Ex-employe started a court judgement over outstanding debt

RJH88

Hi All,

A few weeks ago I started a thread about my ex-emplyoer chasing an outstanding debt relating to study fee's

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5268054

As you can see from the thread they have no legal basis for chasing, no clause in my contract or signed training agreement.

Should I get a solicitor to defend myself or continue to dispute this based on my own judgement?

saverbuyer

Get a solicitor. The fact you are still attending the course, paid for by your previous employer doesn't look good. I could see you having to pay a pro rata element of the course costs.

Skools_Out

RJH88 wrote: »

Hi All,

A few weeks ago I started a thread about my ex-emplyoer chasing an outstanding debt relating to study fee's

...

As you can see from the thread they have no legal basis for chasing, no clause in my contract or signed training agreement.

Should I get a solicitor to defend myself or continue to dispute this based on my own judgement?

I presume, as the amount appears to be less than £3k (before charges), that this is a claim brought in the small calims court.

You do not need a solicitor. If you elect to appoint one, then you will not be able to recover their charges (even if they win your defence)

So the question you need to ask yourself is how confident do you feel about defending yourself. You do not need to know the law, but do need to be prepared to defend yourself.

If you are not prepared to do this, or that questions may be raised over the legal position, then it may be worth paying a solicitor to defend you as their costs may be less than the cost of losing the claim. Or they suggest to you that the cheapest option is to pay up as they may not be so confident of your legal position as you appear to be.

How big is the employer/claimant? If they are a huge corporation, and this matter goes to a hearing, expect them to send a barrister (which they will pay for, win or lose.) Just so you know the calibre of who you will be arguing against in court.

Having said that, county court judges do take into account this when hearing a case, but ultimately they have to decide the case based on law ... and the barrister will know the applicable laws inside out and upside down.

Tixy

I might see if I could get a free half hour appointment with a solicitor and see what their initial thoughts are on this.

But I probably wouldn't bother instructing the solicitor, you should be able to put forward your own defence in court fairly easily. Its not a massively complicated case.

If this was an accountancy practice then I'd bet that their paperwork would be watertight and they'd not have put you on a course without signing a training contract, as they do frequently have to use the course fee repayment clauses.
From what you have posted it looks like this company have not dotted all the i's and will struggle to prove that you are liable. I think it is quite likely that you would win in court. But I don't think it is a certainty.

If you do go to court and defend yourself other things I would have ready to answer are
- who booked you on the course? you or someone else at the employer? was a purchase order signed by someone authorised to do so in the company?
- all the relevant dates, e.g. date the course was booked, start and end date for the course, date of the invoice from the training provider, date you handed in your notice, date you left the firm etc. Make sure you are as prepared with all the facts and figures as you can be for court.

DandelionPatrol

RJH88 wrote: »

Hi All,

A few weeks ago I started a thread about my ex-emplyoer chasing an outstanding debt relating to study fee's

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5268054

As you can see from the thread they have no legal basis for chasing, no clause in my contract or signed training agreement.

You are making it difficult to follow.

You now have 3 threads running on this

• the present thread
• https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5268054
• https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5251279

Between these 3 threads, there is a lot of duplication, but there is a lot of stuff missing from any individual thread.

I suggest you ask a mod to

• merge the threads for a start

- and as I suggested in one of your previous threads,

• get this moved to the employment forum.

You have posted in the Loans forum, effectively your own mindset is therefore that this is a loan - in which case you should pay it back! But your argument, which you will need to make in court is essentially an employment argument, that you were funded for the course in the course of your employment and that no obligation for repayment has arisen.

WellKnownSid

saverbuyer wrote: »

Get a solicitor. The fact you are still attending the course, paid for by your previous employer doesn't look good. I could see you having to pay a pro rata element of the course costs.

This.

A decision will be taken based upon the facts. And as a lawyer once told me - it's not the facts that matter - it's how the other party spin them...