Hi CCM Thanks for replying. ChasedbyAgencies and I have been working together on this one. The defence has to be at the court Monday morning - short notice eh? Any help you can give us will be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Rory 32, Hi thanks for your help, and moving the messages over to one thread, Account was opened well over 6 years ago, not sure how long before that as dont have paperwork. Have requested CPR 18 from CL, they replied that they are not obliged. Defence claim has to be submitted by tomrorow night if not done online. Had something that looks like notice of assingment from Lewis Debt saying assigned to CL Finance, but don't know if in order. No pre-action letter before Court Claim which arrived pretty soon after told it was now with CL Finance. default Notice received from Mercers prior to this, but apparently it is in breach. Not sure of the amounts yet, but probably 10% has been added in late payment fees and the interest that has been charged on that. Not sure how much if anything CL have added yet as not had anything from them. All I know is that the total on the Court Claim Form is getting near to £900 above what the balance was when stopped payments 8 months ago, the bulk seems to be interest charged over this time, although they were asked to freeze interest in offer of a small payment, and they refused, even though the reason for non payment was ill and on incapacity benefit. If we had found this site then, things would have been so different

I am acting on behalf of a friend of mine who was slapped with a court claim by CL Finance on New Year’s Eve just gone. We are preparing her defence and would like to submit a counter-claim. She suffers from CFS / ME and this caused her to become unemployed and this obviously cut her income drastically. This had the effect of my friend falling behind on the payments on her Barclaycard MasterCard bill. After several phone calls from Barclays Bank the account was then passed to Mercer’s who bombarded my friend with countless phone calls - up to 10 daily. She stated to them every time they rang that she suffered from ME / CFS all to no avail. This eventually led to my friend having her worst ever relapse. I would like to ask some questions; 1. In her holding defence can she mention that she wants to put in a counter-claim for harassment? 2. I read in a case that someone wanted to reclaim late payment fees – do we mention this at this stage? 3. Is there a connection between Mercers, Lewis Debt Recovery and CL Finance? Thank you for your help in advance.

Hello Everyone, Thanks for all your help. Am attaching the scans now( from ChasedbyAgencies) PLEASE NOTE will be posting in future from Chasedby Agencies - this is the account of my friend. I am at work and ChasedbyAgencies will be posting the scans shortly. to save confusion all further posts will be from ChasedbyAgencies. Hope no-one is now confused!

One more question. My friend, with my help, sent a CPR 18 (Request for Information) which prompted the reply stated above from Lewis Debt Recovery. The letter was dated and sent recorded delivery. It also stated that we required the information in 14 days, however we did not include the date that we required the information by - does this render her CPR 18 invalid? Thank you for any help.

Many thanks for your reply. It was a credit agreement with Barclaycard Mastercard which was initially passed to Mercer's - they issued the Default Notice of £3XXX. She then received a letter from Lewis Debt Recovery who said they were acting on behalf of their clients, CL Lewis, with a small box giving a notice of assignment. 10 days after this (New Years eve) letter the court claim arrived.

Hi I’m hoping that someone can help me please. I am helping a friend of mine who suffers from ME/CFS and is finding this very difficult to cope with. I have offered to help but am struggling with what to do next. She received a court claim form that was instigated by CL Finance. We asked for a 14 extension to the court which was granted and this runs out very shortly. We sent off a CPR 18 to CL Finance and received the usual reply from Howard Cohen stating that they “we are not obliged to provide us with the information and the particulars of the claim on the Count Court claim form should be sufficient to allow you to respond accordingly”. I understand from reading the threads we should be putting in a ‘holding’ defence. We are not sure what this is and what to say. Please can someone help as the defence has to be in by 2nd Feb. We know this is short notice but my friend was dealing with things but has got overwhelmed and is now quite poorly.

Hi Solicitor Many thanks for your comments - they are much appreciated.

Hi Solicitor Many thanks for that. Also, another question. If she doesn't receive a reply to the CPR 18, or the information they supply is incorrect or incomplete does that invalidate their claim? Thanks

Hi everyone A little help needed here please. I am writing on behalf of a friend who I am currently helping out. She has received a court claim form from a finance company and, in return, we sent them a CPR 18 (request for information form). She has applied for a court reply extension to 28 days. Firstly, will she receive a acknowledgement from the court regarding the extension and stating the new date that defense documents have to be submitted by? Secondly, what course of action does she need to take when she receives the reply from the company? Any help or advice that anyone can offer will be gratefully received. Thank you

Hi everyone. I'm new to this so just finding my way around.