Court Imminent

[momma]

I have a small claim - the hearing is in less than two weeks.

 

it is against a global company who have made no effort to settle. It is 10 months since I started my complaint with them and ultimately started court action.

 

They even refused to take part in the free mediation.

 

Now, less than two weeks before the hearing date they have handed the case over to solicitors by the name of SCS Law ( I thought SCS sold settees LOL)

 

Trying to do research on this company it appears they bully people over parking tickets - so not sure how good they are.

 

Anyway, this morning I get a letter telling me that I have no chance of winning and if I proceed to the hearing they will use this letter? to ask the judge to award substantial costs agains me.

 

Any advice would be helpful, or are they just trying to frighten me into not going ahead with the case?

 

To my mind, I have put a lot of work into this and would rather take my chance.

 

PS: Who ever heard of a global company not having their own solicitors but outsource it to someone who charges £300 to go to court for you??

[honeybee13]

Hi.

 

I would say they want to frighten you. Others who know more will be along later to advise.

 

Do you have another thread about this?

 

HB

[BazzaS]

Small claims track means the costs (even if you lose) are strictly limited, so there won’t be a “substantial” costs order.

[BankFodder]

Please will you give us the details of the case.

 

We need to see a copy of your claim in PDF format – you can redact it for identifiers. We also need to see a copy of the defence – once again redacted for identifiers.

 

Unless you give us details, really we have nothing to go on in order to be able to give you any advice.

 

In terms of who ever heard of a global company blah blah? It happens lots of times. Even the major banks et cetera outsource their work to specialist firms of solicitors.

[momma]

My reply has disappeared.

 

Start again. Thanks to all the replies. I really have two questions.

 

1: has anyone any info on this company who appear to deal mainly with parking tickets - try to frighten people into paying before it is clear that an offence has taken place. So why would such a massive company use small fry solicitors.

 

2: Is it normal practice for any solicitor to tell the claimant to drop the case or they will ask the judge to award substantial costs against the claimant. My understanding is the limit is £260?

 

I cannot put up the claim as it goes into around 16 pages. The defence was even longer. It is impossible to make it impersonal.

 

The judge ordered the defendant to go away and write a proper defence - one that members of the public could actually understand. This is when they got SCS involved when they had a 48 hour deadline last week.

 

I assume that they are trying to frighten me into dropping the case ,which I don't actually understand why. If I have no case it is simple. I lose.

 

Perhaps they finally realise that I will win and by now using solicitors at the final hour they will scare me off.

Edited May 2, 2018 by momma
addition

[SuperVillain]

2: Is it normal practice for any solicitor to tell the claimant to drop the case or they will ask the judge to award substantial costs against the claimant. My understanding is the limit is £260?

 

I've done it and I've had it done to me too. They'll quote CPR 27.14(2)(g) and suggest that your conduct is unreasonable.

 

From my own experience it seems to be a very high bar to get over (a Claimant flat out refusing to engage in any settlement discussions is apparently not unreasonable conduct) so unless you have done something outrageous there's nothing to worry about.

 

However we can't answer whether or not you've done anything outrageous. You haven't provided the details of your case as requested by Bankfodder.

 

If, for example, you've started a case which is an abuse of process or has no cause of action (and therefore a zero chance of succeeding) then a harsh Judge may consider that unreasonable and award the Defendant costs.

 

With the information you've given we can't say.

[momma]

I've done it and I've had it done to me too. They'll quote CPR 27.14(2)(g) and suggest that your conduct is unreasonable.

 

From my own experience it seems to be a very high bar to get over (a Claimant flat out refusing to engage in any settlement discussions is apparently not unreasonable conduct) so unless you have done something outrageous there's nothing to worry about.

 

However we can't answer whether or not you've done anything outrageous. You haven't provided the details of your case as requested by Bankfodder.

 

If, for example, you've started a case which is an abuse of process or has no cause of action (and therefore a zero chance of succeeding) then a harsh Judge may consider that unreasonable and award the Defendant costs.

 

With the information you've given we can't say.

 

Do you mean, the defendant flat out refusing to engage or mediate a settlement?

 

And no, I don't think I have done anything outrageous, so I will just have to take my chance in court.

[BankFodder]

It happens very often for solicitors when dealing with a litigant in person to try and frighten them with the threat of costs. If you have received a letter which does this then it is potentially abusive of the court process – in my view.

 

However, you've given us no detail. We don't even know the value of the claim or the basis on which you are bringing it and so it really is very difficult for us to continue to give you any kind of realistic advice.

 

If you want help – then you need to help yourself – need to come up with the information we need. Don't make it tough for us simply because the advice we are giving is free

[Ethel Street]

 

PS: Who ever heard of a global company not having their own solicitors but outsource it to someone who charges £300 to go to court for you??

 

Just on your PS, it's common in my experience. It's because large companies often have in-house legal departments but none of its staff solicitors are litigators, especially for contested litigation where they need to appear in court. In-house will do the legal groundwork, evidence gathering, assessing the case, giving legal advice to management on it, but when it comes to appearing in court they pass the litigation work out to external law firms. They don't necessarily pay £300 an hour though! They may well have them on a retainer and pay much less for the actual courtroom work, especially for small claims track litigation.

[momma]

It happens very often for solicitors when dealing with a litigant in person to try and frighten them with the threat of costs. If you have received a letter which does this then it is potentially abusive of the court process – in my view.

 

However, you've given us no detail. We don't even know the value of the claim or the basis on which you are bringing it and so it really is very difficult for us to continue to give you any kind of realistic advice.

 

If you want help – then you need to help yourself – need to come up with the information we need. Don't make it tough for us simply because the advice we are giving is free

 

I am not trying to be difficult, but to post on here the claim and defence would be impossible to redact the identity of each party. There is sensitive information contained therein.

 

I appreciate your help so far. It has allowed me to gather my thoughts and realise that I am in fact being intimidated somewhat to not go ahead with the hearing.

 

No chance that I would give in at this point. Only the judge can decide if my case has merit. One the case is over - or in the off chance they decide to compromise an acceptable settlement, I will happily reveal the case and outcome. The cost of the claim is just over £3000.

[BankFodder]

Well you are quite wrong not to give the details. We don't need any skulduggery here. As long as you are honest and straight dealing then there is no advantage to be gained by concealing it from the other side. Leave those secret squirrel tricks to them.

 

Anyway, if he £3000 and it is allocated a small claim track then there is almost no risk at all of being saddled with their costs. As I have already said, if you have a letter from them which threatens that then produce it to the judge and say to the judge that you think you are being bullied simply because you are a litigant in person. I think the judge may well decide to make a comment about it.

 

Once again, even if you do want to post the documents, you should give us an idea of what it is about. Apart from anything else it will help you – and also it will help others who might be faced with the same problem in dealing with the same people.

 

You've been here since 2014. You should know the way we work

[honeybee13]

Momma. you can post up documents here anonymously here if you read our upload guide.

 

HB

[AndyOrch]

So is it this one.......

 

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?471022-Small-Claims-Hearing-How-to-Reply-to-Defense

 

Or this one ......

 

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?481817-Suing-nationwide-for-failure-to-action-section-75-refund

 

 

Andy