Hi, From recent dealings with Eversheds, whilst they are a large law firm, they have a debt collection bit of their business and that is who you're dealing with. We never actually got to speak to one of their solicitors until things were at the disclosure stage of the court process (i.e when they rang us to ask for more time to meet the Court's requirements). With regard to your CCA request, I would send copies to both Eversheds and the original creditor (or whoever the debt is now with), then you're covered. However, I was told that everything gets re-directred back to Eversheds anyway - it's just to cover yourself. As I said earlier, they don't go by consumer law at all. They started proceedings against us knowing full well that a copy of the CCA wasn't available (after 12 years). You can't argue on the phone either - they are really arrogant. With our case, their sole intention was to obtain a charging order on our property via the court process. They weren't happy with our monthly payment of £50 at all. We were advised that their clients had probably bought the original debt for peanuts. They discontinued in the end.

We've just come to the end of a year's worth of dealings with Eversheds - successfully I hope! The trouble with them is that they don't stick to consumer law. I requested a copy of our credit agreement with our original creditors (on a 12 year old alleged debt). They went over the time limits for producing this and still went ahead and issued a court claim. However to their surprise we defended the case (with a lot of help from this forum). We stuck to every point on the court order - they did nothing at all - and even rang us to ask for more time to meet the requirements!! We recently received a notice of discontinuance from them - so the case never got to court. They assume, I think, that no-one will bother defending a claim - and therefore they'd get a CCJ by default along with applying for a charging order - which in our case was their sole aim, I think. My advice would be to keep on doing what you're doing - if you give up now, they'd win. I wish you all the best with them - they're a nasty lot.

Thank you for your good wishes. For the time being I am going to put this out of my mind. I'm just glad that those arrogant, bullying, big-headed idiots at that particular DCA are off my back. I thought they may be up to something when the phone calls stopped - even though we were mid-court proceedings! I am so glad I found the CAG forum!

Hello everyone, Out of the blue today we received a Notice of Discontinuance from the DCA solicitors dealing with the case - what a relief - it's been dragging on for so long. To date we had complied with every date on the court's order however, the other side had complied with not one thing! Does this mean that as it didn't get to Court, it will now be sold on to another DCA?? I can't face going through all this again!!! Also, as we hadn't discovered the CAG forum, when first chased to the alleged debt we made about 5 payments of £50 to the DCA - later realising that they were collecting this illegally. Would it be wise to quit whilst we're ahead or would it be worth trying for a refund? We didn't tick the box for a counterclaim on the cort form. Thank you to everyone for your expert guidance through all the legal jargon, etc.

I know only the judge can decide, but what do you think the chances of it being struck out would be, given the info from our side. We did see a solicitor at a free legal clinic a while ago - although he didn't seem to be an expert in debt - but he said the chances were about 50/50, meaning it could go either way.

Well I never - yes that's my old thread! God, it seems like this thing has been dragging on for ever!

Hi, Thanks. The details were in an original thread from months ago & I can't find it anywhere on the forum. Basically, the debt (personal unsecured loan) was from circa 1997 for just under 6K. Whilst we have made some payments over the years, due to one thing & another, the payments were sketchy and the debt got sold to various DCA's eventually ending up with arrow global who appointed Eversheds to deal with it for them and it is now in the hands of the court. As I said, there is no CCA, no evidence of debt assignments, etc.

Hi, We are the defendants in an ongoing case which has now got to the stage of abiding by the directions in the Judge's order by specific dates, etc. We've done everything we shoud have done thus far. However, the other side have done nothing - not disclosed anything at all, etc. etc. Everything we have written to the other side we have also copied to the Court, as instructed. A trial window is set for Jan 09 in fast track. The other side even contacted us for an extension date for disclosure of their documents - what a cheek! We are now in limbo & playing the waiting game. Surely the judge won't look at it any further if they've failed to abide by the Order. All this is, I might add, still with no copy of a CCA - which we have repeatedly requested since last March. Is this normal legal practice????

Hi everyone, Just received some papers from the Court - am hoping someone on the forum can translate into laymans terms. It is an order from the judge stating: 1. Claim is allocated to fast track (this bit I understand!) 2. Disclosure of documents shall be dealt with as follows: a) The parties shall give to each other standard disclosure of documents by serving copies together with a disclosure statement by 4pm 15/08/08. b) Any request to inspect the original of a copy document shall be made by 4pm on 29/08/08 and any request shall be complied with within 14 days of the receipt of request. 3. Each party shall serve on every other party the witness statements of all witnesses of fact on whom the party intends to rely by 26/09/08. 4. Each party shall: a) serve any request for clarification or further information based on any document disclosed or statement served by another party no later than 14 days after disclosure of service and b) reply to any such request served on it within 14 days of service of teh request. 5. Completed pre-trial check lists shall be sent to the Court by 7/11/08. 6. The claim shall be listed for trial during trial window 5/01/09 to 23/01/09 with a time estimate of one day. 7. Because this order has been made by the Court without considering representations from the parties, the parties have the right to apply to have the order set aside, varied or stayed. A party wishing to make an application must send or deliver the application within 7 days of service of this order. It is points 2, 3, 4 and 7 which I,m not clear about. Any help gratefully received. To date we've still not received CCA or a reply to our requests & the judge knows this as it was stated on our AQ.

Hello all, We received our AQ this week - N150. Will be completing this over weekend - deadline is 7th July - and court is only 10mins from our home. Today we received a photocopy of the AQ which the other side have filled in, presumably to send back to the court. They have filled in Section G Costs as £400 in costs incurred to date and an estimate of their overall costs to be £3,500!!! Is this another scare tactic to try & make us sit up & think again??? I'll be seeking guidance from anyone who can help me complete our form. To date we've still not received a CCA or info under CPR, as requested in earlier letters. They have also ticked the box for wanting a "stay" for a month - what is this?? We would rather get it over & done with. Many thanks for any help.

Following on from my other thread, was wondering how the court process works. We filed a defence at the end of May. Have heard nothing since from either the court, the DCA or the creditor. Surely they must have a time limit for responding, just like we did???

Thanks everyone.Thank you in particular BB - as if it hadn't been for your keen observations of the thread, the papers would have still been sitting in the pile at home waiting for mid-June to arrive. It's funny how things happen - must be fate. Let's hope we have a good outcome. Thank God Bradford is not too far for us - no way could we have got much further in such a short time!

Guess where we went to last night?? Luckily we only live 2hrs drive from Bradford so we took the defence in ourselves by hand. Sorted it out on time - looked at some examples on here & adapted them to suit our case. Not sure what happens next though - anyone got any ideas on court procedures??

My problem is now that I'm short on time - only have tonight - due to my own stupidity! I will just have to do it the best I can - leaving out the legal jargon!

I am planning to keep the defence plain & simple in layman's terms. Is this the best way forward?

I'm willing to pay for special delivery anyway - just hope Monday won't be too late for us. Can't believe how I thought it was June. Nevertheless - still received nothing in the way of a CCA or info under civil procedures so that's one good thing. Can't concentrate on work now - need to be at home but can't leave til 4pm. Thank you for pointing that date out! In fact I can't thank you enough!

Oh Christ - you are right.I am panicking at work now - I must've wrote it on calendar on June instead of May. I need to get back home asap & do it! I'm glad someone's on the ball. We're juggling lots of balls at the moment & the stress must be getting to us. So does that make the deadline then Saturday - if I send it tomorrow by special guaranteed next day will that be OK???

Hi BB,Well so far we've sent off the request for info letter under civil procedures. Had a letter back from solicitors acknowledging receipt of the letter - now time limit expired. Have set aside this weekend to now compile our defence, so will probably be asking for some guidance! The defence needs to be in by end June. Interestingly, the letter we had from the solicitors showing the balance, already includes court costs and their own fees - which I think is wrong as it has not yet been to court.Will keep you posted.

I have an update: Posted the ack of service back today by special delivery. In today's post we received a letter from A/Global stating: "Thank you for your letter dated 3/3/08, received 5/3/08 and acknowledge payment of the sum of £1. We will now process your request for copy documents pursuant to the CCA 1974. Where we do not hold copies of the documents requested, your request will be passed to the debt originator. We will use our best endeavours to comply with the time period provided for in the statute. We will keep you informed. Y/Faithfully - Relationship Manager, Arrow Global" What was the point in them sending this I ask, when they have clearly already exceeded the allowed time to provide what we want?

Hi, Didn't really want to send it online as I wanted to keep my e-mail address from them in case they sent me something via this way & for one reason or another I couldn't access it. I will send it registered by Royal Mail to Bradford. Thank you.

I think I'm getting it now - albeit slowly! The POC are: The claim is for the sum of xxx( A default notice was served upon the defendant and has not been complied with. (Unable to remember if this was the case as debt is so old) By virtue of a sale agreement between LTSB and the claimant, the claim vested in the claimant who has a genuine commercial interest. The defendent has been notified of the assignment by letter. (I think we did get this but it went in the shredder). Contact Eversheds LLP onxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The date of issue is 29th April 08 and the court is Bradford. On the Ack of Service form there is a box to enter an address to which documents about the claim should be sent to - do I enter my address or Eversheds address in this bit? From the look of it I think it's Eversheds. Thank you for your help.

Thank you. Is the relevant letter which I need to send the same template as BeauBrummie did above? Sorry to sound confused, but I am! Also, I understand the ack of claim buys you more time - the date on the claim form is 29th April so would it therefore be 14 days + 14 more to the deadline? Calendar or working days? What if the creditor doesn't respond within 10 days - do you still write out your defence according to what you have got - which in our case is nothing at all - (lack of CCA, etc). MANY THANKS!

Thank you everyone for your expert help. I have decided to not get a solicitor at this stage - can't afford one anyway. I CCAd both parties back in March & have proof of posting - so this is what I'm going to use in my defence. My next step will be to SAR TSB from the start of the loan - circa 1997. Have heard that some judges aren't up to date with consumer rights so will have to make my defence statement really stand out - i.e in first 2 lines or so. All this is sending me scatty - eg. I lost my make up bag today - hunted everywhere & finally found it in the bread bin!! Oh happy days!

Thank you Maroondevo52, Unfortunately (as we did not know about this excellent forum until recently) I don't think the debt will be statute barred. There's never been more than a year's interval gone by when we haven't paid something (hence re-starting the ball rolling again unwittingly - Doh!). As we have no CCA we have no idea how much the original debt was, what we've paid, etc - neither do we know if it was in joint names or otherwise, so this is what we're going to use as our defence. Would you recommend getting a professional solicitor - I know it will cost us - but anything's better than a charging order. I think the claim form is pretty straightforward but just wondering whether a pro might do it better.

Hope someone may be able to help. In summary we're being pursued for a 12 year old debt (personal loan) which was originally with LTSB and over the years has been sold on to various DCA's, currently ending up with Arrow Global whose agents for collection are Eversheds. As it is so old we are unsure of what payments/charges, etc have been applied to the debt. We sent the statutory CCA request off back in March, with copies to Eversheds. Now after 40+ days nothing has arrived in the form of this. We were paying towards the debt but were advised by National Debtline that we were within our rights to withold payment in view of no CCA, which we did this month. Eversheds insist they don't need this and that "there'll be one in court for us to see". Low and behold, today we received a court claim form which we're intending to defend on the grounds of no CCA. My question is: Will this claim form definitely lead to a court hearing or do the creditors have a chance to decide not to proceed before this. Also, can I add that the sole reason for them wanting to obtain a CCJ is to get a charging order on our house - that is their only interest. Many thanks for any help.