Alleycat v Barclays - Stay been ordered by judge

[Alleycat]

Hi all,

 

I went back through all my old statements dating from December 2002 and telephoned customer services to request copy statements dating from May 2000 to December 2002. Charged £5 and received today.

 

I've written my preliminary approach for repayment letter today to post this afternoon recorded signed for. Will wait with baited breath!

 

On the telephone I did just ask for a list of charges with notes of any manual intervention but got fobbed off with the statements. Had poorly bairn who chose that moment to wake up from her nap, so got a bit flustered. I hope this is okay?

 

Total amount claiming for from September 2001 to July 2005 is £630.

 

Alley

[Alleycat]

Update!!

 

Got a standard reply letter from Andrew Walton (cust relations advisor):-

 

"We are sorry you have had to contact us about the level of service you have received from Barclays. Thank you for taking the time and trouble to do so.

 

We are looking into your concerns and will let you have an answer or update as quickly as possible, but no later than 10 May 2006. In the meantime if you wish to discuss this matter further please call us on 0845 609 0806.

 

I have enclosed a leaflet explaining how Barclays works to resolve complaints. I hope you find this useful.

 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention." !!!!!!!

 

Well Mr Walton, I won't be waiting until the 10th May to have a response off you as I will be sending you a letter before action on the 21st April.

 

Regarding the offer of contacting them to discuss the matter, should I? I assume it is just put in there to be polite? Should I ring and advise them that I won't be waiting until the 10th May and when their deadline is or just leave it?

 

Thanks!

[Alleycat]

Apologies if this has been posted in the wrong place and has been asked before (looked high and low and couldn't find it!), but just a quick question regarding the litigation section.

 

Could anyone advise me what the difference is between cases that have been concluded and those that say settled? I am assuming that settled means the customer has been successful in claiming their charges back, but am stumped as to what concluded means.

 

Thanks!

[Bookworm]

No difference. Just different terms used to the same purpose.

[Alleycat]

Thanks! I was beginning to get worried seeing all those concluded cases!

[Alleycat]

Update:

 

LBA letter typed up, printed off and due to be sent recorded signed for tomorrow.

 

Looking forward to a response to this one!

[Tinkerbelle]

Good luck and keep us posted!

[Alleycat]

Letter received from Barclays yesterday apologising for the delay in replying (they had said they would get back to me by 10th May) saying that they are continuing their investigations and will contact me again by 8th June.

 

Although their 14 days post LBA are up, I am just waiting for some cash to file a claim against them. Should be able to do it next week I hope.

[Tinkerbelle]

Same here!!

 

Roll on Fri 19th.. I'll be lodging about 4 claims!

[Alleycat]

Received letter from Barclays today offering me £300 full and final as a gesture of goodwill. I'm going to cross off the full and final bit, sign it and send it back in their prepaid envelope. Do ya think I'll get it , hehe!!

[Alleycat]

Well I filed a claim on Tuesday for Barclays. Now I'll just have to wait and see what they decide to do, pretty sure what it will be, but you never know!

 

I've not sent back that letter yet as I need OH to scan it in for me, so will get that posted this weekend I think.

[Alleycat]

Blimey, Barclays are a bit quick! Filed my claim on the 18th, deemed to have been served on the 23rd (yesterday!) and received an acknowledgement of service in the post today!!

 

They have indicated that they intend to defend all of the claim and it is signed by Nicholas Hartigan yesterday. Now to await their defence, should be good for a laugh!! They have until the 20th June.

[Alleycat]

Received my Allocation Questionnaire on 21st June and was given until the 8th July to return it. Been on holiday and poorly so have sorted it out this evening.

 

It is pretty much word for word as most of the other recent defences, apart from section 1 which reads:-

 

"It is admitted that the Claimant has an account, number xxxxx, sort code xxxx. To the extent it is alleged that the Claimant incurred bank charges on her account for unauthorised borrowings (whether unpaid fees for returning cheques, paid referral fees or any other such fees), it is admitted that such charges were debited from the Claimants account however, the defendant puts the Claimant to strict proof of each charge and the date thereof."

 

 

In section G I have written the following:-

 

"As the Defendant puts me to strict proof of each charge and the date thereof, I have enclosed a list detailing this information of 1 page. If the Judge requires copy statements from Barclays, I am able to supply these also. Please note, this information was sent to me by Barclays in April 2006 (X pages [haven't counted them yet!]) when I telephoned to request a list of charges with notes of any manual intervention."

 

I will telephone Keith Jeremiah tomorrow to advise him that I will be submitting my questionnaire if we are unable to reach an agreeable conclusion using the wording from Section A as an introduction. I will mention at the start of the call that it is without prejudice. The reason I am going to do this is my partner has successfully negotiated with him recently and received settlement on his Monument claim, although the dialogue was instigated by My Jeremiah who telephoned him to ask him if he had any comments on the letter offering full settlement (his only concern was the confidentiality clause which Mr Jeremiah agreed could just be manually deleted from the form and returned signed).

 

If anyone is aware of anything else I should include in Section G, I would be grateful if you could let me know!!

 

Thanks!

[rosefinnan]

I wish you luck and am sure you will be ok - I am told they HAVE to reply - I have just printed off the request letter "list of charges" but am worried about ending up in court also

[Alleycat]

Pleeease don't worry Rosefinnan, there are zillions of us here to support you and IF it did go to court you can sign up for the buddying system!

[Alleycat]

Just to update, I got a form through from the Courts yesterday and they have ordered a stay on my case!!! They say it is to allow the Elliot vs Lloyds case to be heard but that was settled out of court several weeks ago now. Also they have ordered a stay to allow us to negotiate further and try to reach a settlement. I have already tried this and Barclays don't want to budge an inch!!

 

It seems though that I am not the only one who has had their case stayed pending the outcome of the Elliot case AFTER it has been settled, so its not just the judge in Bradford who is a bit slow on the uptake. Ah well, I shall ring the courts on Monday or take a wander down to find out what is going on and try and get it sorted out. I think I will give Keith Jeremiah a ring as well as we are being asked to try and settle the matter prior to court and see what he has to say. My OH successfully negotiated full settlement without any confidentiality clauses with him a few weeks ago, so I can always mention that (though doubt he will discuss it seeing as its not my case, data protection and all that).

[Rooster-UK]

Just to update, I got a form through from the Courts yesterday and they have ordered a stay on my case!!! They say it is to allow the Elliot vs Lloyds case to be heard but that was settled out of court several weeks ago now. Also they have ordered a stay to allow us to negotiate further and try to reach a settlement. I have already tried this and Barclays don't want to budge an inch!!

 

Moderators. What goes on ?

[barracad]

Moderators. What goes on ?

 

See the other half of Alleycat's post.

 

He/she's going to inform the court that the Elliot case has been settled.

 

That should hopefully sort it.

[Alleycat]

See the other half of Alleycat's post.

 

He/she's going to inform the court that the Elliot case has been settled.

 

That should hopefully sort it.

 

Hopefully!! Though the other guy who this has happened with that I know about has tried speaking to the courts with no success. See the end of this thread. Its in the Lloyds forum, but the bank is RBS. I've PM'ed him to find out what he is up to now, as Bankfodder who was providing advice is away until August. I will see what the courts have to say and reassess as necessary. If people could keep an eye on this thread on Monday just in case I need some advice on what to do next would be good!

[Alleycat]

Okay, so I phoned the Court this morning and was advised to write to the judge to request that the stay be removed. I will hand deliver my letter this afternoon to try and speed up the process. I have also telephoned Mr Jeremiah to request contact to try and negotiate an agreeable settlement. It went onto answermachine so i left a message. Wonder when he will call? I was feeling dead nervous when I was dialling and so was really disappointed that he did not answer. Now I will wait it out I guess. I have attached my letter that I have drafted partly using Bankfodder's wonderful letter. I have had to amend it a bit as it does not mention the fact that the Elliot case has been settled.

 

I am writing to you in relation to the letter I received dated 18th July 2006 in which you have ordered that my case with Barclays Bank Plc be stayed pending the decision in the Elliot v Lloyds TSB case which had been transferred to the Mercantile Court. You have also ordered that my claim be stayed until 14th September 2006 to enable both parties to attempt settlement.

 

I respectfully request that these stays be removed for two reasons.

 

Firstly, the case you have referred to was settled several weeks ago pre-Court with Lloyds TSB agreeing to pay the full outstanding amount to the Elliot family, therefore I believe it is no longer relevant to my case.

 

Secondly, whilst I will continue to attempt to reach an agreeable settlement with Barclays, I have so far been unsuccessful. I have made numerous attempts to enter into meaningful dialogue with the Bank who continue to refuse to negotiate. Whilst I have received an offer of partial settlement as a gesture of goodwill, there has been no admittance of liability or any offers of the full amount outstanding.

 

Further, I understand that there are many similar cases, litigating on the same issue of contractual penalties. However the Court may be unaware that not one of these has so far gone to a hearing. Whilst the Banks are filing defences, they are regularly settling pre-hearing. In many other cases, the defendant Banks are even receiving default judgements against them which are being set aside on application by the Bank and which are subsequently being settled prior to a Court hearing. In two cases, the Court has even ordered standard disclosure against the defendant Banks but those Banks have gone on to settle rather than reveal the details of its contractual penalties. I believe that I will not reach an adequate agreement with Barclays relating to this case until a date for a hearing is announced.

 

Also, every one of the cases settled so far has presented an opportunity to settle the common issue of contractual penalties. Despite their massive resources and access to high level expertise the defendants have declined to allow the issue to be decided. By agreeing to remove the stay and ordering a Court date, my case would also present another opportunity for the question to be definitively settled as should the defendants lose, they have the resources to continue the matter through the appeals process and through the Court hierarchy.

In the alternativeif the Court decides not to accede to my request to remove the stay I respectfully request that the court issues the following injunctions:

• That the defendant bank is prevented from applying further penalty charges to my account until the final settlement of the matter.
  
• That the defendant is prevented from applying interest charges to any outstanding amounts which are comprised of penalties until the settlement of the matter.
  
• That the defendant is prevented from closing my account.
  
• That the defendant is prevented from making any entry on its own systems or from communicating any similar information to any third party about any matter insofar as it relates to penalty charges until the final settlement of the matter.
  
• That the defendant remove any derogatory entry on its own records insofar as it relates to penalty charges. (The Court has the power to do this under the Data Protection Act 1998).
  
• That the defendant arranges the removal of entries from the records of any third parties to whom it has previously communicated information insofar as it relates to penalty charges. (The Court has the power to do this under the Data protection Act 1998).
  
• That these injunctions remain in place until the settlement of my claim.
  
• That should my claim proceed to a hearing that a decision should be made at the hearing as to whether these injunctions should be made permanent.
  
• That if the matter should not proceed to a hearing because the defendant decides to settle outside court, that these injunctions should become permanent.

Thank you for taking the time to consider the above requests and I look forward to hearing from the Court in due course.

 

 

 

What do people think?!

[Alleycat]

Well, I handed the letter into the Courts this afternoon, so shall wait with baited breath. There was no mention of having to pay £35 either, so I didn't bother. It may hold things up if they request it, but I can't afford to be offering it out if not necessary!!

[Bookworm]

Did the courts mention how long it might take to respond to your request?

[Alleycat]

5 to 10 days!

[Bookworm]

Not bad, not bad. I KNOW you will let us know as son as you hear!

[amulrooney]

Alleycat, thanks for the link to this thread. I'm going to use this letter also and send it 1st class recorded tomorrow.

 

I'll keep you posted.