Court Action -Dodgy accident claim touts

[newton]

Can somebody help with advice on defending this claim for a lady who is at her wits end and never received a penny in damages

 

Briefly

 

 

The claim is for unpaid legal costs incurred in respect of a claim for personal injury, etc sustained in a road traffic accident (RTA)

 

Claimant states briefly

 

A "retainer" was agreed with the claimant to pursue a a claim for personal injury due to RTA in early 2005

 

Claimant took all neccesary step[s to pursue claim in accordance with agreement[/color]

 

Total costs outstanding are £1755.62 incl £793~ legal charges £535~medical charges cost £430~ insurance premium

 

Defendant failed to comply with terms and conditions of agreement which states that the claimant is entiteld to immediate payment of costs and disbursements

 

Plus interest of approx ~ £16 + 8% untill judgement

 

****************************************

 

I have helped them out so far by

 

1. Writing to the claimants requesting a full copy of the agreements etc, i was sent partial copies and observed on these partial copies that there were anomalies with signatures etc Ie the signatures were not the defendants but the person whosoever was writing out the claim form.

 

2 The junior legal reps statement that he explained things to the defendant in person - Contested because the defendant has never met the legal rep or any other legal advisor, hence the anomaly with the signature which looks to be copied but on inspection tallies with the remainder of the writing in the particulars of the claim.

 

3 They replied by asking for evidence of identity before releasing any copies of correspondence etc which belies the fact that they should allready have had that before taking instructions from any person, they were given the offer of attendance with the required documentation but they failed to respond

 

4 Next step has been the receipt of the above claim from the county courts

 

In response to this i have returned the acknowledgement of service as defending all of the claim

 

How do i

 

1 Get all the file of papers from them

2 dispute the validity of the signed agreements

3 contest this in court

 

HELP

 

I have been informed that this was a half baked accident claim by a "get rich quick" accident claim tout followed through with a firm of "get rich quick" solicitors each of whom have not bothered to properly go through the full details or when they have encountered difficulties to investigate their own process and failings

 

The accident tout has shut up shop and vanished along with all the evidence and papers that were given to him,

 

The firm of original solicitors have been swallowed up by a seemingly larger and larger consortium with what appears to be unscrupilous behaviour backed by significant resources

 

HELP

Edited December 14, 2008 by newton

[creditcardmug]

At the very least you will need to post up the Particulars of Claim, also what is the date on the claim? what date did you acknowledge service?

 

Dont include anything which may identify you

[Goldlady]

I presume you never got as far as getting any damages for your accident.

[newton]

At the very least you will need to post up the Particulars of Claim, also what is the date on the claim? what date did you acknowledge service?

 

Dont include anything which may identify you

 

Hi thanks for you reply

 

I have sent back the acknowledgement of service and that the claim is to be defended and it is well within the 14day time frame for responding,

[newton]

I presume you never got as far as getting any damages for your accident.

 

Hi thanks for your reply I am not the claimant or defendant but doing my good samaritan bit, helping out.

 

The lady who is the defendant did not receive any damages,

 

I have amended my original post now to make this clear

[newton]

Any help and advice appreciated

 

thanks

[Goldlady]

Has the lady got any of the original paperwork/client care letter etc? Most of these claims touts offer a no-win no fee arrangement. Should she have received damages in her opinion, and was it due to their incompetence that she did not?

[newton]

Has the lady got any of the original paperwork/client care letter etc? Most of these claims touts offer a no-win no fee arrangement. Should she have received damages in her opinion, and was it due to their incompetence that she did not?

 

She should have received compensation but due to her personal issues including learning difficulties she kept on relying on the accident claim tout and gave him all copies of letters and replies etc

 

It appears the claim tout promised to take care of everything. It appears this also included signing of forms and representing her at the solicitors whom he appointed

 

Unfortunately the tout due to his own business problems was not much interested in resolving her issues and he eventually wound his business down but during the course of this he binned more or less all of her documentation including responses etc

 

So in answer it is yes, she did not receive compensation due to incompetence,

 

It seems as though the incomptence lies with the claims tout, she realises now that the solicitor was actually paying the claim tout a fee for the claim and of this she had no knowledge, she also had no knowledge of having to pay costs because it was explained to her by the tout, (not the solicitor) that there would be no win no fee

 

I have offered to go to court and gather information pointers to help her present these points but .....

 

.......How to explain all of this in open court with out the judge dismissing at as inadmissable or not relevant due to the solicitors relying on points of law to not even allow the evidence and hence get automatic judgement against her, she is petrified of court and would need my asisstance/assurance that things could only get better not much worse

[postggj]

she must have signed some sort of contract with this tout

do you have it

if not, you need to request a copy

if they dont have it, could be game over

[newton]

she must have signed some sort of contract with this tout

do you have it

if not, you need to request a copy

if they dont have it, could be game over

 

There is a couple of partial contracts and documentations i have managed to obtain

 

The signature on some of these papers are NOT hers but the signature of the person completing the documentation

 

what do you think of getting some handwriting analysis done and that if it suggest like it does to me deception, its quite powerfull stuff it highlights an unhealthy greed relationship between the tout and the solicitor

[postggj]

is her signature on the agreement or just the tout

[Goldlady]

We had an issue with some solicitors a few years ago. They tried to sue the OH who had spoken to them about rent arrears on his grandparents former home, however they had been appointed by the estate agent responsible for collecting the rent and not by my OH. So when we asked them for a copy of the client care letter confirming that OH had appointed them they went away and we never heard from them again.

 

The upshot being that if she did not appoint the solicitor herself she can tell them to get lost. They should be able to supply her with a copy of the client care letter and if not they have no right to issue proceedings.

 

Even if they have complied with that formality, I think that the fact that her claim never progressed through no fault of her own is enough of a defence. The whole saga needs to be told in the defence and hopefully they will back off, but if not the court should be sympathetic.

 

I presume it is too late to pursue the claim now.

[newton]

is her signature on the agreement or just the tout

 

It is somebody else who has signed her name, her signature has been copied but the letters and writing is done slightly but noticaeably differant