Letter from Gladstone Solicitors before Court hearing

No.

They are using this as a tactic to get you to pay!

Assuming you have no intention of paying them anything ignore it and carry on complying with the court process

Don't phone them. I'd send them something along the lines of what DoaM said, but less tongue in cheek.

Dear Sirs


I refer to your letter of x date.


You have been aware for some time that the claim brought by your client is baseless and bound to fail. However, your client has nevertheless chosen to pursue the claim this far, forcing me to draft and file a full defence, witness evidence and documents upon which I rely. In comparison, all your client has done is to file a claim so brief that it verges on being incoherent, and a Directions Questionnaire. Your client has ignored the court's order to serve its witness and documentary evidence, which were due on x date, and it is therefore in contempt of court. The final hearing is just 11 days away - as a litigant in person your client's conduct is causing me significant prejudice and will draw this to the court's attention.


For the avoidance of doubt, I will not be telephoning you to discuss settlement. If your client has a proposal to make, then please make it in writing and I will consider it and respond.


Before you do write to me, I must make clear my position, as follows:
1. As this is a baseless claim, and you have known that for some months, [if you can put in a date when you first told the PPC that you no longer owned the car then do so], I will not accept anything other than a complete, unconditional withdrawal by your client;
2. Again as this is a baseless claim, your client has breached my rights under the Data Protection Act by requesting, processing, storing and continuing to store my data and this has caused me significant distress. [If you complained bout this already then say when you did so]. It must cease to do so immediately. My rights to bring a claim or a counterclaim are expressly reserved and I expect your client's proposals for settlement to include a sum of money in respect of damages, in return for which I will agree not to make any claim/counterclaim.
3. I have been forced to spend a considerable amount of time and effort defending this baseless claim, including incurring direct expenses on site visits, postage, stationery and so on. I have had to spend hours researching the law and drafting a full defence and witness statement, and gathering documentary evidence. As a litigant in person, this has caused me significant distress and inconvenience. In contrast, all your client has done is to draft and serve a robo-type claim so brief as to be almost incoherent, and to complete a Directions Questionnaire. It has not even bothered to comply with the court's direction that it serve witness and documentary evidence by [x date]. Any proposals must include a sum of money to reflect your client's conduct and the distress and trouble caused to me.


As a goodwill gesture, and on an entirely without prejudice basis, in order to achieve a settlement I suggest that your client makes an offer of no less than £250 in respect of 2 and 3 above.


In the meantime, my rights under the Data Protection Act are expressly reserved.


Should settlement not be reached, I am entirely confident that my defence of the claim will succeed and I make it clear that, since the claim is clearly baseless and this has been clear to you all along, I will be seeking a punitive costs order pursuant to Rule 27.14(2)(g).


Yours faithfully etc.


You may want to put in a different figure than £250 - you may be happy to go away for less and try it on for say £50 or £100, or you may want to ask for more. It depends on what your priorities are and whether you are actually happy to attend court.