Help! Confused by Court jargon.

craggs42

Can anyone offer me some advice?
My bank put in a defence last week and its solicitor has sent all sorts of legal blurb requesting further info.

They have quoted bits of the letters I originally sent to them (taken from the template letters on the consumer action group site) and want me to support my claims. I don't really understand the quotes in the first place and don't really know what to do. (SEE PART OF LETTER AT BOTTOM OF MESSAGE)

Also, I have received the allocation questionnaire from the court. In the Settlement section, do I postpone the claim and try to settle out of court? or do I continue through the court system??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm panicking a bit!
cheers.

Request For Further Information:
"3. In your claim you state that "the banks charges are a disproportionate penalty and therefore unenforceable as they are contrary to common law”

4. Please provide the following particulars in support of your claim:

4.1 Please specify the clause (s) pursuant to which the charges were applied
4.2 Please specify whether the charges applied were due to a breach of contract by the Claimant
4.3 Please identify in each case the particular breach of contract (by reference to appropriate term(s) of the contract) that the charge related to.

5: In your claim you state that the charges are: "invalid under the Unfair (Contrcats) terms Act 1977s.4 and Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 Para 8 and Sch. (1) (e)" and "unresasonable within the meaning of the supply of goods and services act 1982 s 15"

6. Please specify all of the facts relied on my the Claimant in support of the contentions in paragraph 5 and in particular please identify the contractual provision (s) that the Claimant alleges are invalid by reference to UCTA/the Regulations.

michael1983l

has anybody been to this stage before as we have been getting lots of people saying dont use the no win no fees companies on here and saying they will give advice when needed instead. But so far I have yet to see anybody answer this question asked by craggs and Im seriously starting to get doubts on claiming myself as I would not know how to prepare for this scenario in court.

Rex_Mundi

I've found an excellent thread over at CAG that explains point by point the specific laws we are using to back up the claims and how they relate to the case. There is also a ready made reply set out to answer the questions asked in the OP of this thread. I would recommend anyone to read this thread if you are getting to the later stages of your court claim.

Here is the thread. You will need to be logged on to read it (registration is free for the site).

chuckles1066

craggs42 wrote:

Can anyone offer me some advice?
My bank put in a defence last week and its solicitor has sent all sorts of legal blurb requesting further info.

They have quoted bits of the letters I originally sent to them (taken from the template letters on the consumer action group site) and want me to support my claims. I don't really understand the quotes in the first place and don't really know what to do. (SEE PART OF LETTER AT BOTTOM OF MESSAGE)

Also, I have received the allocation questionnaire from the court. In the Settlement section, do I postpone the claim and try to settle out of court? or do I continue through the court system??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm panicking a bit!
cheers.

Request For Further Information:
"3. In your claim you state that "the banks charges are a disproportionate penalty and therefore unenforceable as they are contrary to common law”

4. Please provide the following particulars in support of your claim:

4.1 Please specify the clause (s) pursuant to which the charges were applied
4.2 Please specify whether the charges applied were due to a breach of contract by the Claimant
4.3 Please identify in each case the particular breach of contract (by reference to appropriate term(s) of the contract) that the charge related to.

5: In your claim you state that the charges are: "invalid under the Unfair (Contrcats) terms Act 1977s.4 and Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 Para 8 and Sch. (1) (e)" and "unresasonable within the meaning of the supply of goods and services act 1982 s 15"

6. Please specify all of the facts relied on my the Claimant in support of the contentions in paragraph 5 and in particular please identify the contractual provision (s) that the Claimant alleges are invalid by reference to UCTA/the Regulations.

They're merely asking you to substantiate your claim?

After all, you weren't relying solely on the contents of a generic letter that carries no weight in English law?

Were you?

Ropey_3

I thinkk Cobbetts are one of the more switched on and aggressive legal departments fighting this, they know that a lot of people are simply downloading letters without understanding the principles and laws involved and are trying to intimidate people with tactics such as this and CPR 18 requests.

It's just bullying. You only need to show the court what supports your claim. Try sending a letter back asking exactly how the penalty charges were calculated.

Don't be bullied, do a search on CAG for a small section of this letter, it's a standard intimidation of Cobbetts'

EDIT: You seem to suggest in the first post that this letter is from the solicitor of the bank. Is it really an order from the court? If it is then you need to comply with it and send the info requested. Look at the CAG thread for a good letter to send and have a good read over there so that you understand what you are claiming and why.

chuckles1066

Ropey wrote:

I thinkk Cobbetts are one of the more switched on and aggressive legal departments fighting this, they know that a lot of people are simply downloading letters without understanding the principles and laws involved and are trying to intimidate people with tactics such as this and CPR 18 requests.

And so they should; if you are going to initiate a legal action, you should at least understand some basic principles of UK law and how it works.

Without using google, do you actually know what a Request for Information under CPR Part 18 actually is?

I used this to great advantage in my case when the Defendant's solicitors simply refused to provide me information that would weaken their position.

It's a very useful tool and should be used at every opportunity when the opposition won't respond to requests.

I'mcomingbackasaman

I used the Consumer Action Group site and followed their guidelines, the Bank (LTSB) said they had a witness and tried to put me off, but I carried on with it. Started the whole procedure in APRIL 2006 got up to a Court date on November 2nd, then around 26th Oct. the Bank sent me a letter offering a total refund (just in time for Christmas ) I accepted and as soon as the money was in my account I wrote to the Court and told them the case had been satisfied. I've been charge £30 since then but I simply phoned them and asked them to withdraw the charge which they have. RESULT.