Case un-stayed?

ollie2001

Hi Gang

Because of the OFT Test case being announced, my parter decided to file with MCOL straight away rather than sending letters to the bank that were obviously going to be ignored.

The bank filed a stay which was granted by MCOL because they were staying all bank charge cases. So we wrote them a letter (which we used the template for from this site) which meant MCOL unstayed the case and passed it on to our local court which stayed it again, so we modified the un-stay letter a bit and sent it to our local court.

That was about a month ago and now out of the blue we have a court date for the 17th December. It doesn't say anything about preparing a court bundle or anything though? What should we expect to happen on the 17th exactly?

Thanks for your time

Ollie

mum2one

Basically a court bundle is any documents that you intend to rely on in court that would include all correspondance, any terms and conditions of your account that you can lay your hands on.

You need to prepare at least 3 of these bundles, 1 for youeselves, one for the court and one for the defence.

On the bank charges forum there may be someone more knowledgeable than me, but at least youve got a head start.

Good luck xx

mum2one

Part 2.
Basically the bank could settle out of court, barclaycard did that with me 3 days before the hearing.

Your go in, there be other people in the same boat so dont worry, you may get asked about the charges, and why you feel they are unfair, how much do you think is reasonable, on those lines

The judge make a decision, hopefuuly find in your favour and order the bank topay you back.

ollie2001

Thanks mum2one

This letter informing us we have a court date was literally 2 lines long, do you think it's just a pre-hearing or the real deal? I'm sure if they expected us to prepare a court bundle they should have said so? As I'd have to send a copy to the court and the banks solictors surely?

mum2one

When I had mine itsaid "pre court hearing", and I was allocated a 15 min slot, from the sounds of your letter its a full hearing, unless you get a letter mentioning bundles or an actual bundle 1st off their solicitor I would hold off sending anything.

They tend not to say anything about what you need as they sortof expect you to know, but who among us are law graduates! def not me. If in doubt ring the court and they should be able to give you some basic info without jeopadising anybodies case.

Smasher

You should just hope that you get a settlement before you have to go into court. They can apply to have your claim struck out on the grounds that you gave them no opportinity to resolve the matter before litigation began.

The purpose of the letters are not realistically to attempt to acheive a resolution, we all know that they will be ignored/rebutted. They are to satisfy the requirement that you give the defendant a reasonable opportunity to resolve the matter.

I would call the court & ask exactly what this hearing is for, just to be clear.

ollie2001

Smasher wrote: »

You should just hope that you get a settlement before you have to go into court. They can apply to have your claim struck out on the grounds that you gave them no opportinity to resolve the matter before litigation began.

The purpose of the letters are not realistically to attempt to acheive a resolution, we all know that they will be ignored/rebutted. They are to satisfy the requirement that you give the defendant a reasonable opportunity to resolve the matter.

I would call the court & ask exactly what this hearing is for, just to be clear.

How would the banks solicitor know if I'd tried sending letters before? I doubt the bank is that organised.

Smasher

At a hearing and in your court bundle, you need to show the history of correspondence.
In the good old days, you could do this. I made a hell of a mess of my first claim & absolutely hammered them with interest just knowing that they would never contest it in court. But times have changed.

I'm not saying that it will definitely be picked up on, but you just want to hope that it doesn't because you can pretty much count on your claim being struck out.

ollie2001

How about I just draft up some letters and include them in the bundle and say I sent them but never recieved a reply?

Smasher

Well, I guess they're dealing with so many lately so its quite believable. Not that I would encourage lying in court..