Bryan Carter - advice needed asap please

[Annubis]

Hi, I have received a county court claim form from a Bryan Carter claiming I owe monies. The form is signed by Bryan Carter in the form of Text ONLY.

 

It also said I agreed to pay monthly installments and failed to do so - I have never ever agreed to pay monthly installments to Bryan Carter or any related company as I am going to have to go bankrupt.

 

I am severely disabled and have to spend my life in bed and not able to deal with this situation, let alone appear in court.

 

I have read some posts on here which advise to fill in the "acknowledgment of service' and then ask BC to send proof of payment plan (which he can't because there isn't one.)

 

!. Should I also request he sends me the original CCA (its for Egg apparently) while asking him to show proof as I only have so many days?

 

2. What is the "acknowledgment of service" and is this enough to send along with a letter to BC re proof and CCA, or do I also have to send a defense in and what kind of things are considered "defense?"

 

Please help me make the first steps, I do not know which way to turn. Thanks in advance.

[fuzzybobble]

The Aknowledgement of service you should send to the court, not to Bryan Carter. If you send them to BC then the court will not get them and BC will win by default.

 

For Bryan you need to send a CPR request for the documents to support your defence. Ie CCA, Notice of Assignment, Statement of account, Default Notice, Termination Notice, proof you agreed to a repayment plan, etc.

 

Is this the first letter you've had from Bryan Carter or Frederickson International regarding this, or did he just hit you with a court claim without finding out if they have the right person first?

 

For filling in the AS forms, someone with more knowhow on this will be sure to reply with the info you need.

 

Bryan Carter is well known here and quite a few know how to get rid of him and his abuse of the court process. Once he realises you know your rights are are defending his claim, he'll discontinue and you can go for a wasted costs order against him.

[themagician]

yes cpr him quoting cpr 31.14,you must then inform the courts that you are still waiting for carter to reply to your legal requirment yo supply all the listed documents to be used in your defence.

then you must go for all your costs,see letter.

 

I came across a post by x20 on this, but cant find it again, however, i saved some of it,

 

I have prepared a draft bill of costs for detailed assessment and draft notice of commencement. Both are attached in pdf format.

 

In drawing the bill I have tried to keep it as uncomplicated as possible whilst seeking to demonstrate how to maximise the amount which might be allowed. The documents may be of general application in litigation to include for example, dealing with a costs claim after successfully obtaining an order setting aside a Statutory Demand, after making all such necessary modifications to suit.

 

The bill begins with a narrative dealing with the nature of the case and the complexity of it as I imagined it may have appeared to the LiP. My imagination should not be treated as a statement of how the complexity in truth appeared to the LiP.

 

Next is a chronological statement of the steps taken in the case as they will appear on the court file. I have not bothered to go through the entire thread to establish what occurred on what day. The LiP will have to do that.

 

I have included provision for time spent which has been charged at an hourly rate of £9.25 in accordance with The Litigants in Person (Costs and Expenses) Act 1975. I can not stress enough that where time is included this is only a statement of time for the purpose of demonstrating how the figures would appear in the bill. My statement of time is not an estimate of time. Only the LiP can say how much time was spent and my statement of time may be an under- statement or an over-statement, I would not know.

 

It is worth pointing out however that the court will recognise that a LiP will most likely spend more time in a case than a solicitor. The relevant Rule is CPR 48.6 with guidance appearing in The Supreme Court Costs Office Guide (COG) Practice Direction at CPR PD 48 COG 22.4 and .5.

 

The question for the Judge considering the bill is if this case had been conducted by a solicitor, what would that solicitor’s reasonable total charge have been for doing that work? Having arrived at that hypothetical figure, the costs judge will assess the bill but disallow whatever the total bill comes to from exceeding two-thirds of the hypothetical figure.

 

It seems to me the hypothetical solicitor may have spent say 6 hours dealing with all the work set out in the bill from beginning to end. At an average charge of £150.00 per hour, that produces a hypothetical figure of £900.00. In other words therefore, if the Judge held my view about what the hypothetical solicitor may have charged, the amount to be allowed to the LiP ought not to exceed £600.00. As you will see, my draft works out at £573.50.

 

What to do Next

Complete the bill adapting the narrative to your personal experience in terms of actual work done and actual time spent. Feel free to add to it where I have not imagined work which you actually did. Insert the dates and sign and date the bill.

 

Next complete Form N252 available from the HMCS website here.

 

You will ned to complete the court and party details in the box on the RHS.

 

The draft N242 I have completed gives the position as if my figures were used. Where the total used in the bill is to be different, put that figure in the first figure box where N252 says: ‘The bill totals £xxx.xx’. (figure [1])

 

Next, add £300.00 to figure [1] and put whatever this figure in the next box where N252 says:

the full amount payable (including the assessment fee) will be £xxx.xx). (figure [2]).

 

Next insert a date in the box before which is written: ‘You must serve your points of dispute by’. This date will be a date being not less than 21 days after the date on which your opponent receives the bill and the N252. In practice, add 25 days to the date on which you post the bill out to your opponent. If that date should fall on a Saturday or Sunday, insert the date for the following Monday.

 

Next fill out the box which provides a name and address at which the opposition may deliver any response to the bill of costs. The response will be entitled ‘Points of Dispute’. I don’t imagine one will arrive and if one does, how to deal with it will be dealt with in a later advice.

 

Next, leave the box beginning: ‘I certify that I have also served’ blank

 

Next, at the very end of the bill is a third figure box before which is written ‘If I have not received your points of dispute by the above date, I will ask the court to issue a default costs certificate

for the full amount of my bill (see above*) plus fixed costs and court fee in the total amount of £’ . In this box take the figure [1] and add £45.00 to it. This is the figure which goes in this box (figure [3]).

 

Print the N252 off, sign and date it.

 

Next, send the bill and the N252 off to the opposition’s solicitor.

 

After Having Sent the Bill and N252.

Make a note when the 25 days will be up.

 

I would expect the opposition to make contact with you in an attempt to settle the question of your costs. So as to avoid hassle and heartache, I would be prepared to settle at anything which came to about one third rather than two thirds of the hypothetical solicitor’s bill. On my example, that would be around £300.00 plus the court fee. You may want to settle at something less just to be shot of it.

 

If any offer comes in which is wildly below £300.00 post to this site for advice. I would imagine the opposition will be very keen to settle since objecting will tie them into expense they will wish to avoid and any savings will soon be wiped out by employing a solicitor to deal with the objections.

 

When the cheque comes in, make a donation to CAG.

 

If you have not heard from the opposition by when the 25 days are up you will be entitled to apply to the court for a default costs certificate. When that moment arrives, post here.

 

Any queries, just ask.

 

x20

 

 

B E T W E E N:

Claimant

-and-

Defendant

DEFENDANT’S BILL OF COSTS

After Service of the Claimant’s Notice of Discontinuance.

Costs Payable by the Claimant

CPR 38.6 and CPR 44.12(1)(d)

2

The Claimant commenced proceedings in relation to an agreement regulated under The

Consumer Credit Act 1974. The Claimant was the assignee of a judgment obtained by the

original creditor to the agreement in the Shoreditch county court in 1993. The proceedings

constituted relitigation and were an abuse of process. The proceedings were defended and

the Defendant applied to the court for an order that the proceedings be struck out.

On (date) the Claimant served Notice of Discontinuance of the whole of its claim.

At all times the Defendant was a Litigant in Person within the meaning of Litigants in Person

(Costs and Expenses) Act 1975 and time spent by the Defendant is charged herein at an

hourly rate of £9.25.

The nature of the case being one of relitigation required the Defendant to spend time in

locating and examining the documents and other papers which related to the proceedings of

1993 which had been begun by the original creditor and in considering the way in which the

1993 proceedings affected the proceedings begun by the Claimant.

The Defendant was obliged to spend time in considering and understanding numerous strands

of law including the law of consumer credit, the law of limitation and practice and procedure in

the county court which he achieved through internet and library research.

The Defendant was obliged to spend time in drawing his defence and application to strike out

in a way which complied with the relevant rules and practice directions of the CPR. The

Defendant was further obliged to consider the Notice of Discontinuance and its effect upon the

litigation and his consequential rights and obligations to include his rights and obligations upon

the matter of costs and the relevant rules and practice directions of the CPR in reference to

the detailed assessments of costs as applied to Litigants in Person.

The following is a statement of the work done in the course of the proceedings. Where there is

a charge for time spent, the amount of time recorded as spent represents the Defendants fair

estimate of the amount of time spent by him

Claimed (£)

1 Date

Particulars of claim

2 Date

Acknowledgement of Service

3 Date

Defence

3

4 Date

Defendant's Notice of Application

to strike out

PAID: court Fee £75.00

5 Date

Claimant's Notice of Discontinuance

6 Date

Hearing of Defendnt's application (vacated)

7 Work Done

Receiving and considering the Claim Form and Particulars of

Claim (3 hrs) £27.75

Searching for and locating the papers and other documents

relating to the 1993 proceedings (4 hrs) £37.00

Acknowledgement of Service (1 hrs) £9.25

Research regarding consumer credit law, law of limitation

law regarding relitigation (15 hrs) £138.75

Preparing Defence (4 hrs) £37.00

Preparing application notice (4 hrs) £37.00

Receiving and considering Notice of Discontinuance (1 hr) £9.25

Research regarding CPR 38.6 and CPR 44.12 (10 hrs) £92.50

Research regarding detailed assessment proceedings

and Litigants in Person (Costs and Expenses) Act 1975 (10 hrs) £92.50

Preparing bill of costs and notice of commencement of

costs proceedings (6 hrs) £55.50

time spent in telephone calls, letters and emails

written and received (4 hrs) £37.00

Summary

Costs payable by the Claimant £573.50

Disbursements (court fee) £75.00

Total costs payable by the Defendant £648.50

Dated:

Signed:

 

 

 

Notice of commencement of

assessment of bill of costs

Signed Date

(Claimant)(Defendant)(’s solicitor)

To the claimant(defendant)

Following an (insert name of document eg. order, judgment) dated

(copy attached) I have prepared my Bill of Costs for assessment. The Bill totals *£ If you choose to

dispute this bill and your objections are not upheld at the assessment hearing, the full amount payable (including the

assessment fee) will be £ (together with interest (see note below)). I shall also seek the costs of the

assessment hearing

Your points of dispute must include

• details of the items in the bill of costs which are disputed

• concise details of the nature and grounds of the dispute for each item and, if you seek a reduction in

those items, suggest, where practicable, a reduced figure

You must serve your points of dispute by (insert date 21 days from the date of service

of this notice) on me at:- (give full name and address for service including any DX number or reference)

You must also serve copies of your points of dispute on all other parties to the assessment identified below (you do not

need to serve your points of dispute on the court).

If I have not received your points of dispute by the above date, I will ask the court to issue a default costs certificate

for the full amount of my bill (see above*) plus fixed costs and court fee in the total amount of £

I certify that I have also served the following person(s) with a copy of this notice and my Bill of Costs:- (give details of

persons served)

(include Ref.)

(include Ref.)

when carter receives this the little sh*t will discontinue,but you must still go to court so the judge may award costs.

But be very careful carter will say he,s discontinuing only he just may turn up in court so gets a judgement by default.

be one step ahead i was and beat him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with costs.

[Annubis]

Cross posted, will edit when I have fully read the second response.

 

EDIT:

 

Thank you both for taking the time to respond - I appreciate it

 

I have had letters from Frederickson whom I notified I was going bankrupt and thus saving for it, and then heard nothing for a good while and this came out of the blue. While I do owe some money, costs have been added by BC and the amount is not the same as what I have.

 

1. Can I still defend if it is the case that I owe some

2. Do I need to pay for a CPR request, and if so, who do I pay? I am presuming BC will need to supply all the paperwork I request?

3. How do I notify the court that I am awaiting paperwork requested, do I just ring them?

4. The letter you have written above magician, do I also send this at the initial point or send it after the requests for paperwork? Am I still able to do it even though I may owe some of the money?

 

5. Is there a standard letter I can send him requesting this paperwork - ie, what do you mean by " cpr him quoting cpr 31.14"

 

6. As I intend going bankrupt very soon, do I need to notify BC and the court of this? Will going BR stop all this?

 

Thanks, its all new to me sorry

Edited July 26, 2010 by Annubis

[Annubis]

Hi, if anyone else can answer some of the above I would be extremely grateful, I have to get the ball rolling tomorrow at the latest thanks!

[Undercover-Elsa]

Hi Annubis,

Welcome to CAG!

I'm so sorry to hear of your problems.

It's all very daunting at first but you'll get lots of help and support every step of the way on here.

Good posts above, but don't worry about the costs yet..that comes later.

One step at a time.....!!!

 

Assuming this has come from Northhampton County Court, the very first thing you need to do is acknowledge the claim online asap and state that you will be defending the claim in full. You need to do everything within the stated time limits or you run the risk of BC sneaking in a judgement by default, without you realising.

 

Next, you need to send the CPR request. This is a request under Civil Procedure Rules. Depending what you require and the stage the case is at there are different numbered rules.

Your first request is under CPR 31.14 and is for all the documents referred to in the POC (Particulars of Claim)

 

We'll help you with this, but first we need a little more info:

 

1.Can you copy on to here the exact particulars of claim from the left hand box of the claim form (less any identifying account numbers etc).

 

2. Did you receive a Default Notice for this account (a letter headed "Important, you should read this carefully...DEFAULT NOTICE issued..etc etc)".

If so, what was the date on the notice (DN for short) and what date was given to remedy the default?

 

3. Have you ever sent a CCA request (formal request for copy of agreement under Section 77/78 Consumer Credit Act 1974) to Egg in the past? Did they respond?

 

4. Is it a loan or credit card debt?

 

5. What year was the loan/card taken out and when, roughly did you last make a payment or acknowledgement of the debt in writing?

 

6. Do Egg still own the debt? (The claimant's name and address should be on the claim form..Carter will presumably just be acting as Solicitor)

 

7. Did Carter send you a letter warning of the impending claim, headed "Letter Before Action" ?

 

So, to recap, all you need to do for now is acknowledge the claim online, as above, then once we know more about the case we'll draft a CPR request for you to send Carter.

 

In the meantime, some essential reading for you, to explain the process:

 

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legal-issues/241827-legal-action-how-start.html

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legal-issues/159445-getting-them-reveal-their.html

 

 

Anything else you're unsure of, just shout

 

Elsa x

Edited July 27, 2010 by Undercover-Elsa
clarity

[Undercover-Elsa]

PS.. there's no fee for the CPR request x

[Annubis]

Hi Elsa, thank you so much for your response. I will try to answer your questions.

 

1. The left hand box says:

 

THE CLAIMANTS CLAIM IS FOR THE BALANCE DUE UNDER AN AGREEMENT WHICH IS NOW DUE AND PAYABLE. THE DEFENDANT AGREED TO PAY MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS UNDER ACCOUNT NUMBER XXXX BUT HAS FAILED TO DO SO.

 

AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS THE SUM OF XXXX

 

THE CLAIMANT ALSO CLAIMS INTEREST THEREON PURSUANT TO S.69 COUNTY COURT ACT 1984 LIMITED TO ONE YEAR TO THE DATE HEREOF AT THE RATE OF 8 PERCENT PER ANNUM AMOUNTING TO 0.00

 

Bryan Carter is authorised to sign, but its not a signature, its just his name typed.

 

Egg Banking is listed as the claimant and this is for Credit card.

 

Bryan Carter has added charges on to the amount but these do not appear in that column, but in a column on the right hand side.

 

However, this does not seem right to me as I am sure the debt was sold on to Frederickson International (which is an arm of Bryan Carter right?)

 

2. I am not 100 percent sure, the problem is with me being sick all the time and in constant pain it is extremely difficult for me to keep up with things.

 

3. No, never.

 

4. Credit Card

 

5. I think the card was taken out around 14 years ago, and the last acknowledgement was about 2 years ago when I was paying through DMP but advised to go bankrupt - since then I informed them and have been saving.

 

6. It states Egg as the claimant, but I am sure that Frederickson took it over, so not sure why he lists them when it is infact, himself claiming.

 

7. No letter was headed "letter Before Action" I just got a letter 48 hours before this one, no heading, stating we have now issued litigation against you.

 

I will go and acknowledge now, thanks for your time in this, I really do appreciate it as it is very hard for me to keep up with things as I get exhaustion with the pain and so sleep on and off all the time and so not able to deal with such day to day issues with regularity.

[Undercover-Elsa]

If the card was taken out so long ago the chances of them being able to produce a signed agreement are slim.

Fingers crossed.

I'll have a stab at the CPR request letter for you later today, unless other Caggers knowledgeable in Court procedure come up with one first..

[citizenB]

As a claim form has been issued - I have moved this thread to the legal issues forum

[Annubis]

Thank you both of you. Just another question sorry, I am acknowledging the claim online and it asks me

 

"You can choose to contest jurisdiction of the claim made against you"

 

Should I do this?

[count orlok]

Have you looked into getting a Debt Relief Order? If you don't own your house and have debts below £15,000 it is a far cheaper alternative to BR. It is designed for people who do not work or have very low incomes and little or no assets.

[count orlok]

Thank you both of you. Just another question sorry, I am acknowledging the claim online and it asks me

 

"You can choose to contest jurisdiction of the claim made against you"

 

Should I do this?

 

Yes.

 

That way it would be moved to a court close to you. Would you be able to get to a local court? Not sure of the situation if you were unable to leave your home.

 

Carter is relying on you not contesting in order to get judgement by default.

[Annubis]

Thanks Count.

 

I found out about a DRO yesterday, unfortunately, I am just outside the 15k limit

[Annubis]

Wait, when you say about location, this is what it states:

 

"If you intend to contest jurisdiction this means that you believe that the court does not have authority to decide the outcome of the claim issued against you. 'Jurisdiction' does not relate to the geographical location of the court."

 

Are you sure this means it will be handled by a court local to myself as they say it has nothing to do with location of the court?

[count orlok]

Wait, when you say about location, this is what it states:

 

"If you intend to contest jurisdiction this means that you believe that the court does not have authority to decide the outcome of the claim issued against you. 'Jurisdiction' does not relate to the geographical location of the court."

 

Are you sure this means it will be handled by a court local to myself as they say it has nothing to do with location of the court?

 

My bad, i don't think you need to dispute that. You do need to get it moved to a court near you though.

Edited July 27, 2010 by count orlok

[count orlok]

Thanks Count.

 

I found out about a DRO yesterday, unfortunately, I am just outside the 15k limit

 

I know the feeling. I'll be paying a pound to each of my creditors for well over 600 years, chances are I'll still be in debt when I die

[Annubis]

My bad, i don't think you need to dispute that.

 

Ok, thank you. I need to get this right. Does this mean I will need to travel to Northampton? This is so not possible for me - how do I get it to a local court?

[Undercover-Elsa]

Hi Annubis,

No, you won't have to travel to Northampton. As you are disputing the whole amount it will automatically be transferred to your local county court.

 

Elsa x

[Undercover-Elsa]

What we hope to do though is throw everything at them so that they discontinue.

[Undercover-Elsa]

I've got to nip out, if no one's come up with the CPR request letter by the time I get back I'll have a go..

[Annubis]

Thank you Elsa, you have been a real great help along with others, I shall look forward to your draft

[Undercover-Elsa]

Just doing it...Is the claim over £5000 Annubis?

[Annubis]

Hi Elsa,

 

No its not, its for just under £4k and thanks again

[Undercover-Elsa]

Just thinking out loud as I go along..the agreement to pay monthly instalments to which Carter refers in the POC are presumably the ORIGINAL terms in relation to the credit card prior to default.