** DISCONTINUED ** Urgent Assistance Needed

[Mr Bean]

Hello All,

Hope you are all well. I need some advise on my court claim. It is against Lowell Solicitors and they started the court proceeding back in January. I am defending and have reached the point where I will need to provide a case to the courts for final decision to be made by a judge.

[wales01man]

To get the best advice can you tell more are you making a claim or defending

[jaguarsuk]

Hello All,

Hope you are all well. I need some advise on my court claim. It is against Lowell Solicitors and they started the court proceeding back in January. I am defending and have reached the point where I will need to provide a case to the courts for final decision to be made by a judge.

What advice do you need as you have not made that clear?

[Mr Bean]

Hello All,

Very sorry about the delay in providing further information regarding my case. I had misplaced my court documentation. I've calmed down and now I've found it.

I have attached a copy of the document received from the courts. I have completed the last page and returned that to the courts as well as the claimant. The document was dated by the courts 21st June 2018 and I returned it by 25th June 2018.

I have also received the copy returned by the claimant dated 3rd July 2018.

I need help going forward, and confirmation that I have done the right thing.

What other information will you require in order to assist me with my case. County Court Document.pdf

[Amethyst]

Have you agreed to the case being heard without a hearing ?

If the order is dated 21st June you'll need to get your Witness statement in about 19th July ( 28 days after the order )

Do you want to tell us a bit about the case ?

[Mr Bean]

Have you agreed to the case being heard without a hearing ? Yes I have agreed. Have I mad a mistake in doing so?

If the order is dated 21st June you'll need to get your Witness statement in about 19th July ( 28 days after the order )

Do you want to tell us a bit about the case ?

Yes. In brief, at the beginning of January 2018 I received court documentation from Lowell Solicitors demanding payment of an old Orange telephone bill of £223.76, that had gone into default in May 2012. There was also contract termination costs that were added to that bringing the total to £770.48. They added costs and so the total required on the court document was £962.12. I sent a defence on the basis that they did not comply with the Pre-Action Protocol, because I received notification of the actual case on the back of a reply from Lowell Financial regarding a different case, on the same day that the court documentation arrived. (Is this making any sense this far?). We have been bouncing back and forth between the courts since and now it has come to this.

Do you need more information? I am currently not at home and have limited access to the documentation.

[Amethyst]

No that's fine, less stressful anyway just means you must make sure your witness statement is spot on and gives your arguments and tells the whole story - as you won't be there to argue on the day.

So , as well as the procedural issue of the letter of claim ( really would only affect anything if it came to costs ) , what is your defence ?

Youve been requesting documents ?

Any dispute with Orange that led to the contract being terminated ?

And whats happening with with the other case ? ( is that orange too ? )

[Mr Bean]

No that's fine, less stressful anyway just means you must make sure your witness statement is spot on and gives your arguments and tells the whole story - as you won't be there to argue on the day.

So , as well as the procedural issue of the letter of claim ( really would only affect anything if it came to costs ) , what is your defence ?

Youve been requesting documents ?

Any dispute with Orange that led to the contract being terminated ?

And whats happening with with the other case ? ( is that orange too ? )

I'm concerned that I may leave out some information and am really needing to have my statement spot on. And will need someone to kinda hold my hand through it.

They have been claiming that they sent the Pre-Action information on 17 December 2017, to my current address, (which they have never done), but the documentation that they have been providing to the court have been to an old address. The house actually burnt down just before they were assigned the debt, so all the information was going to an empty property. All address changes were made to known debtors. I have been in the property I live in for the past year and half, am registered on the voters roll, so am clearly visible. There was no attempt on their behalf to make contact with me. I am of the impression that they decided to go down this route before the debt became unenforceable like the other one was. I sent them the standard debt management unenforceable debt letter regarding the other case and they replied that with an overview of the information, stated that they requested the information from their client and that the account would be put on hold until the information was received (turns out that it was unenforceable). On the back of that letter, they informed me that they held another account, provided the reference, the client name and their reference. On a new line they asked me to contact their solicitors to discuss the account and provided contact details. The letter was dated 22nd January 2018 and arrived on the same day as the court documentation regarding that same case. I believe that the Pre-Action Protocol (October 2017) was not followed as this would have resulted in the case possibly being dragged beyond the enforceable period an therefore they were wanting to get in before then.

Both the courts and myself have been requesting documentation an proof, as they have written to me on separate occasions after the proceedings were started telling me that they had sent out the Pre-Action Protocol on 17th December 2017 and to find enclosed a copy, but nothing was enclosed in their correspondence. It was just a one page letter. I wrote back requesting this supposed enclosed information, and that was ignored. They have also sent a defense and only now in this defense is there a single paged letter dated December 2017 enclosed. It's the first I've seen of the letter and am of the impression that this was just created recently.

Regarding the contract being terminated with Orange, it was because I was very young immature person taken advantage of by someone else who couldn't afford to pay the bills thereafter.

The other case was with a different service provider and was unenforceable debt, because it had gone beyond the 6 year enforceable period.

Does any of this make sense?

What are my chances?

[Amethyst]

First step is to do a list in date order of all letters and replies, when the contract was opened, stopped payments, defaulted etc and also whether there was a device included in the contract. Happy to give you a hand much as possible.

So you took out the contract for someone else to use, and they just didn't keep up payments with it? Did you apply yourself ?

[Mr Bean]

I don't have any contract information, it was so long back, I can hardly remember any of it. Another thing is that I was in the house when it caught fire, my parents were away and my cousin and I were house sitting. I feel like mentally, there is a lot of stuff that I've blocked out of my memory because of the incident.

This is a copy of the statement of account they sent Statement of Account.pdf

[Amethyst]

Blimey. So the account was opened in October and the first months invoice was over £100, then a further invoice of £230 in November, and another for £114 in December - that's some hefty mobile phone contract....
£32 in Jan, £360 in Feb, £240 in March etc ….. Those 7 months cost £1,132 ……

So any idea at all how much the monthly contract payment was actually for ? did it include a handset ? It was 7 months before terminating so if it was a 12 month contract that's £100 a month called in ?

Have you asked Orange for copies of your data at all ? ( Subject Access Request )

and have you asked Lowell for copies of the contract etc ?

[Mr Bean]

I think it did include a handset, but I don't know what the monthly contract amount was, and no' I've not asked for copies of the data from Orange, neither have I asked Lowell for copies of the contract.

[Amethyst]

Okay you need to do both, today....


CCA Request

to Lowell with a £1 postal order or cheque

CPR 31.14 Request

to Lowell's Solicitors

Subject Access Request Letter to ORANGE

[Amethyst]

Won't be time for them to respond before your WS has to be in, but you can at least say you have sent them.

Now, can you paste what you entered as your defence pls.

Any letters at all sent to Lowell - any other documents received from Lowell along with that statement of account ?

[Mr Bean]

General Form of Judgement or Order.pdf This is what the courts sent out prior to the Courts Notice of Allocation to the Small Claims track.