goint to court, can you help?

[stephane]

Hello All,

 

I started an action against my bank after sending them letters complaining about recurrent "returned direct debit charges" (over £600). They replied with the usual "refer to the terms and conditions...", so I filled in a claim at moneyclaim.gov.uk.

 

I thought we would stop there but they have replied with their solicitors saying that they intend to defend the claim. This means we are going to court.

 

I will have to prove them wrong but I am not a lawyer and I am worried I might not conduct the talk in the right way.

 

Can anybody advice on the main points I should focus on to win the court hearing?

 

The bank is Lloyds TSB, if that makes a difference.

 

Best Regards to all,

 

Stephane

[surreyscouse]

have a look in the faq's, there is a massive piece from bankfodder explaining what will happen and what questions you should ask

[Rich44]

1. Don't panic

2. Read through all the other threads esp NeilP and Whizzkids in the abbey forum there are plenty of examples to have a look at to get an idea of what will happen.

3. Have a look for a court buddy to give you confidence

4. Small claims is built for the avg person to use so dont worry about too much terminology etc.

 

Good luck

 

PS I'll bet they will still cave in just before the case reaches court so dont worry too much

[dolly]

Have you got a court date or have they just said that they will defend it? Have you been sent an allocation questionnaire? Just wondering as it is a little ambiguous. Thanks

[stephane]

Thanks for the reply,

 

They just sent the reply to the court stating that they would defend the claim, they have 28 days, it's the paper that says they want more time, instead of the 14 days given by the court.

 

That's all I received so far, no court date or allocation questionnaire.

[Bookworm]

The fact that they say they intend to defend does not mean that you'll end up in court.

 

In fact, I'm pretty sure that of all the people on this forum who have had the "we're going to defend" response, so far, not one of them has actually ended up in court.

 

Have a god read of the FAQs, step-by-step and other available info, you'll soon see why. No need to worry just yet.

[StudentInDebt]

stephane, I would suggest you look in the Lloyds TSB forum - there you can read about everyone who has issued a claim against Lloyds, received a defense and received a settlement.

[give_me_it_back]

Bookworm.. could you please look at this thread:

 

As far as I am aware, Manolo IS the first person to appear in court.. I would really like some advice (on Manolo's thread), and I know she would too.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/scotland/13879-i-am-going-court.html

 

OP - I honestly wouldn't worry too much. This is standard response stuff, and, as I say, I THINK that it has only happened once... Have a good trawl through the threads in the bank section - they will certainly put your mind at ease.

[stephane]

I just received a letter from the court saying Lloyds has filed a defence.

 

The defence letter is standard stuff and not personal at all.

 

"the customer agreed to a contract",

 

"charges are clearly indicated in their guide to banking charges",

 

"there is no breach of contract, charges are therefore not a penalty" (maybe this one is difficult to refute?),

 

"the customer is given advance warnings" (false, there was no way to remedy rejected direct debits,

 

"charges are fair and reasonable and it is denied they are unlawful."

 

So as we see, they deny my claim entirely. What should I do now? I have two weeks to fill in a questionnaire sent by the court and then I guess there will be a hearing.

 

Do you have any advice on what to base my defence to win the case?

 

Thanks for helping

[Janet-M]

This is a standard defence ,nothing new .Read the long threads that have been settled

 

"there is no breach of contract, charges are therefore not a penalty" (maybe this one is difficult to refute?),

This is called 'cloaking' and is well known to the court .Use the search (top, on blue bar ) and search for 'cloaking' and you will understand it.

 

It is highly unlikely that you will ever see a court room , as no one has yet , but you are right in being fully prepared .Read in the libary about preparing for court

 

Also read how to fill in the questionaire ,it is very very important that you fully understand everything so you must read around and learn .It would be easy for someone to spoon feed you the information but that is not in anyones best interest as you need to understand everything.There is always a small possibility that this could end up in court anf if every question was just answered for you then you would then find yourself unstuck as you would not understand any of this.

[stephane]

I read your whole thread, nice one.

 

At the end however you say it is a bad idea to mark the letters "without prejudice". What does it imply? And also the solicitors letters always had "Without Prejudice Confidential and Privileged" what's the implication of these?

 

I'll send my allocation questionnaire tonight and see what happens.

 

Thanks.

[Bookworm]

Stephane, do a search for "without prejudice" so you understand the hows and whys.

[give_me_it_back]

Manolo has appeared in court, and now also kaiser_solsay. Please see thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/scotland/13879-i-am-going-court-6.html

 

These are both Scottish cases.

[stephane]

Oh well,

 

I sent back the questionnaire yesterday and today I received a letter from Lloyds lawyer asking me to pay for my overdraft (191£), which was obviously created by their charges and not by me using the money, otherwise they may start court proceedings against me on that.

 

No mention of the other case, of course...

 

Should I just ignore that letter? I am not sure how to handle that, I might as well pay for this so they stop buggin me with his (up to five calls a week by their recovery team).

 

What do you guys think?

 

Stephane

[Janet-M]

Write back officially telling them this amount is in dispute .If you use the search facility ( at the top on blue bar ) then you will find what others have wrote

 

also search on harrassment , so you can get it stopped .

[stephane]

Hi All,

 

I have not heard from Lloyds' sollicitors at all until now, I still got a couple of calls for the overdraft issues from their debt collections department but nothing too harassing.

 

I am going to gourt in 3 weeks from now, I am getting prepared for that, do you have any advice on what I should do?

 

I thought of gathering all my documentation, sending it to the court and to their sollicitors and say that I plan to use all of that in court.

 

Can you think of something else?

 

Thanks

 

Stephane

[Bookworm]

Well, what do the court directions say?