solicitors letter

esmerobbo

Apt?

https://twitter.com/miahsolicitors/status/484813000449470464/photo/1

The_Deep

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ChesterD

have decided to draft a letter to respond to those jokers at miah, used Blissikins letter as the basis, just wondered if anyone would be willing to take a look & see what they think. cheers

Coupon-mad

Yep show it here - no need to hide from Stephen Hall of UKCPS.

ChesterD

OK, here it is. Will it be a problem using so much of Blissikins? Also didn't know weather to mention that I was at work on the day of the offence & the fact that the NTK letter was non conforming to POFA 2012. Anyway have a read & let me know what you think, appreciate it.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wish to acknowledge the letter I received from you on 'date'. However before I can answer the letter in full, I would first like to clarify under what process you are working,
litigant or debt collector. If you are acting as debt collector, as you have asked me to pay you money; I believe you have a requirement to be registered with the Credit Services Association so I am slightly confused why you are acting as a collection agency when you are not even a member. If you are acting as litigator, then I require further information which should have been included in your previous correspondence, in accordance with The Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct (Annex A Para 2). Your letter also failed to refer me to The Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct (as required in Annex A Para 2 2.3(1) of the same document).

I do not believe it is unreasonable to expect a legal department staffed by solicitors and other legal professionals who must surely draft these communications on a daily basis to be capable of supplying a document that is compliant with these directives. I am greatly concerned that a person with no training in law is having to request further information in this manner. Can you please provide an explanation as to why this demand was able to be sent with such obvious failings and can you please confirm that the letter sent to me was approved by the solicitor in charge of the legal department prior to sending? I believe it would be appropriate for you to review your policies and procedures for sending these notifications of impending county court claim and would appreciate it if you could confirm that future letters of this type are fully compliant with all appropriate sections of the Practice Direction before leaving your office.


The ticket was issued for “Parking without a valid permit or authority”. Can you please send clear images of any signage which was in the area where the above vehicle was parked, at the time of parking on 'date', stating the need for a permit and/or authority to park. The car park mentioned is free to use and without the need to obtain a ticket. As the passenger that accompanied the driver on the day in question is registered disabled, the driver was well within their right to park in a designated disabled bay, without the need to display a Permit as per the Equity Act 2010. I cite Greenwood Vs Excel 2013 as proof of this claim.

I also require a full financial breakdown of costs incurred as a result of the misdemeanour detailed above, which was missing from your last letter but, according to Pre-action Conduct (Annex A Para 2 2.1(5)) should have been included.

Furthermore I believe it would also be appropriate to consider an alternative method of dispute resolution – such as an intermediary body like POPLA, prior to starting court proceedings to avoid burdening the court with this matter. I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you of your duty to mitigate your losses and to not incur any additional, unnecessary losses. Should you refuse this invitation to use an alternative method of dispute resolution and proceed to court I will draw the courts attention to this refusal to comply with paragraph 8 of the Practice Direction concerning such alternatives.

I would also like to draw your attention to the sanctions the court can apply for non compliance with the Practice Direction under paragraph 4 and respectfully request that you send me a fully compliant letter within 14 days of receipt of this letter.

Please note, if you send me a generic template letter which does not address my requests for information, I shall copy the correspondence to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and ask it to investigate your breach of the Principles set out in the SRA Handbook version 8, published on 1st October 2013.

When I have received all of the above information I will be able to respond to your letter in full.

Yours Sincerely,

Coupon-mad

Should be - ''I cite Excel v Greenwood 2013 as a relevant County Court decision in this regard.''

Do add that as keeper you were not the driver and can prove it.

ChesterD

Many thanks CM, will make those slight adjustments & get the letter sent off Monday.

trisontana

I would suggest substituting "losses" for "costs" as we are talking about genuine pre-estimate of loss.

ChesterD

Oh yeah, thanks for that.

HO87

As solicitors there is no requirement that they are members of the CSA in order to collect debts. However, they should have registered with the FCA for an interim licence unless they are satisfied that they can avail themselves of the exemptions in the new Act. One of those exemptions is that the collections of debts is ancillary to the provision of professional services. Miah's will undoubtedly argue that they are seeking to litigate on behalf of their clients and that the collection of their debts is ancillary to that.

The CSA, as a membership organisation, is exactly the same as the BPA is. The fact that it has a code of practice for members and its aim is "building confidence in debt collection" (perhaps because they know that there isn't any or none is deserved) has exactly the same hollow ring as the BPA's avowed aims for the BPA.

At the end of the day the CSA is just another trade protection society (for old-fashioned trade protection associations) and is not a regulator.