Travel agent has issued us county court case over refunded flights

brianposter

No one is arguing that a booking has not been made. I am saying that if the TA wants their condition 40 to apply they must make the booking in a very specific manner so that ALL subsequent dealings are directly between the air line and the passenger. (Which as I understand it, would be very unusual.)

If they do not book in that way, condition 40 is an "unfair contract term", but in this particular case it may be easier to argue that that the TA has failed to carry out the implied term of the contract which should replace condition 40.

What the OP probably needs to do is rebut the arguments in the TAs claim and therefore their precise argument depends on what the TA has submitted to the court.

It might be useful if the OP provided us with a copy of the TAs arguments.

NJ69x

Hey guys sorry I've been absent from this thread for the last few months. There have now been some significant updates.

The case was due to be heard in our local court in the next 3 weeks but a few days ago we received a letter from the courts saying due to the claimant not paying the hearing fee the claim has now been thrown out.

On the advice of some of the members here we originally submitted a counter claim along with our defence against the claim. The courts are now telling us we have to pay a £85 hearing fee by Tuesday or our counter claim will also be thrown out.

How does this all work in a legal sense - if we pay the hearing fee and the travel agent doesn't turn up to court do we win our claim automatically? Also is the travel agent able to restart their original claim after it has been struck out?

Part of me is thinking to leave it at this and let sleeping dogs lie but the other part of me is thinking see this through and pay the £85 and either make the travel agent come to court or pay our counter claim losses. Especially after they gave us such a headache this last year taking us to court and we have already paid a counter claim fee.

This just goes to show never bend over and take it just because we are the little guys. Stand up for your moral rights and justice will prevail!

mdann52

NJ69x said:

On the advice of some of the members here we originally submitted a counter claim along with our defence against the claim. The courts are now telling us we have to pay a £85 hearing fee by Tuesday or our counter claim will also be thrown out.

How does this all work in a legal sense - if we pay the hearing fee and the travel agent doesn't turn up to court do we win our claim automatically? Also is the travel agent able to restart their original claim after it has been struck out?

Part of me is thinking to leave it at this and let sleeping dogs lie but the other part of me is thinking see this through and pay the £85 and either make the travel agent come to court or pay our counter claim losses. Especially after they gave us such a headache this last year taking us to court and we have already paid a counter claim fee.

This just goes to show never bend over and take it just because we are the little guys. Stand up for your moral rights and justice will prevail!

If you pay the £85, and the agent does not turn up, the judge will just look over the papers and make a decision. They might well award against you, but they still need to ensure there is a lawful basis for the claim.
Bear in mind that is you pay the fee and lose, you won't get the fee back and will also need to pay the TAs (admittedly limited) costs for attending, if you win, they will have to pay the fee.

NJ69x

I think on the balance of probabilities it's best to leave it and not pay the hearing fee. 

Hopefully this is the end of the matter and we don't hear from the TA or court again. Thanks to everyone who offered advice and guidance on this 

ThorOdinson

Did they go bust? In hope so, but just consider that maybe you wouldn't get anything even if you did win.

NJ69x

No they haven't gone bust and are still trading. Quite weird how they bottled it at the last minute after chasing us for so long. I imagine they are trying these tactics on hundreds or possibly thousands of customers and many cave in and settle to avoid going to court.

That isn't our nature and the money was no big deal either way, we didn't intend to go down without a fight though.