The courts are saying you can not claim further costs once you have accepted the defendants offer.

 

The offer will be made for full and final settlement, if you agree to it, you are agreeing that, that is the end of the dispute,

The courts wont want to get involved then as the defendant has settled with the amount you agree to.

 

hope that makes sense.

So how do I ask for wasted costs before the claim is settled?

There isn't time.

Should I ask for a 'stay' as Lateralus suggested which involves paying £35 (non returnable anyway) so as to give enough time forD&G to take out the conditions/confidentiality and pay up, and also buying time write to the court to ask about wasted costs before the case is closed?

Many thanks for you time:)

Or the wasted costs order, do you see the problem?

I think I need to pay £35 for a 'stay' as there may not be time to tell D&G that I won't except their conditions and then have them send a new offer back AND then give me the money before friday. There is barely time to get my bundles in if I needed to.

Why do you think that Livelylad?

How can you tell?

Sorry I still can't quite grasp this-

Some advice on the site and templates are saying that you ask for wasted costs after settlement is reached.

So how do I go about asking for it when the court date is on friday and I want to accept the offer made to me but don't know if I still have to go to court in order to ask the judge about granting me wasted costs.

I haven't mentioned the costs to D&G and if I could get hold of them in time I feel doubtful that they would agree, as the person I spoke to at the court suggested get them to draw up a 'CONSENT ORDER' which costs £35.

Anybody?

I would really love some clarification on this as the Court is saying one thing....

Thanks for your help.

I'm still not sure why the Court are telling me that it cannot ask for wasted costs if I accept the offer???

But all the stuff on here says differently!

What is the best course of action for me?

I have a court date for this friday 29th June,

BUT I have also just received an offer which I am happy with

(bar the fact that I left out 2 charges on my original claim and want to either

claim again or try to get D&G to agree to add it on).

But if I accept the offer the court told me the case will be closed and it will be too late to request.

HOWEVER the is no time to see if the Courts will agree to "WASTED COSTS" unless I fork out £35 to "stay" the case.

Which is the appropriate letter in this case?

It is not a mercantile case but SMALL CLAIMS TRACK.

I was told today by the Court that if I accept a settlement then the Court has nothing more to do with it and it's too late to ask for wasted costs.

Please help!

Anyone??

I'm really panicking about what step is next and whether I need to fork out £35 if I'm not going to be able to claim it back as a wasted cost.

Also, I was wondering if I should add something in here (jeneil's template) about the fact that I want to claim wasted costs?

(I have started a new thread regarding this.)

It's just that the court told me that I can't apply for wasted costs after the claim has been settled!!!!

WHAT TO DO?

Re. point A) above;

The templates given for wasted costs seem invalid given what the court told me today!?

Please can someone make this clearer?

I haven't got a clue as to what to do about all this now.

The court date is on the 29th June and if I ask for a 'stay' as Latrellus suggested (see my other posts), in order to give time to negotiate the offer, it costs £35 (non returnable fee).

I want to put in for wasted costs but;

A) I was told by the court that if I accept D&G's offer and it is settled out of court then it is too late and the court have nothing more to do with it then.

B) I don't know how to put the schedule together.

Does anyone have any examples of how to do it and lay out the information?

How much is reasonable?

I need to have this worked out before I hit D&G with it.

C) The court said that I could ask them to draw up a 'consent order' which also costs £35 (non returnable), in which it could be agreed with myself and them to pay my costs along with the charges. Signed by both parties.

I don't know if they would go along with this?

What do I do?

I am also not prepared to agree to any confidentially clauses you try to impose, unless of course your client wishes to make an offer of due consideration in addition to the amount of £xxxxx, in order to be afforded this privilege by myself.

Is it a good idea for me to include the charges with interest that I missed out of my summary at this point?

But then doesn't that mean I will never be able to claim against them again?

Hopefully I wouldn't have to. But is that the best approach you think?

I know I'm asking a lot of questions. Sorry.

:oops: :oops: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/images/smilies/redface.gif

Is there a way to change the title of your thread by the way?

Also, as far as I know (last checked 20th June) D&G had not filed an AQ.

What is the deal with that?

Not mentioned in the court letter. ??

How come they didn't have to do as I did?

And what about wasted costs?

How do I bring that up exactly?

Am I entitled to as I am receiving income support?

Please help!

It's all happening at once.

Did you see my update?

As for HSBC...

This is what they say;

HSBC is entirely confident that it's charges are reasonable, are properly and fully disclosed in it's t&c's and published price list and you must have been aware that you would incur such charges depending upon how you managed your financial affairs. HSBC Bank Plc is confident that it was entitled to apply these charges and that it would successfully resist your claim in the Courts.

However, our client is mindful of the management time and irrecoverable legal costs associated with litigation in the small claims regime. For those commercial reasons alone, and without any admission of liability whatsoever, HSBC bank plc is prepared to make an ex gratia payment to you in the sum of £875. That payment is made in full and final settlement of your claims arising from the charges applied to your account in the period referred to above. Where appropriate, it also takes account of any charges previously refunded to your account that you have failed to take into consideration in your schedule and the interest you have claimed on such charges, please see enclosed copy statement.

By accepting this payment you agree not to make any other claims relating to charges for the period stipulated above. HSBC also, reasonably, requires your confirmation that you will treat this payment as confidential.

If you accept this proposal please sign and return the enclosed copy of this letter to us and we will arrange for a refund to be made to you.

If you do not accept our client's offer, and your Claim proceeds to a hearing and the court decides our client's charges are illegal, which is denied, it is our confident belief that the amount offered by our client is the maximum you can reasonably expect to recover. Therefore, before incurring further legal costs, we strongly suggest you obtain legal advise from a qualified practitioner. If you do not, and our client is obliged to incur the cost of attending at Court, we reserve the right to adduce this letter in evidence that the errors in your claim have been brought to your attention and it is unreasonable that the matter be brought to a hearing.

If the Court accepts our representations, it is possible you may be ordered to pay our client's costs. In this respect, we reserve the right to adduce this letter, together with any enclosed schedule of calculations, if and when the question of costs is considered.

You will be aware that your Claim has been listed by the Court for hearing on 29th June 07. If you wish to avoid the inconvenience and cost of attending the hearing, please return your acceptance within 7 days and we will arrange for the hearing to be cancelled.

I sent my first nudge letter on 20th June to arrive next day and this came straight back today,

OFFER from D&G; £875

This is £18 less than the amount I had included in my nudge letter (£893), which was for a charge I had included by mistake anyway.

But they didn't bother to deduct the interest (of £5.59), so it's a good offer indeed!

I definitely want to take the offer but am nervous about how to proceed.

I don't want to waive any rights to further claims as there were 2 charges that I missed out of my original claim, that, with interest would b worth chasing up for me (even though it's only £80 or so).

The COURT DATE is set for Friday 29th June....

There is no mention of the Draft Order of Directions that I asked for.

It's quite vague really.

Here's what it says;

DISTRICT JUDGE ARMON-JONES has considered the statements oft he case and allocation questionnaires filed and allocated the claim to the small claims track.

The hearing of the claim will take place at 11.30 on the 29th June 2007 at Clerkenwell & Shoreditch County Court. Time estimate to be fixed.

The court must be informed immediately if the case is settled by agreement before the hearing date.

Each party shall deliver to every other party and to the court office copies of all documents (incl. any experts' report) on which he intends to rely at the hearing no later than 14 days before the hearing.

The original documents shall be brought to the hearing.

DATE: 14th June 2007

Well I can't do that as it would have had to be done by the 15th June!

The letter is dated 20th June-

I only received it today the 23rd.

Hearing is the 29th.

What does this mean??

What do I need to do????

No it's an offer but it comes with conditions.

How do I attach, so you can have a look?

I also now have a court date!

29th June.

How do I insert a scanned image in here?

Sorry. It's coming!