercantile Court Guide thread. (Sorry this information is a bit long-winded, but it has developed through time as and when new information has come to light. It might seem complicated at first, but it is not - stick with it). PS 7/6/07: since writing this post 3 and the other posts/threads about the CMI sheet, to make life easier, those posts and threads have now been brought together complete with example answers for the CMI sheet on one sticky thread Case Management Info Sheet in this Mercantile forum so I suggest you go there for the CMI sheet rather than taking the CMI sheet from here. In particular see Post 15 of that thread.

Important notes regarding completing the CMI sheet. Reference J.Barton (Jenny's) example completed CMI sheet (see above), be careful at item 5 where it states 'However, the Defendant has insisted the Claimant complies with the Defendants CPR Part 18'. This looks as though the defendant (bank) filed a CMI sheet first and the claimant is responding to the defendant's request. If you are filing the CMI sheet and have not had any requests from the bank in repect of CPR 18, then I think you will need to tailor the wording at item 5. I suggest your answer should be 'The claimant seeks the Court to order full disclosure and breakdown of the administrative cost incurred in applying the said charges.' The answer to item 31 of the CMI sheet also needs tailoring if there have been no previous hearings and defendant has not refused to attend any . Answer should be a straight 'No'. With regard to items 35 and 36 of the CMI sheet, note that some Mercantile Courts (eg London) state in the letter of invitation to the Hearing that Small Claims rules will apply regarding costs, whereas other Mercantile Courts (eg Leeds) make no mention of Small Claims rules applying. (Mercantile cases are usually only dealt with under the multi-track, not small calims track). Therefore if you are under London Mercantile you might wish to insert at item 35 and 36 'see the Court's notice of hearing dated .......... regarding costs', but for those under Leeds you might wish to stick with the example wording given in the completed example sheet in the above mentioned thread. for those at Leeds and similar, you might like to add at the end of 35 and 36 the words 'plus the Court fees' Jenny, I hope you don't mind me making these comments. PS 28/5/07. I have added more notes about completing the CMI sheet in the sticky thread 'Mercantile Court Guide' http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/mercantile-court-cases-stays/34297-mercantile-court-guide.html at the top of this Mercantile forum so make sure you also see those.

Additional Note added 18/6/07: There is now a dedicated thread for the CMI sheet Case Management Info Sheet showing the CMI sheet complete with updated example answers and notes for completion. Original 10 Feb post: For those who want to show the Question besides the Answer, here is the draft CMI sheet taken from Appendix A of the Practice Directions to CPR59. (Don't forget to serve a copy on the defendant, besides sending to the Court). Case Management Information Sheet Insert Title - v - (Claim No. ) Party filing: The Claimant Solicitors: Advocate(s) for trial: Date: Substance of case 1. Parties 2. Are all parties still effective? - 3. Do you intend to add any further party? – Statements of case 4. Do you intend to amend your statement of case? 5. Do you require any “further information” - see CPR 18? - Disclosure 6. By what date can you give standard disclosure? – 7. Do you contend that to search for any type of document falling within CPR 31.6(b) would be unreasonable within CPR 31.7(2)? - 8. Is any specific disclosure required - CPR 31.12? – 9. Is a full disclosure order appropriate? - 10. By what dates could you give: (i) any specific disclosure referred to at 8? - . (ii) full disclosure? - Admissions 11. Can you make any additional admissions? – Preliminary issues 12. Are any issues suitable for trial as preliminary issues? - Witnesses of fact 13. On how many witnesses of fact do you intend to rely at the trial (subject to the court’s direction)? - 14. Please name them, or explain why you do not. - 15. Which of them will be called to give oral evidence? - 16. When can you serve their witness statements? - 17. Will any require an interpreter? - Expert evidence 18. Are there issues requiring expert evidence? - 19. If yes, what issues? - 20. Might a single joint expert be suitable on any issues (see CPR 35.7)? - 21. What experts do you intend (subject to the court’s direction) to call? Please give the number, their names and expertise. - 22. By what date can you serve signed expert reports? - 23. Should there be meetings of experts of like disciplines, of all disciplines? By when? - 24. Which experts, if any, do you intend not to call at the trial? - 25. Will any require an interpreter? - Trial 26. What are the advocates’ present estimates of the length of the trial? - 27. What is the earliest date that you think the case can be ready for trial? - 28. Where should the trial be held? - 29. Is a Pre-Trial Review advisable? - A.D.R. 30. Might some form of Alternative Dispute Resolution assist to resolve the dispute or some part of it? - 31. Has this been considered with the client? - 32. Has this been considered with the other parties? - 33. Do you want the case to be stayed pending A.D.R. or other means of settlement - CPR 26.4; or any other directions relating to A.D.R.? - Other applications 34. What applications, if any, not covered above, will you be making at the conference? - Costs 35. What, do you estimate, are your costs to date? - 36. What, do you estimate, will be your costs to end of trial? - Signed: (Claimant)

Do you think it might be appropriate to stop this thread here and transfer any further 'posts' to the thread entitled 'Mercantile Hearing 20 Feb'. There is a lot of duplication between the two threads and I assume there will be more than Barclays involved in the 20 Feb hearing?

Roboraver, See the two threads 'Vs Barclays in the Mercantile Court' and 'Mercantile Hearing 20 Feb'. Although your case has ben put to the Mercantile Court, I don't think anything can be ruled out at this stage. If it ever reaches the Hearing, in theory I suppose the Judge could still direct that it be heard on the Small Claims track. If you look at the thread 'Directions Hearing Leeds (7 Feb)', 95% 0f the 99 cases due to be covered at the hearing on 7 Feb were settled out of court in the days before the hearing and the few remaining cases were settled at the hearing. Look at the last few pages of that thread.

Additional Note added 18/6/07: There is now a dedicated thread for the CMI sheet Case Management Info Sheet showing the CMI sheet complete with updated example answers and notes for completion. Original 9 Feb post: I see that Jenny has provided the CMI sheet. The following is copied from my entry on page 9 of the 'Directions Hearing Leeds 7 Feb' thread. i hope it may be useful. For anybody wishing to know more about the Case Management Information Sheet (CMI) and CPR 59 etc: The Civil Procedure Rules CPR 59, CPR 18, CPR 31 etc are obtainable on Department for Constitutional Affairs - Home Page web site (web site dca.gov.uk). They come in the form of the actual Rule eg CPR 59 entitled 'Mercantile Courts'' and a separate 'Practice Direction' sheet (clickable in the top right of the CPR page). Either use the 'Search' facilty on the DCA web home page eg search for 'CPR 59' or to get straight in, forget the home page and go to PART 59 - MERCANTILE COURTS (web site dca.gov.uk/civil/procrules_fin/contents/parts/part59.htm) Change the 59 to 18 in the www. address to get to Part 18 and change to 31 to get to Part 31 etc. (Once you get into the relevant 'Part', don't forget to click on the top right of the page to get into the 'Practice Directions' document for that Part) Note that CPR 18 is entitled 'Further Information' whilst CPR 31 is entitled 'Disclosure and Inspection of Documents'. Therefore if you want the bank to provide information, I assume this is under CPR 18. If you want the bank to disclose documents that it has in its possession then I assume it comes under CPR 31. Anybody wanting the Case Management Information sheet can get it from 'Practice Direction to CPR 59' at Appendix A of that document. save it on your pc as a pdf file. Open the saved pdf file on your pc, then save it again as editable text (eg on Notepad). Then open Microsoft Word (all files) and you should be able to open the Notepad file. Then save as a 'Word' document and you can fill in the answers. (PS. You shouldn't need the uncompleted CMI sheet accessed as above if you are using Jenny's already completed sheet) (2nd PS: see my subsequent message on this thread which gives a copy the full CMI sheet from CPR 59 Practice Directions).

Additional Note added 18/6/07: There is now a dedicated thread for the CMI sheet Case Management Info Sheet showing the CMI sheet complete with updated example answers and notes for completion. Original 9 Feb post: I see that Jenny has provided the CMI sheet. The following is copied from my entry on page 9 of the 'Directions Hearing Leeds 7 Feb' thread. i hope it may be useful. For anybody wishing to know more about the Case Management Information Sheet (CMI) and CPR 59 etc: The Civil Procedure Rules CPR 59, CPR 18, CPR 31 etc are obtainable on Department for Constitutional Affairs - Home Page web site (web site dca.gov.uk). They come in the form of the actual Rule eg CPR 59 entitled 'Mercantile Courts' and a separate 'Practice Direction' sheet (clickable in the top right of the CPR page). Either use the 'Search' facilty on the DCA web home page eg search for 'CPR 59' or to get straight in, forget the home page and go to PART 59 - MERCANTILE COURTS (web site dca.gov.uk/civil/procrules_fin/contents/parts/part59.htm) Change the 59 to 18 in the www. address to get to Part 18 and change to 31 to get to Part 31 etc. (Once you get into the relevant 'Part', don't forget to click on the top right of the page to get into the 'Practice Directions' document for that Part). Note that CPR 18 is entitled 'Further Information' whilst CPR 31 is entitled 'Disclosure and Inspection of Documents'. Therefore if you want the bank to provide information, I assume this is under CPR 18. If you want the bank to disclose documents that it has in its possession then I assume it comes under CPR 31. Anybody wanting the Case Management Information sheet can get it from 'Practice Direction to CPR 59' at Appendix A to that document. Save it on your pc as a pdf file. Open the saved pdf file on your pc, then save it again as editable text (eg on Notepad). Then open Microsoft Word (all files) and you should be able to open the Notepad file. Then save as a 'Word' document and you can fill in the answers. (PS. You shouldn't need the uncompleted CMI sheet accessed as above if you are using Jenny's already completed sheet) Another PS: see the thread 'Mercantile Hearing 20th Feb' for a copy of the CPR 59 CMI sheet.

For those interested, see my messages of today (9 Feb) in the thread 'Vs Barclays in the Mercantile' where I have provided details of what happened in the run-up to and at the Directions Hearing, Leeds Mercantile Court held on 7 Feb 2007

I assume you have read the thread entitled 'Directions Hearing Leeds' (7 February). There are a lot of pages to it so I suggest you home in on say 5th - 8th Feb if you haven't got time to read the lot. Most of the 99 cases got settled in the days before the Directions Hearing and the handful that didn't seem to have been settled at the Hearing without a fight. (Of those that didn't get settled before the hearing, some only received notification of the hearing 2 days before the hearing. The banks had therefore not had time to settle before the hearing). I note that you have referred to yours as being a Small Claims Hearing although it does mention 'directions'. This is slightly different to the Leeds hearing where the invite letter definitely referred to a Directions Hearing under the Mercantile Court CPR 59 procedures (CPR = Civil Procedure Rules). The invite letter specifically asked the claimant to submit a Case Management Information (CMI) sheet under CPR 59. (CPR 59 says sumbmit one copy to the Court and one copy to the defendant). Those who also prepared and submitted a Court bundle wasted their time as it happens. The cases were settled out of Court before it got that far, but may be your hearing will be different? I suggest you have a word with the Courts asap to see what they want and what is intended to happen at the hearing. A lot of claimants were apprehensive by the fact that their case had been transferred to the Mercantile Court, but in the end it turned out to be the best thing that could have happpened - it was a 'means to an end' as 95% of the cases got settled out of court before the hearing and there seems to have been no problem in the remaining 5% getting sorted at the hearing.

Reference the comments about why do the banks spin this out so much: What the banks have paid out to us this time and to all of the others that have gone before us is minute compared to the the £billions of profits that thay have made and continue to make on those account holders who either are oblivious to the fact that they can claim repayment, or do not have the knowledge/will to proceed through the bank process and to Court etc. For every day that goes by, a day is dropped off under the 6 year rule, and for that day the banks will have escaped with £thousands/millions. Also the less the number of people that claim, the greater is the 'escape' for the banks. Therefore it is not in the banks interests to make things easy. Quite the opposite, they want to be difficult and deter others from making claims. A few hundred thousand pounds in lawyers fees is nothing to them compared to what is at stake. Similarly the cost of setting up departments of staff within the banks to be obstructive/delaying in dealing with customers requesting statement details and making claims is 'chicken feed' compared with the gains that the banks are making as days drop off under the 6 year rule or by frustrating customers so much that they throw in the towel and do not proceed.

Stevie, Re CMI sheet: Either look at previous messages on this thread - there is a standard CMI template that you can lift with answers already in, or save in pdf on your pc, then open the saved file and you should be able to save as 'text (Notepad)' document, then go into Microsoft Word and open the 'all files' Notepad and save it as a word document, then you are free to do amend the text as you wish with the document in 'Word'.

If it were me, I would send another CMI sheet and call it 'CMI sheet as amended (date)' with a covering note saying that you wish to replace the original with the amended sheet which amends items 4 and 5. There is nothing wrong in correcting a mistake.

Dixie, It will get difficult for the banks if they let it go any further. The Judge could place an order on them tomorrow to disclose information /documents which would not be to their liking. Also your costs could start mounting. Some claimants might also consider taking a solicitor on board if it goes any further - more costs. There is also the possibility of Group litigation or the bank being singled out as a test case. Something else that we should not forget is that the Office of Fair Trading is due to report in March I believe on their investigation into bank charges . If their report is damming as was the case with credit card charges, I do not think the banks will have 'a leg to stand on'.

My relative has received a cheque in full payment this a.m. (a biggy) so that's another one off the list (can't say any more). So we won't be at the hearing. I will be interested to see the feedback from those who go to the hearing. Good luck everybody. The fax number to notify the Court of any settlements is: 0113 3062392 Address: Chancery Division, Mercantile Court Heading: Urgent - Bank Charges - 7 February Directions Hearing