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Hey guys, this forum is great, I've found myself lurking from time to time and really appreciate the help that you guys offer to people.
The day has come for me, after what feels like a decade of threats and final warnings, Lowell finally decided to file a claim against me, here is a quick rundown of the situation:
I can't remember when exactly, but I had a mobile phone contract with Orange (before they merged into EE in 2012). After numerous unknown items on my monthly bill, I decided that I wouldn't be paying said bill until they could explain to me what these were. I specifically remember the collections department calling me up asking for payment to which I explained the situation and asked them to look into it, they too had no idea what these additional charges were, actually apologized (!) and told me not to worry and that they will look into it and call me back once they know (this was the collections team!). A month later there was no response and my contract was terminated. Pffft I thought, as far as I was concerned, the contract was void anyway until we got the unknown items on the bill sorted out, we never did.
So after years and years of threats and harassment from many different 'debt collection' firms, none of which I ever communicated with or acknowledged in the slightest. I received a final warning before action last month. I had what I think is a brilliant letter written out which I made by reading many helpful posts pertaining to similar situations on this forum and others. The letter was basically a standard request for clarification and original documents etc, but I stopped myself before posting. I thought this debt must surely be statute barred by now, it is definitely over 6 years old and I was also living in Scotland for the duration, where I believe the statute of limitations is 5 years? Anyway, I decided I wanted to call their bluff and see if they would actually go through with it, I didn't post the letter and LOW and behold they submitted their claim to court.
Now the particulars of this claim are bog standard and I've no doubt any veteran of this forum would have read these multiple times, the one thing that sticks out to me though is.. point 3, "The agreement was later assigned to the claimant on **/**/2015 and notice given to the defendant.", I'm certain Lowell were contacting me way before that date, but regardless there is no mention of how long this alleged debt has been outstanding for and when it was allegedly incurred etc. I believe they are acting in bad faith, or are too incompetent to be practicing law. I think they are hoping to be awarded a default judgement by misdirecting our justice system and maybe even acting in contempt of court by submitting such spurious claims.
Any input or advice you could offer me would be greatly appreciated. I've signed up to moneyclaim.gov and I'm ready to begin preparing my own defense. I'm just trying to work out a good strategy while being an absolute novice. Basically the way I see it is that I request the original documents etc and if and when they produce them I just point out the dates on it and then that's it done. If possible though I would like to push things further and get every default judgement they've ever had awarded in their favor reviewed lol.
Any help would be much appreciated, thanks guys.
The day has come for me, after what feels like a decade of threats and final warnings, Lowell finally decided to file a claim against me, here is a quick rundown of the situation:
I can't remember when exactly, but I had a mobile phone contract with Orange (before they merged into EE in 2012). After numerous unknown items on my monthly bill, I decided that I wouldn't be paying said bill until they could explain to me what these were. I specifically remember the collections department calling me up asking for payment to which I explained the situation and asked them to look into it, they too had no idea what these additional charges were, actually apologized (!) and told me not to worry and that they will look into it and call me back once they know (this was the collections team!). A month later there was no response and my contract was terminated. Pffft I thought, as far as I was concerned, the contract was void anyway until we got the unknown items on the bill sorted out, we never did.
So after years and years of threats and harassment from many different 'debt collection' firms, none of which I ever communicated with or acknowledged in the slightest. I received a final warning before action last month. I had what I think is a brilliant letter written out which I made by reading many helpful posts pertaining to similar situations on this forum and others. The letter was basically a standard request for clarification and original documents etc, but I stopped myself before posting. I thought this debt must surely be statute barred by now, it is definitely over 6 years old and I was also living in Scotland for the duration, where I believe the statute of limitations is 5 years? Anyway, I decided I wanted to call their bluff and see if they would actually go through with it, I didn't post the letter and LOW and behold they submitted their claim to court.
Now the particulars of this claim are bog standard and I've no doubt any veteran of this forum would have read these multiple times, the one thing that sticks out to me though is.. point 3, "The agreement was later assigned to the claimant on **/**/2015 and notice given to the defendant.", I'm certain Lowell were contacting me way before that date, but regardless there is no mention of how long this alleged debt has been outstanding for and when it was allegedly incurred etc. I believe they are acting in bad faith, or are too incompetent to be practicing law. I think they are hoping to be awarded a default judgement by misdirecting our justice system and maybe even acting in contempt of court by submitting such spurious claims.
Any input or advice you could offer me would be greatly appreciated. I've signed up to moneyclaim.gov and I'm ready to begin preparing my own defense. I'm just trying to work out a good strategy while being an absolute novice. Basically the way I see it is that I request the original documents etc and if and when they produce them I just point out the dates on it and then that's it done. If possible though I would like to push things further and get every default judgement they've ever had awarded in their favor reviewed lol.
Any help would be much appreciated, thanks guys.
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