Hello My friend made a personal injury claim after a car accident at the beginning of last year. The 3rd party & insurance company accepted 100% liability. She made a claim for personal injury due to neck pain/whiplash through Irwin Mitchell. In July 2018, an approximate settlement was made to the value of £3000 odd. My friend received £2700 and the rest was taken in fees by IM. On Saturday she received a letter from IM with a copy of court documents headed 'EUI Ltd v ********' - the papers state that they are not disputing liability but they are disputing the amount paid to her for 'special claims' and want to recover that money plus costs - amounting to around £3400. She spoke to IM who said that it 'probably' won't go to court. Not very reassuring, to say the least. She is really scared that they will take it to court and make her pay that money back (which she doesn't have as it has been spent!). I thought that once the case was settled and a settlement paid out, that was it? I think I might not be as educated as I think I am! Any thoughts? Incidences of this happening before? Outcomes? All help greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hello I am suing a builder, without legal representation, so it has been a very steep learning curve! Late November, and most of December 2017 I was ill wilth Flu combined with Shingles - the latter affecting eyesight. I know this was a stress thing. My question really is that documents should have been exchanged on 14th November 2017, i attended Defendant's solicitors (partly to keep my costs down) at the correct time and date and saw defendant's Solicitor's assistant - Solicitor was busy! I duly handed over my information, none forthcoming from the other side. I was not unduly worried as such because I thought perhaps that was how it worked! Around the 5th/6th December I received a large envelope from Defendant's solicitors with paperwork in it, these being the documents that should have been exchanged before. My only real questionable thing about them was a couple of the items included were from MY information, which he did'nt have before my visit to exchange! I received a letter on the 8th December, from the Defendant's Solicitor telling me the case had been "struck out"and enclosing the bill for Defendant's costs! I contacted the CCMCC and was told that I needed to pay £100 to ? (I can't remember the wording). I sent this off, contacted other party's solicitors and told them i had done this. I never knew why it was struck out - only defendant's solicitor told me this. I received a letter from CCMCC saying that the actual cost was £255 (!) so I sent that off. Again speaking to CCMCC it appears that everything is continuing forward so I take it no longer "struck out". Now that I am actually feeling better, I have been able to think things through a little bit more logically, a huge amount of time double checking on the internet - am i too late in requesting this case be "struck out" because of non-compliance by defendant's solicitors? It is entirely my fault that i did not pick up on the "non-compliance" item about exchanging documents - although the more i do think about it, I now believe it was deliberate because i didn't know any better. Any advice would be really welcome

MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis is suing Facebook for defamation following “repeated fake adverts from [problem]mers it refuses to stop publishing” In a statement on MoneySavingExpert, Lewis wrote: “I get about five messages a day from people saying, ‘I’ve just seen your Bitcoin ad and wanted to check it.’ If that is the number who get through to me, how many more must be just taken in?” Well i have seen these adverts have you. I very nearly lifted a floorboard to take out some of my secret stash after thinking well he is a chap you can trust. I came so close but nailed the floorboard back down again. The phone did not stop ringing for weeks.Trying to entice the old owl.From all over the world. Has anyone else nearly fallen into the trap. Or maybe fallen straight through it. Just wondering as you do.

I am helping a friend/client defend a summons from their former business Internet suppliers. Long story short, they were happily using BT for their phones and Internet for many years, until some Mickey Mouse outfit called them and said they could provide everything BT did at a fraction of the price. They foolishly agreed before talking to me and soon came to regret the decision as: 1. The Internet regularly went down for long periods. 2. One fix suggested by the ISP was too disable the fixed IP and change to dynamic. As they use CCTV and Remote Desktop this was not a great solution. 3. Their business was considerably disrupted due to the constant breakdown of the Internet. 4. They constantly contacted the ISP but the Internet continued to fail. 5. They claimed the same problems would be experienced with BT and yet since switching back to BT their Internet has been problem free. They have received a summons today from the ISP saying the last two months invoices remained unpaid, emails go ignored and have now cancelled the service. I believe they think the application will be left unanswered so they could apply for the award and get the bailiffs in, so I would like to get a reply back as soon as possible. They did warn the ISP that they would need to switch ISP unless it was resolved their reply was "you are under contract." They finally cracked and moved back to BT. I have advised them to dispute the claim in full and defend on the above grounds. If a business totally fails to provide a service, can be just walk away, on grounds of breach of contract/non-performance? This is effectively what they were forced to do.

Hi everyone, My case is turning quite complex and I would appreciate any support anyone has for me. I will try and lay everything out as clearly as possible... 1) Viewed a property on the 21st of October, and noticed some issues with the property (cracks on the outside walls), we asked the estate agent who said it was just “common shrinkage”. As the current tenants were in with furniture / laundry around we didn’t see the full extent of this. 2) The following week we decided to make an offer on the property, and stated that “this offer is contingent on the following: …”. Our contingencies included: a professional clean, painting over some obvious large internal cracks, resealing mould in bathroom and cleaning the garden. The landlord confirmed in writing to do the contingencies before our move in date. We also asked for an inventory, and received a list of items, before going ahead with putting in our deposit etc. 3) Upon moving out of my rented flat and into the property 6 weeks later (25th of November), we discovered that 1) no work that our offer was contingent on had been completed and 2) Two 12L dehumidifiers had been placed into the bedrooms (RRP: £139.99), alongside 9x mould absorbency gels dotted around the flat, indicating that there was a mould / damp problem in the flat (neither the dehumidifiers or gels were in the flat advertisement, nor were they present when viewing). 4) I have severe Asthma and a mould allergy, and my boyfriend has also been to hospital with a mould allergy in the past, so obviously had we known there was an issue we would not have made any offer on the flat. 5) We immediately got in touch with the estate agent in writing, who stated the dehumidifiers were there upon viewing (not the case). The dehumidifiers were also not included in the inventory we received (although that included kettle/toaster and other small appliances). Irrespective of that none of the work the landlord said they would do was done. In addition, I immediately begun suffering from my allergies in the flat due to mould / damp (asthma, hives etc). 6) Once we were in the flat without the previous tenants’ belongings, we began to see many more issues in there that were concealed by the previous tenants furniture and items on walls (e.g. cracks in internal walls that were concealed) as well as many probable hazards with the flat (e.g. excessive cold, windows not shutting properly, suspected subsidence and suspected penetrative damp / mould). 7) We got in contact with the estate agent the evening we moved in. The estate agent denied all of the above and stated that the dehumidifiers were there upon viewing (they weren’t). There was some back and forth over the next 24hrs but the consensus from the estate agent and landlord was that nothing was wrong with the flat and that we were not misled. We asked to know what would happen with the flat and the estate agent told us that landlord “believed and understood the property was in a fine state of repair from the outset”. 8) After moving in on the Saturday the 25th Nov, and getting nowhere with the estate agent/landlord we decided for our health (mine especially – I had gone through a full inhaler and multiple antihistamines in the 24 hours I had been there) to leave the flat as we realised we had been sold a lie, it was clear the landlord wasn’t going to do anything and we could not stay due to our health. 9) We moved our belongings into storage at the earliest opportunity (Monday the 28th Nov) and went to stay with family so we didn’t have to live there and struggle health wise. We also received an email from the estate agent that the landlord was going to re-let the property with a different estate agent and that we would get 24h notice before any viewings take place. That email was the last we heard from either the landlord or the estate agent. 10) 5 days later we went back to the property and realised we had been locked out (they had used a lock to which we were not provided a key) so could not gain access to the property even if we did want to remain in the contract. 11) We also realised the landlord had been negligent on a number of other things: Hadn’t given us prescribed information on the deposit, had put the deposit in the wrong scheme (i.e. not the one they put in our AST), we had no gas safety certificate, and there was further misrepresentation (said there was a fridge freezer and chest freezer, there was neither). 12) We tried to contact them and were ignored. Finally, we sent a pre-action protocol letter outlining our claim and restating that we were open to negotiate rescission of the contract and our monies paid back. This was ignored. 13) 14 days later we filed a court claim against the landlord which included all the money we paid and damages (around 7k) and also the fines for them not giving us the proper prescribed information (£6.6k) so our case is currently in the fast track (we found out after this may not be the best thing). 14) The landlord is now defending and counterclaiming (we are waiting for the details of their defence and counterclaim in the post but assuming this is for loss of rent up to the new tenant move in date, irrespective of the illegal eviction). 15) One last point is that the MCOL apparently made a clerical error and accidentally discontinued our claim on the 17th of Jan without telling us, and we spent the last week or so reinstating it. I am now unsure of what our next steps should be so any advice on what you think we should do would be hugely appreciated. Thank you all!

I want to take a small claims action against my council but I do not know to whom I address the suit/claim. I mean in a normal law suit it would be the CEO, XXXX Ltd, but in the case of my council should I sue -'The Mayor and Burgesses Council xxxxxx' -& address the claim to him, or do I address the claim to the - CEO of London Borough of XXXXXX ref, TVs 'The Sherrifs are Coming' and they had high Court write against 'The Mayor & Burgesses Havering Council' . Thanks for any help.

In January 2009 we hired builders after checking several companies, getting referrals and looking at their work to build an extension. We realized later that their referrals were friends of theirs who were in on the [problem]. We did staged payments and only paid into a bank account electronically. The council's planning department knew early on they were cowboys, but never told us until the builders walked off the job with claims they were being harassed by the planning department. We found out they did not use insulation, the roof was only plywood and the electrics and plumbing put in ran to nowhere. The brickwork was not even straight and the footings were too high. The reason why they walked off the job is instead of using insulation and hardcore they just threw any old junk including planks of wood for the floor. The planning officer caught them halfway through concreting over it and had a row with them. I was told by the planning department I could also be held liable for allowing them to contravene the building regulations! I asked them why they never told me what was happening and was told they do not get involved with such things and their only job is to ensure that the work is done within regulations. The builders took £14,500 of our money and called to threaten us if we did not pay a further £4000. They also refused to return the key for our gate to get into the back. I called the police and never heard from them again. Our livingroom was left open to the elements and scaffolding was holding up the steel beam and the place was a mess. I got a good builder in and it was discovered that none of the walls were even, masonry fell and there was no insulation in the walls. Plus one wall had to be partially redone as it was moving back and forth. In total, it cost us another £15,000 to redo this when the whole thing should have cost £23,000. We traced them and found that the original person we were in contact with has a legitimate business and he was working in partnership with the cowboy. But, it was presented to us that they were in business together as so-called brothers and the contract we did and all dealings were with the legitimate partner. He later tried to say he only introduced us and had no dealings with it, but we have evidence that he was just as involved. He told us he does the tiling and decorating and his brother does the building side of things. The one who does not have a legitimate business was using 3 different addresses and I contacted the insurance company he had. They refused to take any responsibility. I contacted Trading Standards and was told they can record it, but unless they get at least 5 similar complaints against the same company they cannot take them to court. They also said that even if I did take them to court and won I would most likely not be able to collect any money. Shortly after all this I became very ill and nearly lost my life. It took a year to recover and now I am thinking of seeing what I can do. I know that the one brother has moved and is still in business. Can anyone give me some advice about the possibility of suing and was I told the correct information from Trading Standards? I am unable to seek legal advice as I cannot afford and cannot get legal aid.

I am in the process of suing a limited company that owes me £16,000. They admit they owe the amount but just wont pay. My problem is that the companies registered office is at a firm of accountants. Do I have my court summons issued to there or to the home address of the director I have been dealing with. If I win the case and I have to send in bailiffs there would be no sense in using the registered office. Anyone help me? David Prince

Soft drinks makers including Coca Cola are reportedly considering suing the Government over George Osborne's plans to implement a tax on sugary drinks, which could never see the light of day. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sugar-tax-soft-drinks-makers-coca-cola-britvic-ag-barr-legal-suing-the-government-a6943871.html

I really need advice please: I went to court end last month: Last yr laptop repairman took my laptop to quote on repairing broken screen, brought back the next day with much damage to hinge area etc, he denied it so I took him to court. There he admitted fault, but I lost the case. All my evidence was correct, half of which I sent to court was lost by court including quote I obtained, judge had no idea about costs of repairing computers, many court mistakes especially including the fact I lost the case. I asked for appeal, it was denied by same judge. Now I need to solve this, so far all I have is vague suggestion to write letter of complaint to said court, or solicitors @ £500.00 per consultation alone. Thanks for all you can do. Sorry it's rather urgent due to court complaint policy.

Slightly complex claim here. I topped up an Egg loan at the beginning of 2007. The total cash amount of the loan was £9331 and the payment protection premium lent was £1730.85 with the total amounts payable at £10668.00 and £1979.04 respectively. I subsequently defaulted on the loan and it was sold to various debt collection companies, ending up most recently with Arrow Global. They stated that the purchase balance of the account was £8193.79, down from the £11061.85 advanced by Egg. Added to the complications, I now live in the USA. Restons for Arrow Global obtained a CCJ by default judgment against me and I applied to have it set aside once I found out about it. I ended up deciding to settle with them and we eventually agreed on £3000.00 in full and final settlement of the account. So I have effectively repaid £5868.06 of the debt, plus whatever interest that I'm unable to calculate. In the meantime, over a year ago I was sent a letter by Canada Square Operations asking me to complete a complaint questionnaire, as I belong to group of customers who MAY have been affected by a PPI policy being mis-sold. I never sent it as at the time I still owed the debt. The letter they sent noted that the debt had be sold on to another company and asked permission to contact them to find out the status of the debt. Since I have now settled the debt I filled out the questionnaire and sent it off. I'm wondering what I can expect given the circumstances surrounding my case. I'm also wondering if they will respond to me at my US address?

How do I sue a company in Scotland from England. Already sent them the letter before claim etc. Despite Scotland having no pre action conduct for the type of case in question, their lawyer has already complained I used the English one which is apparently unsuitable for his client - although everything in the letter already corresponds with Scottish requirements. it seems I'll have to sue them in Scotland, the defendant says they aren't liable and besides I'm in England (HAHAHA YOU CAN'T TOUCH US). Money owed is £750.00. I should add that the law in question is a non-devolved matter, identical both sides of the border.

My solicitor screwed up on my conveyance. I was to start a claim for money compensation against them, can I do this as per the normal route for normal people/civil claims or is there some way I must go via the Law Society or the SRA, LO etc first? Or is the Law Society, SRA, Legal Ombudsman separate for matters of conduct etc only?

Hi, After over a year of trying I have finally received a calculation from Barclays for my Mastercard which I took out in 1996. After the involvement of the Ombudsman they offered to settle out of good will with no admission. The offer letter I received stated that they are admitting that I was missold. The letter is a little cryptic in that it states that they are "not required to retain statement information for more than 6 years" and that the value of payments prior to 2005 would be calculated assuming that the payments reduced at a steady rate to 0 going back to 1996. They say that they are happy to recalculate should additional information be provided. Who in their right mind keeps statements going back to 1996 ???? Well, my wife has been going on at me for years to clear out my paperwork. I am so glad I did not listen. I have found statements going back to 1996. Putting these into the calculator makes quite a different picture. I do have a couple of questions though. What interest rate should I use when calculating compound interest. Do you think Barclays really do dispose of records from before 2005. Many thanks for all the great advice that I have received and I cannot thank the Ombudsman enough for their professional and considerate service.

We bought a new build property in September 2013 and moved in in December. When we moved in the underfloor heating was not working, the sheds were no built along with other snags they still had to finish. Since then we have had hardly any luck getting in touch with the builders to finish the work to the house. They have confirmed that the kitchen floor will all need to be taken up to fix the underfloor heating, but fail to ever commit to a date to do the work. Now they ignore any of our efforts to get in contact with them. We have all the email correspondence saved including them admitting that they need to complete the snags. Our solicitor is useless too and apart from ask their solicitor to get the builders to do the work, is really doing nothing. Where do we go from here in terms of getting the work finished. Is suing them a fairly easy process or will it be long and very costly for us, in which case it may be better for us to swallow the cost and pay for all the work ourselfs. Any help very much appreciated.

Hi, first post, so go easy . To cut a long story short I bought a car from a trader. I found out afterwards it had had some crash damage. He's partially repaired it (he accidentally left receipts to that effect in the paperwork) but left about 3 grand's work of further work (that was out of sight, so I guess he thought he could get away with it) not done. Once discovered (about a week after bought the car) I called him and confronted him. He flat out refused to do anything and suggested I take him to court. I've written a letter before action and will start proceedings ASAP. What I'm hoping you can help me with is to decide what to do with the car in the meantime. I obviously bought it because I needed it, but I've not been able to use it since we discovered the problems (the garage we took it to said it was potentially dangerous) and so it's just sitting there. I don't even really want a refund as that means this toerag will take the car back and sell it to some other poor sap. What I'd like is for him to pay for the repairs. Presuming that he doesn't have a change of heart before the date on the letter before action passes, should I pay for repairs myself and ask the court to make him pay the bill, or will this potentially prejudice my case? I just don't want to be further weeks without transport if I can avoid it, but equally I don't want to shell out thousands to repair the car and have the judge either make me give back a repaired car to the dealer, or tell me to go away since I've repaired the car already. Help!

The builders demanded payment from a vulnerable member of the family who paid the final payment in full. There were problems with the build from before the time the final payment was made, but we were not aware of the real nature of the problems until after payment. From the time the bills were paid in full, the builders work has been very poor. In summary, the builders have not stuck to the contract or the plans. Building control have a long list of outstanding issues including the roof and floors being inadequately supported. We have a solicitor who said the first step was to get an idea of the costing. Reputable builders shy away from this sort of work. One reputable firm said they would do a quote for £250. Would we be best with this for now or should we be looking at getting a surveyor in? Also, we were asked to pay the electrician direct when extra electrical work was added. We were planning to take this to a small claim court separately but the solicitor advises keeping it all as one claim for now. The electrician met us at the house, started work on the additional sockets the same day and sent us an invoice for half the cost of all the electrical work that night. He damaged our bathroom fittings and will not pay for their repair. He wants to come back and do bits of the remaining work despite walking out on us last year. We don't want him to come back. Would there be any reason to let him complete any more work at this stage? Also, I am torn between getting the work completed as I am fed up of living in an unsafe building site and preserving the damage they have done for a future surveyor to assess. What do you suggest is best? Also, we have no legal expenses cover. The likely costs of the case are very high. I am going to try to do as much as I can by myself. Where do I start?

Hi, i applied for a funeral payment from the social fund, the dwp granted it , but they got part of it wrong , so i phoned up to quiry it first off. however i got insulted , patronized and probable intimidating and threatening behavior. Ive got a Cd of the phone conversation from the dwp , im just wondering whats my first port of call.

Hello all, I was hoping to get some advice from the good people on the forum. My partner and I purchased a home in March 2011, a new build property, signed sealed etc etc. However, a month later, the builders decided to put a walkway going through to a main road to give access. This adversely affects my property. My questions are as follows: 1) As it was not on the final plans when we signed the contract, and we received no notice of this walkway is this a breach of contract? 2) The walkway is not on the FINAL plans lodged with the council. Although when i rang the Council planning office, i was told that the builders had been told to put this walkway in to the development. Should this not have been picked up by solicitors doing a local search? Ultimately, we would never have bought this house if we has knew about the walkway. The information has been, we feel, deliberately withheld and has ruined what was our first home together. We would like to go to a solicitor, but can't afford it at this moment in time. I was wandering if anyone had any suggestions/comments? Kind Regards, McBirnie25

Well not totally confused as I have spent the last couple of hours reading the stickies above regarding CPR for Document disclosure. However I am wondering were a DSAR sits in all of this ? In a Nutshell, CPR part 18 for clarification of any documents you are sent CPR 31.14 for disclosure of any documents they mention in a statement in of cases (POC) Now where does a DSAR fit into all of this ? How does one request to see documents that have never been mentioned ? e.g. DN, DoA etx ? How does one prevent a claimant producing a document in court that they have previously failed to mention, or more importantly photoshopped at the last minute.

After racking up a few victories against banks and DCA, I'm now itching to take a fight to them. Because I know, given the chance to take me to courts regardless of the merits they would. The Issue: My bank who I have had no problems with except a deteriorating level of customer service and increasing incompetent level of customer service has disclosed my confidential details which has caused me to incur financial loss. I opened a business bank account with my bank by phone and was told there would be some paperwork I would need to sign and return by post. The letter never turned up. A week later, I informed the bank and they sent out another letter, which again failed to turn up. However another letter did. First of all the letter showed clear signs of being tampered with, the letter was addressed to me, however the contents did not pertain to me. They belonged to another customer and contained all of his intimate banking details, name, address, bank account numbers. I can only assume that a similar letter containing my personal info, has been sent elsewhere or been intercepted. Due to this I have had to move all of banking to another bank, which has been at some considerable expense as the task has been time consuming and has prevented me from working. Do I have a claim under DPA ?

The developer has issued a claim against me. The developer is also the manager and owner of the private road on which we live. I intend to fully dispute the claim. The date of service is today, 3rd May so I have a little time to get things together. He is claiming £265 for what he states in the POC as "charges incurred by our company on behalf of the residents of XXX which is a private road owned by our company. There are clauses in the sales contract for each property which allows us to pass on the charges and make a charge for management costs. The 10 other residents have settled their accounts in full." The charges are for a Pumping station and the Electricity that runs the pumping station. But he's charging us nearly £700 a year to "administer" these bills that come in annually. Right, so let me just say that the accounting system he uses is a mess, so I need to show that in court. He has been charging VAT at 20% on the electricity even though he only gets charged 5%. I have paid all the bills that he has incurred but I will not pay his extortionate management charge. But what I am looking for is a bit of help to really nail this once and for all. I can show the court that I have paid all charges in full EXCEPT his management charges. I am not paying any management charges because, 1) He has raised the management fee for the 11 properties from £395 to £695. Now obviously I only pay one eleventh of that, but our clause in our sales contract he talks about states that all charges should be reasonable. The reason he raised the charge by £300 was to recuperate money he lost taking another resident to court for a similar matter. He has been talking about my personal situation with other residents. Is he in breach of Data Protection Laws? He has deliberately mixed up the payments I have made and apportioned them to the wrong bills, making it look like I haven't paid one of the at all. The accounts that he has submitted in his POC are different to the ones he has given me. How do I get back the money I am going to lose in defending this? Do I just ask the Judge to award costs, or do I have to counter-claim? In short, I have paid my share of pumping station charges and electricity, but owing to the 40% rise in management charges and no justification or reasonable excuse for it, I haven't paid any management fees. I just want to pay what is fair and reasonable, I am not his personal cash cow. If anyone could help me, I'd be very grateful.

I am currently seeing a company for buying a dodgy car ( separate thread. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?348468-POC-for-second-hand-car/page4 ) My question is is there anything I can do once dissolved about monies owed and also is there anything illegal about now trading under a different name?

These everyone seems to want to sue everyone else for minor injuries just to get some cash. But if the NHS done something minor, but a company told you to sue, would you? For instance, you are in hospital and they leave the drip on high into your hand and it swells up twice the size. It's very painful, and the staff don't seem to be bothered and just leave you. Hours later the shift changes and the first nurse in quickly turns the drip off. It then takes over 24hrs for the swelling and pain to go away. Now some people may try and sue for that and would probably get a few hundred quid, however I wouldn't even think about it. It would be another matter if I'd lost the hand , but it was only a 24hr issue and mistakes are made. I look at suing the NHS as taking away treatment from someone else, and so would only use it as an option in the most serious of cases. What do you think?

LBA letter has not done the trick for £1000 in charges and interest. Is there a guide to court application?. I recall using moneyclaim online for bank charges back in the day but get the feeling this has changed. Thanks