ACS:Law copyright file sharing claims, Gallant Macmillan - and probably some others along the way...

[babybear39]

Anyone receiving such advice from the SRA should make a very strong formal complaint!

[piglette]

I contacted SRA on Friday to complain about ACS, they took all my details and told me not to pay anything to them and certainly to ignore any further correspondence from them (even if the Big Brown envelope arrives through the door!).

 

I would have thought it was not a good idea to ignore the big brown envelope, I wonder why she suggested this. Her Majesty's Courts Service have a leaflet "A claim has been made against me - What should I do?" at

 

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/news/forms/docs/ex303_0406.pdf

 

They say " Do not ignore it - act quickly. You have only a limited time in which to reply to the claim. If you do nothing, it could result in judgment being entered against you without further notice....."

 

What will happen if I do nothing?

"Judgment may be entered against you. This means that you will be ordered to pay the amount of the claim (or an amount to be decided by the court) and costs. The court will send you a copy of the order saying how much you owe......"

 

If you defend the claim which I assume most people will, "The claimant must respond within 28 days of receiving the court’s notice of your defence."

 

Also if it does go to court and the claim is less than £5,000 and so is considered a small claim HMCS say that there is no need to have a solicitor although you can take a spouse or friend along to the court, if you want someone to talk on your behalf.

Edited September 13, 2009 by piglette
typo

[piglette]

Just a thought, perhaps the SRA lady was saying don't reply to any correspondence from ACS, she was not saying don't reply to a court claim, as the big brown envelope would not come from ACS, but the County Court.

[Honda67]

Thanks for the 1st class replies. I actually asked the nice lady what I should do if I get court proceedings through the post and she replied just ignore them! Maybe because of the amount of complaints she has dealt with she was just giving a standard reply to all correspondence and didn't really absorb what I was saying (unless I was talking to a tape recording lol). Anyway again many thanks again to the CAG site A1, I will contact SRA again this week to clarify their position on the "Big Brown Envelope"

[car2403]

Thanks for the 1st class replies. I actually asked the nice lady what I should do if I get court proceedings through the post and she replied just ignore them! Maybe because of the amount of complaints she has dealt with she was just giving a standard reply to all correspondence and didn't really absorb what I was saying (unless I was talking to a tape recording lol). Anyway again many thanks again to the CAG site A1, I will contact SRA again this week to clarify their position on the "Big Brown Envelope"

 

Maybe she works for ACS on the side? Or has shares in 'em!

 

DO NOT IGNORE A COURT CLAIM

 

[Huff&Puff]

I hope somebody can get a recording of that "advice". Because I think there are a lot of people around here who wouldn't mind seeing the SRA gone, and replaced by a body that might actually do some regulating once in a while

[the_shadow]

Just a thought, perhaps the SRA lady was saying don't reply to any correspondence from ACS, she was not saying don't reply to a court claim, as the big brown envelope would not come from ACS, but the County Court.

 

I dont think thats strictly true, a court claim can be Returned to the claimant for serving on the defendant if memory serves me correct. It has to have a court stamp on it but it doesnt have to be sent by the court.

 

Not sure what there usual method is but just wanted to state all correspondence needs looking at... despite who sent it.

 

S.

[piglette]

I was just referring to the HMCS booklet ex302 which says

 

"The court will send the claim form and the response pack to the defendant by first class post."

 

So I assumed this would be the normal case.

[car2403]

They would, presumably, be using the Production Centre at Northampton - if that's the case, then the Court pack will likely come from there. (No point using the Production Centre if you're going to serve documents yourself?)

 

On the other hand, it is possible these come from ACS direct, depending on what their processes are.

 

Considering they are bleating on about the number they have to complete, I can't see them doing this themselves?

[Ladydevimon]

This morning my mum got the first letter from ACS that she was supposed to have recieved, do you think she should respond again or wait for a 3rd letter:confused:

[babybear39]

Your mum should respond with an LOD ASAP.

[Ladydevimon]

she did reply to the 2nd letter stating that she never recieved the first one, and denying the allegations at the same time, and now this ACS has sent out the first one, with a load of other mumbo jumbo to do with ip addresses and such, so she should still reply to that one as well?

[babybear39]

Yes. So she can show a court, if it ever gets that far, that she has been communicating reasonably with ACS.

[Nikkinooch]

well I am still waiting to receive my 3rd letter from them but in all honesty I am getting so fed up of it all now and I would prefer that they find the stone they were under and return to it again or send me that brown envelope and let me meet this man face to face!!!

 

I received my 1st letter the same time as dark_trooper (the person on here that has received 'the brown envelope'. I am accused at file sharing the same file (scooter) at around the same time in 2008 ...... so I'm now wondering 'why dark_trooper and not me????'

 

I wonder what Mr Crossley's selection process is??

[babybear39]

Pin the tail on the donkey

[Huff&Puff]

So far ACS hve shown the absolutely identical methods of the Debt Collection industry. They occasionally try it on with court as well, but why they select one person and not another is a bit of a mystery. It may be that they are doing something like checking the land registry to try and find out who has property, and so possibly money. Or it might be completely random.

 

However they select the cases, I have a suspicion that the only ones that get proceeded with are the undefended ones

[babybear39]

They're behaving like DL.

[mr.ton]

Like i said in an earlier post, there is no difference between ACS & your average run of the mill DCA.....

[car2403]

So far ACS hve shown the absolutely identical methods of the Debt Collection industry. They occasionally try it on with court as well, but why they select one person and not another is a bit of a mystery. It may be that they are doing something like checking the land registry to try and find out who has property, and so possibly money. Or it might be completely random.

 

However they select the cases, I have a suspicion that the only ones that get proceeded with are the undefended ones

 

The difference being that such search could be deemed illegal as there is no relationship between ACS and the alledged offenders.

 

At least a DCA could claim an exception if they think they are chasing a legitimate debt - IMHO that option isn't open for ACS in this instance.

[mr.ton]

I agree with Huff & Puffs comments....

ACS would have to do their homework on the person they are sending a letter out to surely?

I mean...if they send a letter out to someone who is unemployed, then they have next to no chance of obtaining any monies out of that person no matter how many times they take the person to court.

At very max, they'd be lucky to receive £1 per month back in return.

[T5 boy]

Has anyone found the number for the people Dr Dolittle quoted as i can't find anything relating to this authority on google!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

phone the scottish or english regulation authority or email them,google there number and they will take all your details like me as they are going to do one big case on them cos theres thousands got same letter lately and the regulation people say there letter is illegal and then phone the ACS:LAW and tell them you have done this and say you will get an IT professional to check your hardrive and ACS will have the bill sent to them and they will back down straight away.

[penumbra]

Has anyone found the number for the people Dr Dolittle quoted as i can't find anything relating to this authority on google!!!!!!

 

I think he means the solicitors regulation authority (SRA).

[x_leannec]

Hi guys.

 

It's taken me about a week to read this thread from page 1 and I've just finished.

 

I too was in the same position as many of you, received a letter in November 2008 from Davenport Lyons with about a million pages explaining and that I should pay £509.98.

 

HOWEVER, I DID DOWNLOAD SAID SCOOTER ALBUM.

 

I spoke to a lawyer friend of mine and he wrote me a letter saying that I should offer £20 in a cheque and nothing more as that's all the damages would have been worth.

 

I sent that letter about a week after I got it and it wasn't til I got home from holiday in April 2009 to a lovely letter from DL saying they wouldn't accept it and that I've got 21 days to pay it.

 

Never responded and got a letter a few weeks ago from ACS Law saying that I have 7 days to pay the same amount or it's going to court and I'd have to pay over £1000. I managed to speak to someone on the phone number provided and was able to knock it down to £350 if I paid it all in one go or £100 a month to pay the full amount.

 

I have paid this amount as I did download the album, but after reading this thread I'm thinking should I have paid it? And would there be any way to claim it back?

[Huff&Puff]

I have paid this amount as I did download the album, but after reading this thread I'm thinking should I have paid it? And would there be any way to claim it back?

 

Frankly I think you'd have a job. You'd have to take them through the small claims court, which is easy enough. But quite what you'd put in the particulars of claim, I'm not sure. That you were conned into paying a great deal more than their actual losses, something along those lines, I suppose.

 

You might do better to start a new thread in the Legal section, and see what the legal eagles think.

[piglette]

I have just stumbled across something rather strange. I was looking up compromise agreements and stumbled across a website called ukcompromiseagreements.co.uk. Strangely enough the company who seems to own this webiste is ACS Law based at 18 Hanover Square, London!!! A little more research shows that the domain name was purchased by a Terence Tsang from Quorn and was purchased on 25 July 2009. Perhaps ACS Law is now becoming compromise agreement specialists, as well as offering their expertise in intellectual property rights.