Fredrikkson & now Carter's**Court Papers Issued**

[banff2007]

OK just rung, received both AQ's & it's been reffered to the judge for his directions.

[DonkeyB]

Sorry, I meant to ask just what the status was, as you’d received no directions of a notice of an allocation hearing. If there is an allocation hearing (or even without one) I’d be surprised if the judge does not stay the case pending an instruction to mediate, as you have requested it.

 

What are the claimants’ draft directions?

 

In the meantime, I would suggest you consider a without prejudice letter with a full and final offer. Look at all the interest charged since the account was defaulted, as well as those costs, and maybe suggest a figure and a timescale to pay it. This may well result in a consent order, but you would have to be absolutely sure you can afford the repayments or they would then be simply able to go back to court for judgment if you defaulted.

 

Did you receive a proper default notice? What you posted is NOT a DN and this is vital to their current action.

 

Glad you do want to pay – it’s the right way, but negotiate all you can as they have, to an extent, been unreasonable – especially in employing a terminal idiot like Carter to litigate. At least they saw the error of their ways.

[banff2007]

OK faxing this to Cap1 this afternoon, hopefully it will buy me a bit more time with them,

 

I am writing to you in reference to the above claim number, & to respond to your deadline of Thursday the 07th of April to contact you about the claim.

I to do not wish to waste any of the courts time & wish to settle the claim without the intervention of HMCS, however I am not in a financial position at this present time to settle the claim in full, I am however fully prepared to negotiate with yourselves a mutually agreeable settlement, I have indicated on my AQ to the court that I wish to use the mediation service offered, however I would rather not waste their time & wish to come to an agreement with yourselves about a settlement & a reasonable timescale in which to pay. Unfortunately I am unable to offer you any figures at present but will do so by Friday the 15th of April when I have assessed my finances in greater detail.

I look forward to your response in this matter,

[DonkeyB]

Make sure you mark it ‘without prejudice’. Unless, of course, you WANT to show it to the judge!

[banff2007]

OK latest update I added "without prejudice" to my letter & low & behold an income & expenditure form was posted out to me, just filling it in now however should I include a cover letter stating that all disclosed infomation is to be reguarded as "without prejudice" again? Also a bit miffed that they want my partners income included, the I&E form for the court made no mention of her income! Should I fill that bit in after all it's not her debt.

 

Many thanks,

 

B.

[sillygirl1]

Tell them to get lost with the I&E, the debt is yours, not your partners and therefore their form is incorrect. You need to STOP putting Without Prejudice on the letters, that way any dirty stuff they try HAS to be part of the court documents and not kept 'secret' outside.

 

The way you are going seems to be heading towards a Tomlin Order (IMHO).

[DonkeyB]

They can’t make you complete an I&E form. They are basically stating you do it our way and we’ll decide what you pay.

 

That is not negotiation, which is what you have offered.

 

In response you should set out your offer of monthly payments in return. Set yourself a figure that you believe you reasonably owe, shorn of unfair charges and interest. Make it an amount you are sure you can afford, and offer no more. All the better if the amount falls in line with what you discover after completing the I&E, as an exercise – because if they then try for court they will get shafted for costs if you have made a reasonable offer and they have declined it.

 

You are correct, your other half’s income has nothing at all to do with this. Again, only a court could order it to be taken into consideration.

 

Have a look through this thread where andyorch has created an excellent format for a possible consent order. This is the track I believe you should be following.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?278267-Bryan-Carter-Capital-One-and-A-County-Court-Claim&p=3368630#post3368630

[DonkeyB]

Without prejudice letters will possibly become admissible if the claimant is NOT attempting to negotiate. Was their response marked WP? The point of WP is that any admissions or concessions made by you are not generally admissible in court. In short, you could admit the debt but question the amount in WP negotiations. This is to protect you.

[banff2007]

Their response: Thanks for your fax of todays date:

 

Please find enclosed an I&E form for you to fill in & return to us at the address above, please ignore section 8 of the form as this will not be relevant to your cicumstances.

 

We look forward to hearing from you by Friday 15th April, if we do not hear from you, we will file an application with th court to strike out your defence &/or obtain summary judgement. We are likely to instruct a Barrister to attend the hearing of the application & will seek costs & Counsel's costs from you in addition to the outstanding sums due.

 

No menion of WP

[DonkeyB]

This is clearly not an effort an proper negotiation. Simply write back with your reasonable offer and see what they come up with. Keep it WP for now, so they can’t use it against you. You can however use their letters!

[banff2007]

OK just a rough idea then of how much a resonable offer should be please? The amount owed is just over 10000 what could I realisticly offer, theres 276 of charges to come off & I'm really not sure on the interest they do not seem to have been adding it since the default. I think I can afford around 150 to 175 a month.

 

B.

[DonkeyB]

Do the I&E as an exercise and see what it says!

[banff2007]

OK going to send this off to Cap1 & see what comes back, is the wording OK does anything need to be added or deleted,

Many thanks, B.

“Without Prejudice”

I am writing to you if reference to the above claim number, & to respond to your letter dated Thursday the 07th of April.

With your letter you enclosed an income & expenditure form which you asked me to complete & return to you by Friday the 15th of April. In my fax dated the 07th of April I stated that “I am fully prepared to negotiate with yourselves a mutually agreeable settlement”.

The inclusion by you of an income & expenditure form is not negotiation; the amount owed is owed by me alone & not my partner therefore the income & expenditure form is irrelevant to my circumstances & is clearly not an effort by yourselves to properly negotiate a mutually agreeable settlement.

The amount owed to yourselves is £10xxx.

The statements that you enclosed with your letter dated the 23rd of March indicate a total of £276 in charges, the account should be shorn of all such charges & any interest accrued on these charges.

Therefore I believe a figure of £9000 to be a more accurate reflection of the amount owed, & I therefore propose the following.

A monthly repayment of £150, to be paid on or before the xxth of each month commencing on the xxth of xx 2011 until the balance is paid in full.

I look forward to your response in this matter,

[sillygirl1]

Drop the Without Prejudice as it is getting you nowhere, it is NOT needed during a negotiation, that is very very misleading. Without Prejudice, as I stated earlier means it CANNOT be shown in court, you WANT to show that you have been negotiating.

 

Your letter is very wordy, you need to keep it short and sweet and give them no room to 'interpret'. I would suggest

 

Please find my reply to your letter and I&E Form of..... I am unable to complete my partners details as we do not operate a joint account. This debt is solely in my name and their income is irrelevant and cannot be relied upon to continue indefinately.

 

However, should you remove the £260 of charges you indicate then I would be in a better position to come to a mutually agreeable arrangement.

 

Please let me know that the charges ARE being removed.

 

Many thanks

[sillygirl1]

DonkeyB with respect this is Cap1 we are dealing with, and Fredricksons (and we all know who their sidekicks are operating out of the same building...) Cap1 are very disorganised and generally play silly idiots when you start doing Without Prejudice.... I've even had a very short Without Prejudice letter from them asking me to confirm my address details!!!!

[banff2007]

OK Cap1 have now removed all charges on a without admission of liabillity basis, leaving the oustanding balance due & owing. They also state that as we have now made this refund to your account, you must agree that continuing to defend the claim against you is clearly a waste of court time & cost. We therefore invite you to discontinue your defence & repay your outstanding balance & the costs we have incurred to date. This should aviod further costs being incurred & the courts time being wasted in progressing a claim that has been defended without merit. Kindly complete the I&E form which we enclosed with our previous letter. Any ideas for a reply?---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Court directions are: Standard disclousure of documents by 17th May, Written notice of inspection by the 24th May, Witness statements by the 28th June, Pre trial check by the 02nd August

[sillygirl1]

Correct me if I am wrong but surely as THEY bought this action THEY are the ones who need to discontinue.....