Has any bank defended their actions in court?

Crabman

There was a case in court today, sadly she lost, but remember she was only claiming for distress caused by these charges; the charges were refunded out of court by Abbey but the distress compensation was not paid, I suspect they knew they'd win

i_am_really_rich!!

I am a week away from serving a MCOL to Nationwide for over £1500. I am slightly worried, I don't want to be the test case that goes to court :eek:

fatbelly

Crabman wrote:

There was a case in court today, sadly she lost, but remember she was only claiming for distress caused by these charges; the charges were refunded out of court by Abbey but the distress compensation was not paid, I suspect they knew they'd win

This was in truro County Court.

I would say the lady had already won - she had had all charges refunded with interest. Her adviser, who i think was from the CAB, had encouraged her to press on with a claim for distress.

Now if they had won that one, it would have really opened the floodgates!

All credit to them for trying though.

The problem seems to be that we haven't had a case yet that establishes precedent in the specific matter of bank charges.

Red_Panda_2

It seems Nationwide are taking things further now, they have part paid my claim and have entered a defence. This now means a very long process from what I can tell on the cunsumer action group forums.

They are part paying claims saying that there calculations are different but so far have not disclosed their calculations to anyone! Mmm wonder why?

Looks like I have a while to go yet, but one word of advise is make sure you are prepared to go the full way.

digp

fatbelly wrote:

This was in truro County Court.

I would say the lady had already won - she had had all charges refunded with interest. Her adviser, who i think was from the CAB, had encouraged her to press on with a claim for distress.

Now if they had won that one, it would have really opened the floodgates!

All credit to them for trying though.

The problem seems to be that we haven't had a case yet that establishes precedent in the specific matter of bank charges.

Distress on what basis? Damages are not recoverable for distress unless it has led to a recognizable illness such as psychiatric and of course other factors such as causation have to established. Very tough indeed.

wills7

How difficult would it be to prove an illness was bought on due to stress bought on by banks and their demands AFTER all their charges have got you in to seriuos financial trouble?

nickmack

wills7 wrote:

How difficult would it be to prove an illness was bought on due to stress bought on by banks and their demands AFTER all their charges have got you in to seriuos financial trouble?

My guess is fairly difficult, unless you have a strong claim.

The banks are paying up left, right and centre for these charges. But once you start claiming for damages, they may try and fast track you and defend more vigorously. If their legal team then does a hatchet job, you could end up out of pocket.

Kate_Reid

I have gone through the step by step instructions to get my money back with both halifax and first direct - FD have given me 85% of my claim - which I accepted immediately but Halifax offered me about 10% of the claim so I took the next step of declining their offer.
They told me to go to the ombudsman if I was unhappy but I proceeded with court action as per my letter.
The claim has been issued to Halifax and they have acknowledged it.
From 29th Nov, they have 28 days to lodge a defence.

Has anyone got this far? (I used £120 out of my FD settlement to pay for the court application... hahahaha)
If so, when did they make a settlement offer because I know no-one has got to court yet. What do they do now? What about going to court - I'll have to pay their legal fees if they win - will they win? is this going to be the precedent case that starts up loads of 'no win no fee' bank charge claim companies or am I just being dramatic?

I'm about to do the credit cards after this one's done. If I can afford a stamp by the time this claim's completed.

any advice re the court issue welcome and info with your own court application process welcome too.
Thanks

justruth

They will more than likely wait until the last available day to lodge a defence, drag out the process in the hopes that you will give in and then settle the day before you are due in court.

https://www.consumeractiongroup.com

go to the forums (you have to register but it's free) and then into the library where you will find a court bundle. Familiarise yourself with it and prepare for court as if you have to go, on the off chance you do. However all paperwork has to be with the defendant and the court before the trial and if all your paperwork looks good they're unlikely to try you.

If you want to negotiate, although I would suggest holding out, they will give you the money, you could try to offer them 85%. Personally I would accept that they will try to intimidate you into backing down, but you have the resources available to fight them all the way.

nickmack

Kate_Reid wrote:

What about going to court - I'll have to pay their legal fees if they win - will they win? is this going to be the precedent case that starts up loads of 'no win no fee' bank charge claim companies or am I just being dramatic?

Even if by some slim chance it got to court and if by an even slimmer one, the bank won, you wouldn't be liable to pay their charges apart from in exceptional circumstances.