Claims over £5000

Are you in Northern Ireland then? The maximum in English and Welsh court claims is £5,000. Interest does not count towards the total of your claim I believe.

Martin advises to cut claims which are close to the £5,000 mark down to that amount, however, people have successfuly filed a claim over and above that sum. Read this thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=309301

@Iaidoman - Martin's advice about reducing your claim a little isn't exactly incorrect, I just disagree as I and most other's do not think there is any need for you to do this.

There's have been very well documented claims for more than £5k which were sucessful.

Yes, because it is over £5k, the case could not be heard within the small claims track, hence costs are a real possibility (i.e in the HIGHLY unlikely event that it gets to a court hearing and you lose, you'd have to pay the bank's costs, which could be sizeable. However, even if that was the case, the judge would still need to award the bank the costs, and that might not happen.).

HOWEVER because your claim is over £5k, in my opinion, the bank is EVEN MORE LIKELY TO SETTLE OUT OF COURT[/b] as in the small claims track, no legal precedents can be set, however, this is not true for the multi track and the fast track.

What I mean is, if a bank lets a case get as far as a court hearing in the small claims track and they lose (which has happened on more than one occasion, although not many, because hardly any of the cases have ever got that far), then no legal precedent is set (i.e the judgement forms no statue in law, and other's can't make the judgement of your case the basis of their legal action). However, legal precedents can be set in the other tracks, hence I believe the banks are must more likely to settle out of court.

It's your call at the end of the day, but I think you might benefit for some of the more "specialised" advice (as Martin put's it) or the "expert advice " (as I put it) that can be found over at https://www.ConsumerActionGroup.co.uk , particularly their forums.

Best of luck with your claim, and i hope this info helps!

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Hi

It's important to note you don't need to decide which court to approach at the moment - just write the letters and get your claim in. Hopefully you'll get a full offer from the banks and the Court process won't be necessary.

UKMonkey - i think you misinterpreted my quotes.

"Small claims in England and Wales are cases under £5,000, that’s before any statutory interest is added. Try to keep claims below this if possible, either by making separate claim for each different account with the same bank, or if you're just a few hundred above the limit you may want to consider lowering the asking amount down to £5,000 (even if your earlier letters demanded more) to minimise the risk.

Yet even if your claim is much bigger for just one account, and you're not eligible for the small claims system, don't let this unduly put you off. No one has lost yet, you can still go for it, though if this concerns you, you may want to consider seeking legal help. (see later). "

In this case as the claim is over £700 more than the limit, if I were in that positon I would try for the whole amount. As it says above - its only where its up to a few hundred that I would consider the prudency of the option not to lower the claim.

Iaidoman, ultimately though you must decide what you feel most comfortable with. It's important you weight up the facts.

The real key is everyone must weigh up the odds of potential outcomes and make the decision based on the facts and what you feel most comfortable with. While I would say 'go for it' you need to be comfortable with your decision for yourself

Wishing you the best

Martin

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!!HOLD THE FRONT PAGE!!

I agree! :-)

At least you didn't say the same as you did on the last Tonight show that you did about bank charges. Although fair enough, you said it was because of editing that you "seemed" to tell the guy claiming £7k or whatever it was that he "had to" reduce his claim. I accept that this is not how you meant it to be broadcast (shoot the editing team!)


@The OP, don't let the costs thing put you off, it's nothing to worry about just yet, just get on with sending the letters like Martin says.

Yes threaten court action and take court action after the 14 days.

The claim will be fast tracked but really the banks are more scared of this than you should be. Use the N1 claim form to file manually and include full information rather than using moneyclaim.

If you lose (extremely unlikely unless you make a major !!!! up) you may be liable for limited costs but thats really the only downside...

have a read about in the cprs re fast track claiming http://www.dca.gov.uk/civil/procrules_fin/contents/parts/part28.htm