Can anyone recommend a good BARRISTER?

TheRedAdmiral

I am dealing with a situation for a family member and am quite literally at the end of my tether with Lloyds TSB.

Basic Situation:

a) 2 Bank Accounts (2003-2008)
- Account 1 constantly in credit - £20,000 plus
- Account 2 used as a current account - accrued Bank Charges
- Apparently T&Cs allow bank to transfer but they chose not to
- Disputed Charges occurred as a result
- Total Charges in region of £4500
- Argument = In credit (across both accounts - why charge?)
- Snowball Argument
- In some years charges more than £500 per year

b) Moved Bank on 1.1.09. Remained £101 Overdrawn at LTSB
- From 1.1.09, LTSB account not being used, £100+ pcm charges
- Snowball Charges being applied.
- More than £500 per year for 2009

c) Complaints to Lloyds TSB
- They never deal with a Complaint
- They give you their holding letter
- But never actually deal with the situation
- Every complaint has received a seperate complaint ref
- circle continues

d) Complaints to FOS
- Confirmed receipt of correspondence in April
- Still not dealt with it
- Spoke to them 2 weeks ago
- They promised a reply two weeks ago still not received

e) Legal Stuff
- Account was opened by "former friend"
- Do not believe Application form was ever signed
- Account was opened over the phone "as a favour"
- Argument = Consumer Credit Act = Unenforceability?

f) LTSB Registered Default
- Despite ack account in dispute they registered Default
- Registered with all 3 agencies
- Breaches Banking Code of Practice - as a/c in dispute
- Argument = Possible Libelous registration???

You will appreciate the sort of situation that is being faced.

The person involved is more than happy to go the legal route and also to the Appellant Courts if necessary. They feel that strongly and feel some of the issues really need to be tested.

If anyone can offer any help/guidance/recommendations I would be grateful.

Whilst I know a lot of Personal Injury Barristers I do not know many who specialise in this areas

Regards

fimonkey

Sorry no one has replied, I often use the consumer action group website for advice on stuff like this, MSE tends not to stick its neck out by deleting posts with recommendations etc.. Good luck

dmg24

You do not need a barrister. If you wish to go down the legal route you would initially need a solicitor, who would then instruct a barrister if needed. However, I would be very confident of your case before instructing legal representation, the costs if you lose would be massive.

podperson

Basic Situation:

a) 2 Bank Accounts (2003-2008)
- Account 1 constantly in credit - £20,000 plus
- Account 2 used as a current account - accrued Bank Charges
- Apparently T&Cs allow bank to transfer but they chose not to
- Disputed Charges occurred as a result
- Total Charges in region of £4500
- Argument = In credit (across both accounts - why charge?)
- Snowball Argument
- In some years charges more than £500 per year

I would check the off-set rules very carefully on this. I believe it is only meant to be applied if an account is seen to be inactive with money owing. It is not meant to be used to manage two accounts with the same bank, ie if one account doesn't have enough to pay a direct debit it is not the banks responsibility to 'transfer' money from one of their other accounts. Yes it seems unfair but think you would very much struggle to prove it is illegal or that it breaches the contract terms.

b) Moved Bank on 1.1.09. Remained £101 Overdrawn at LTSB
- From 1.1.09, LTSB account not being used, £100+ pcm charges
- Snowball Charges being applied.
- More than £500 per year for 2009

Why were the charges added? Would have been the account holder's responsibility to keep the account in good order and therefore avoid charges. This seems to be a straightforward bank charges claim and courts are not accepting these since the High Court judgement last year. The only success with these at all at the moment is financial hardship claims and these are by no means guaranteed.

c) Complaints to Lloyds TSB
- They never deal with a Complaint
- They give you their holding letter
- But never actually deal with the situation
- Every complaint has received a seperate complaint ref
- circle continues

This is a complaint against a company and therefore needs to be dealt with fully via the internal complaint procedure and the financial bodies before a court will even consider looking at it (and don't really think they will do anything about a companies complaint procedure anyway!)

d) Complaints to FOS
- Confirmed receipt of correspondence in April
- Still not dealt with it
- Spoke to them 2 weeks ago
- They promised a reply two weeks ago still not received

Unfortunately they can be very slow, need to chase them up fully.

e) Legal Stuff
- Account was opened by "former friend"
- Do not believe Application form was ever signed
- Account was opened over the phone "as a favour"
- Argument = Consumer Credit Act = Unenforceability?

Would need to check carefully the legalities on ccas for bank accounts, believe they are different to things like credit cards where unenforceability can be claimed fairly easily.

f) LTSB Registered Default
- Despite ack account in dispute they registered Default
- Registered with all 3 agencies
- Breaches Banking Code of Practice - as a/c in dispute
- Argument = Possible Libelous registration???


Was the account officially in dispute at the time the default was added? (ie official letter had been sent putting the account into dispute) Don't think that just having a complaint ongoing would be enough for a court.

Would think very carefully about going to court with something like this. I am by no means a legal expert but can see holes in a lot of your arguments so a trained legal team would do a lot worse - and costs would be very expensive if you lost something like this! Have you at least taken legal advice? Would suggest checking your local area for solicitors that deal with this area and then just getting a basic appointment to discuss whether they think you would have a case (many firms now do a free hour consultation or a free clinic for just that reason). They will know a lot better what kind of chance it would have.

ILW

Can the friend afford to lose tens of thousands of pounds if it does not go their way?