Court pending

[Rugsby]

Hi, I am pursuing £4400 from HSBC, I turned down a £2900 offer. Their offer and my court action over lapped and HSBC now say they will talk only through their solicitor. I have today been advised by cout of hearing date through small claims track. Questionair dispenced with, hearing scheduled for 10minutes. HSBC defence seems standard- their charges reasonable- I knew about them at start of our relationship 20plus years ago. What should I make of the 10 minute time estimate? Of the questionair dispensed with? Not yet having any further contact with Solicitors?

[jowalshy]

what sort of hearing have you been given. Could you possible post exactly what it says on the notification from your court about your hearing. Bear in mind that DG will almost definately apply for a stay against your claim (this means it will be put on hold until the result of the OFT -v- Banks case) we will cross that bridge when you come to it.

[Rugsby]

As I said,'small claims track (Hearing)' 'allocation questionnaires dispensed with'

[jowalshy]

Are there any directions on your notification? ie do you have to supply any paperwork/evidence to DG and the court within a time scale?

[Rugsby]

No, just "The hearing will take place date and time and address. ....and should take no longer than 10 minutes"

[jowalshy]

what date have you been given ,if you don't mind me asking, which court? Due to the recent OFT deciding to go for a test case regarding penalty charges with a few banks, you might want to give your court a ring in the morning in order to see of your claim has been stayed (put on hold pending the outcome of the test case)

[Rugsby]

It does add - "original documents shall be brought to the hearing"

[Rugsby]

Southport County Court, November

[jowalshy]

give them a ring next week and ask about whether they are staying all the bank cases.

[Rugsby]

The notes at the bottom of the form imply I must attend or default the case. Surely they would advise it was just an adjurnment hearing, and not require all the origional docs?

[jowalshy]

As your claim is not until November, you will probably get in the post a letter from DG (HSBC's solicitors) stating that they are going to apply for a stay to your claim. If you do, you have to check with your court as to whether they will allow this stay of proceedings. As for the hearing, if it goes ahead, then yes you will have to attend and yes you will have to provide a bundle (original documents like bank statements, letters sent and letters received, schedule of your charges and many other things). But first we have to check whether the court date will still go ahead.

[Rugsby]

Ok, thanks for your replies. Regards

[lateralus]

what jo is saying is things are moving quickly just now - on 26 july - the oft announced a test case with agreement of the major banks -

the master of the rolls has asked the local judges to go on a case by case basis as far as stays - the banks are asking for stays on ALL cases regardless of how far along they are -

we are trying to keep up - but each local court is approaching it differently - some are staying all cases - some are dealing on a case by case basis - even though they have scheduled an allocation or prelim hearing - dg will be along shortly to ask for a stay - then we just don't know until it happens whether the local court will apply it or not - so it's very much a wait and see. best info so far on southport is that it is still unclear how they will progress