dbmbawswlb v lloyds ***WON***

[matmondez]

You have also calmed me down as well Garry thanks.

 

 

I will also keep both of ya posted on my developments.

[dbmbawswlb]

Hi all

 

Further to the General Form of Judgment or Order . . .

 

I spoke to the Court yesterday. Apparently a change in Court procedures was put in place in Aug this year to allow telephone conferencing to try and cut down on people not being able to attend preliminary hearings and generally speed up the process.

 

So my date of 28.03.07 is only for a prelim hearing!!

 

Furthermore the Court has made a mistake on my letter. As I am a 'litigant in person' and Lloyds are being 'represented' it is S,C & M's responsibility to arrange the conference - all I have to do is provide them with a telephone number which they can reach me on at that particular time.

 

I can request that the prelim hearing be carried out 'face to face' but this will cost me a non-refundable £35. Court said I can do this no later than 7 days before the hearing date. However, my letter says that if I want to apply to havethe Order 'set aside, varied or stayed' I must do it within 7 days of receipt of the order.

 

If I do request a 'face to face' it will not delay/change the time of the hearing.

 

Judge has allocated 5 minutes before the conference call to read over the documents he already has and 5 minutes for the actual call. Court person seems to think that there is something in the forms the Judge already has that he needs 'clarification' on.

 

This is all VERY confusing - any thoughts gratefully accepted. I think whatever I decide to do it should be done within the next week so as not to miss deadline on the Order.

[matmondez]

Alright Mart,

 

I havn`t even got a court date yet, my patience is being tested.

There has been a few people on same timescale as us that have been settled.

Is it just that they can only settle so many a month i wonder, or are we just dammed unlucky.

[dbmbawswlb]

Hi All

 

Just a quick thought . . .

 

What's the difference between a 'preliminary' and an 'actual' hearing? Does everyone have a 'preliminary' hearing?

Should I have to wait 3 months just for a 'preliminary'???

Seem to remember reading on another thread about this being an infringement on my Human Rights? Has anyone else had any joy with this argument?

 

OK - so it wasn't just 'a' thought it was several . . . what can I say, I'm a little obssesed!!!

[GaryH]

Chill Darren...

 

This is good news, SC&M are now obliged to do all the running around and organising of the conference call. Which they won't - they will settle instead. For this reason there is no point asking for a prelim hearing instead of the prelim CC.

 

Write to SC&M reminding them of the order to arrange the conferance call and request that they contact you by return with their proposals for setting it up. Give them your phone number obviously. Copy the court with the letter as well. (It does'nt have to be anything fancy or long winded by the way)

 

A prelim hearing is just for the judge to narrow the issues, case management or decide on allocation, etc. Does'nt really matter TBH, SC&M won't turn up whether its the prelim or final hearing. I'd be very surprised if you did'nt get settled well before the date.

[dbmbawswlb]

Thanks (again!!) Gary

 

Will get the letter of to S,C&M tomorrow. Will keep all posted as to the progress.

 

Regards

Martin

[dbmbawswlb]

Just a quick update . . .

 

The Court, for reasons known to themselves, have now decided that the Preliminary Hearing will now be held in person on 28 March 2007.

 

10 minutes have been allocated for the hearing.

 

It's a marathon not a sprint!!

 

Martin.

[dbmbawswlb]

Hi Matt

 

Just caught up with your thread. Been a bit busy with the business lately!

 

Well nothing much happening on my journey at the moment.

 

Got 7 weeks to go before the preliminary hearing (whatever that's for??!!) - so just ticking off the days and watching the interest grow!

 

Will keep you all posted of developments.

 

Good luck everyone!!

 

Martin

[matmondez]

Hell Martin,

 

The timescale must be doing your head in thought mine was bad got a court date march 14thd doing court bundle monday to send tuesday lucky for me i have lots of spare time. Be glad when its over it is on my mind a lot to be honest. Booking another holiday upon settlement i suggest you reward yourself the same. Good luck mate.

 

 

 

Matt

[dbmbawswlb]

Hi Everyone

 

Prelim Hearing is on Wed 28 March 2007 so thought I'd just keep you all up to date.

 

Got pretty much everything I need - just putting finishing touches to it this weekend. Would be interested to hear from anyone that's done a Pre Lim with Lloyds recently?

 

Keep you all posted.

 

Martin

[GaryH]

Here you go Martin (you may have seen it already) - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/guidance-notes/64911-got-court-date-guide.html

 

There are a couple of links in that thread to threads of claimants who have attended prelims - Stan1 is one of them. He's very helpful and won't mind being contacted if you wanted to ask him anything.

[dbmbawswlb]

Hi Gary

 

Had a look at this before - very helpful thanks.

 

Martin

[dbmbawswlb]

Hi Everyone

 

We attended our Prelim Hearing today . . . here's how it went:

 

Had a bit of a late night last night. I was convinced that I would be asked a question I couldn't answer so I made sure I had all the information I could - Gary your links are amazing! - finally, it was all together in a lever-arch file and tabbed so I could find everything easily and quickly!!

 

Arrived in plenty of time for the hearing - we wanted to be as relaxed as possible. The Court staff were all very helpful and friendly - like they were just normal people!! (only joking if your reading!).

 

Due to the time we had on our hands, we managed to look at the Court lists for the day - plenty of banks names on there! We also over-heard a coversation with the Usher where she asked for 'boxes' for the Judge to look at as so many cases had been settled at the last minute they had nothing to do!

 

At the appointed time we were called through to see the Judge. I expected to see a bit of a pompous old fart, frankly (sorry if any judges are reading!) but I was surprised by a very polite, friendly man. He invited us into the room and asked us to take a seat.

 

After this happened he explained that he had received a letter from S,C&M yesterday explaining that a payment for the full amount claimed would be credited to our bank account within 5 working days.

 

He then composed an 'order' detailing that everything that had been promised must happen by the dates stated. If it didn't this could be turned into a Judgement so we could send the Bailiffs in to collect our money if necessary.

 

We then had a 20 minute or so conversation (our Pre Lim was only scheduled for 10 mins!) about how many such cases he was seeing; how much of a waste of court time this was; how he was currently in a Judges internet forum discussing this very topic; etc etc

 

His feeling was that banks would eventually be forced to pay back the difference between an acceptable charge (for example the Financial Ombudsmans charge of £12 from Credit Card Companies) and the actual amount charged. We also had a chat about the morality of financial institutions lending people up to £40k when they clearly would not be able to pay it back!

 

This Judge was very 'switched on' and 'in touch' with 'real life'.

 

All in all a very successful day - cheap plonk tonight better stuff when the monies in the account!!

 

We must take this opportunity to thank everyone on this amazing site that has helped us through this process, either directly or indirectly. In particular Gary and Barty - you are stars!

 

We will let you now when the money has been paid in. Our donation will be paid then.

 

If anyone is facing a Pre Lim or thinks we might be able to help on any topic please dont hesitate to get in touch.

 

Martin & Diana

[BARTY]

Hi

Great news! :D

Sounds like a very successful day, a brilliant read for anyone else facing a Prelim Hearing.

Enjoy your celebrations!

Barty:)

[GaryH]

Brilliant, well done mate thats great news!!!!!!!

[dbmbawswlb]

Hi Everyone

 

Just to let you know . . . THE MONEY IS IN OUR ACCOUNT!!!!

 

No letter from Lloyds or S,C&M so an unconditional win I think!

 

We will be transferring the money to our other account and, once cleared, will arrange for the donation. Please let us know how. And how to move this thread to the success folder.

 

Just to say again, such a massive thanks to everyone who has helped us directly (you know who you are!!) and indirectly - we couldn't have done it without you all!!

 

Will look in on you all every now and then so if we can be any help please ask!

 

Good Luck to you all!!

Martin & Diana

[nicsussex]

Congratulations - don't forget to inform the court that they have settled.

[John72]

Congratulations Martin and Diana! I'm a late subscriber to your thread so please forgive me if i'm asking some stupid questions at this stage, but can you let me know:

 

- did you claim interest as well as the charges and if so was it 8% or contractual interest?

- which Court was involved?

- the letter the Judge told you he had received from SC&M, was that copied to you at all?

- having read through other threads, the time taken to settle your case seems a little longer than the "average" - was it a particularly large or unusual claim?

 

Once again, please excuse me if i'm asking questions that should be obvious.

 

John

[dbmbawswlb]

Hi John

 

We claimed interest on the charges at the rate of 8%. We did not claim overdraft interest as this looked a little complicated: we were already paying overdraft interest to Lloyds at the time, so seperating the 'overdraft interest' from the 'charges interest' would have been time consuming and not worth a great deal anyway.

 

The case was dealt with at Stoke on Trent.

 

We have not seen the letter from S,C&M.

 

And we also think our case took a long time!! Not complicated or particularly large. Some mix ups by the court with our address but generally we just had a long wait for our Pre-Lim.

 

Please feel free to ask any further questions if you think we can help.

 

Martin