Spurs 1981 vs Lloyds

[spurs1981]

Hi there

 

I have been allocated a court date by Chester County Court on 4th July 2007 and I am representing my father in law. So far I have not had to produce an allocation questionnaire or any other documentation, and as the date is getting closer I am now wondering what the next step is?

 

My latest notification from the court states:

 

"The judge has considered the statements of case and allocation questionnaires filed and allocated the claim to the small claims track...Each party shall deliver to every other party and to the court office copies of all documents (including any experts' report) on which he intends to rely on in the hearing no later than 14 days before the hearing. The original documents should be brought to the hearing "

 

I have seen a number of threads regarding looking for settlement and was considering whether I should push for a settlement sooner rather than later?

 

I would appreciate advice on:

 

1. What to do in terms of formal next steps with the court / preparation

2. What options could there be in terms of getting to a settlement?

 

Thanks

 

Spurs 1981

[GuidoT]

See here, you need to prepare a bundle.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/lloyds-bank/82148-got-court-date-important.html

 

Not much you can really do regarding settlement, Lloyds settle in their own time.

 

Give us some more background relating to your claim, did you use the particulars of claim from this site, values etc....

[spurs1981]

Basically I followed the process using all the templates from moneysavingexpert.com

 

After filing the online claim I got notification that Lloyds were defending the case and in the same letter a statement from the court saying: "the filing of an allocation questionnaire be dispensed with in this case unless the District Judge at the court of transfer orders otherwise"

 

I don't think he has ordered otherwise, since he has simply set a court date...

 

I have all the statements and am claiming £1500 plus interest so just over £2000 total. All the charges relate to unauthorised overdraft fees and returned direct debit fees.

[spurs1981]

Received letter from [problem] offering to enter into settlement negotiation which is great news, although it came too late in the day to avoid putting together the court bundle which was sent off today.

 

Have also sent letter to [problem] saying that we are happy to enter settlement negotiation as long as for the full amount!

 

We shall see what happens.

[GuidoT]

This is a bit odd for SCM, they usually do not ask, they just make an offer, usually a full one excluding CI and pre 6 years claims. It seems a bit pointless.

 

Can you post up the exact wording of the SCM letter please.

 

I would not have sent a letter back saying yes to negotiation, as long as for the full amount - this is a contradiction, there is no negotiating on your part here.

[spurs1981]

The lettter states:

 

We have been instructed to write to you as our Client is, entirely on a without prejudice basis and with no admission whatsoever to liability, minded to enter into settlement negotiations with you but before doing so, we are told there appears to be a discrepancy in what you are seeking by way of a refund of bank charges.

 

We note from your pleadings that you are claiming (alleging) that various deductions were made from your account over the past few years, but you do not specifically say when and how.

 

In light of this, can you please provide us with the following information by return:

 

1. Each and every individual amount of the charge that you are claiming and are disputing

2. The date of each and every charge that you say was deducted from your account

3. How you calculate any interest

4. How you calculuate the sum of £2020.18

5. Confirm your sort code and bank account details

 

We would be grateful if you could respond within 14 days so that we can take our Client's further instructions. Yours, etc...

 

Now I assume because we did not require an allocation questionnaire, the reason they are asking for this detail is that they have not been passed all the information from Lloyds, which I provided with the initial letters I sent threatening court action.

 

I have sent the detail, including all statements and my response is as follows:

 

With regard to your instruction to enter into settlement, as per our initial correspondence I would like to re-emphasise that our claim is for repayment of ALL charges, plus interest, in addition to the court fees that have been incurred. If your client agrees to repay these charges then we shall consider this full and final settlement. This will be on a without prejudice basis and with no admission whatsoever to liability from your client. We will consider the case closed and instruct all pending court action to be cancelled.

 

I look forward to agreement of these terms from your client within the next 7 days in order that we have sufficient time to alert Chester County Court and avoid any further unneccesary waste of time and resources for all parties.

 

The interest calculation I have stated as follows:

 

interest has been accrued at a daily rate if 0.021% (or 8% APR, the statutory rate).

[GuidoT]

You are required to issue these details to the court and SCM after you file you claim. If you have not done so, do so immediately.

 

Why have you said this?

'This will be on a without prejudice basis and with no admission whatsoever to liability from your client.'

 

I presume you filed on line, therefore send 2 copies of your schedule of charges, clearly marked with your claim no. and a brief covering letter asking for them to be filed with your claim to:

 

The Court Manager,

Chester

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

(Your Name) –v- (Bank)

Claim No: ********

Date Issued: xx/xx/xx

 

Please find enclosed a schedule of penalty charges taken from me by the defendant, along with interest claimed at the annual rate of 8% pursuant to section 69 of the County Court Act. The interest in addition to the amount in charges equates to the total amount of my claim, namely £(AMOUNT).

 

I respectfully request that the enclosed schedule should be attached to the particulars of my claim.

Yours faithfully

 

Wait until you receive the Notice of Acknowledgement (not the Notice of Issue) from the court and then send a copy to the bank’s solicitors, since they are the ones who will now be dealing with your claim

 

Dear Sir,

 

(Your Name) -v- (Bank)

Claim No: ********

Date Issued: xx/xx/xx

 

 

Please find enclosed a copy of my schedule of charges relating to the above claim.

Yours faithfully

[spurs1981]

Hi

 

Sorry if I'm being daft but all this was put into my court bundle. Do I need to send this again?

[livelylad]

I would ring them and tell them that they have the information as it is contained in their court bundle. You can however tell them you will fax the information they require to them. They are trying to settle so its in your interest to provide the information to them.

[spurs1981]

Just to clarify, the court should already have the schedule of charges as they were contained in my bundle which they would have received on Weds 20th June.

 

[problem] should now have the schedule of charges because they also will have received my bundle on Weds 20th and on the same date they would have had a direct response regarding their desire to settle which also contained the schedule of charges.

 

I can't need to send any more details to anyone, surely since all parties have had all the details on Weds 20th?

[livelylad]

ok but they are quite inept, so I would just inform them that they have the information already. It can do no harm.

[spurs1981]

The court date is on Weds 4th July. I have not yet heard anything back from [problem] in terms of a settlement offer.

 

Should I contact them again, and by phone?

 

I am prepared to go to court but would rather not simply because I don't have a huge amount of time!

[livelylad]

Yes contact them again.

[spurs1981]

thanks i will phone them on monday morning

[GuidoT]

Be prepared to be fobbed off, or even abused, but do not rise to it.

 

They are usually really awful on the phone.

[spurs1981]

I phoned this morning to find out the status of the claim and was told by the lady on the phone that she could see that they had sent a letter out on the 9th of June but not much else.

 

I explained I had replied to them on 19th June with all the information they had requested. All they had to say was "we are probably waiting for our clients' instructions and that you should assume that you will go to court". I thought it was a bit strange that they hadn't any record of my reply (which was sent registered).

 

Anyway, I then phoned my father in law (who I am representing) to tell him to get ready for court and he told me he'd received a phone call from [problem] asking for his bank account details.

 

He told them that I had sent them all the information before, but it all sounds like the left arm doesn't know what the right one is doing.

 

I have no idea what to expect next, but am assuming I will need to trek up to Chester County Court. If we do not settle tomorrow and Lloyds do not send anyone to court, I assume we go through the whole procedure...

 

Any support or advice as we get closer to D-Day would be greatly appreciated, I've got all my arguments together but all help welcome.

[GuidoT]

Ensure you check the account balance tomorrow and on the days of the hearing, they sometimes just drop the money in without notice.

 

Anyway, in case you have missed these:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/guidance-notes/641-case-guidance-notes-going.html

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/guidance-notes/637-case-guidance-notes-bringing.html

[spurs1981]

We won the case. Lloyds decided not to contest, and from the correspondence I have received it looks as if they have changed solicitors.

 

We were in the room for less than 2 minutes.

 

Despite this, I am pleased I did the prep because it gave me great confidence in our case, and I would advise anyone else to do the same.

 

Perfect preparation prevents poor performance as they say - we got what we prepared for - a win!

 

Thanks for your help guys.

[GuidoT]

Unusual who were the solicitors changed to?

 

Nice work, let us know when you receive the money and we will get your thread title changed.

[BARTY]

Well done!! :D

Barty:)

[spurs1981]

They were changed to Martineau Johnson, based in New Bridge Street, London and they were instructed on 3rd July - the day before the hearing!

[GuidoT]

Strange they were SCM's predecessors I think.

[nicsussex]

They were indeed - must be getting busy on the LTSB Business reclaims - sure that SC&M could do with some help as well.

[spurs1981]

The money has been paid in and we have now received a letter saying that "they have reviewed our account and are unable to continue to offer banking facilities to us"

 

I did read a while ago that someone took the banks to task on this as well, is it worth it?