Lowell’s Solicitors

[Yazz1972]

Has court letter couple of weeks ago - Lowell’s. I followed the advice I found on here and wrote to them and their solicitors Cohen Cramer asking for CCA. Cohen Cramer wrote back today saying “ documents in support of clients claim will be disclosed on or before disclosure as directed by the court. In the meantime fill in response on claims form if I need further time they can extend the timetable”

I don’t know what to do Please help me.
Thank you in advance guys

[Amethyst]

Did you acknowledge the claim ?

Can you say what the issue date of the claim was pls. and tell us a bit about the claim …. is it for a credit card, loan, phone account etc ?

Approx how much ?

Did you send a CPR 31.14 request for documents as well ?

[MIKE770]

First Steps
Check dates
Acknowledge Claim
CCA Request CPR 31.14 Request



tell us what it is all about i.e. credit card?? default date? taken out ?? etc etc actual claim form N1 received Blue ione if so particulars of claim??

[Yazz1972]

Sorry I didn’t say enough.

Dept was for a provident Loan. Amount owing £591 total being claimed £768
issue date: 29oct
yes I did acknowledge the claim and I 33 days. Is that right?
lowells took over account 31/10/2015
i asked Lowell’s for CCA and solicitor for CPR

[Yazz1972]

Can someone please give me some help? I have 3 days to submit my defence to the court and I have no idea what to do :-(

[Amethyst]

You sound like you're on track - you haven't heard anything back from Lowell since sending the letters?

Your defence would be based on the lack of documentation for now. There's an example here to get you started - Example Defence

It's due to be filed before 1st December.

I might be inclined to send a subject access request to Provident as well, as it might come in useful further down the line.Subject Access Request Letter

Do you have any idea when you defaulted/last paid anything on this provident loan ?

[Yazz1972]

Thank you I really appreciate your help.
I've checked back and it was October 2014 the last payment I made.
Nothing back from Lowells at all. The solicitors just said "

documents in support of clients claim will be disclosed on or before disclosure as directed by the court. In the meantime fill in response on claims form if I need further time they can extend the timetable"

Shall I leave my defence until last minute - 1st Dec?

[Yazz1972]

OMG I have messed up. I have just read the example defence and I did not send the £1 fee. OMG I cant believe I didn't remember that. What now?

[Amethyst]

Don't worry - quite often they send it back anyway ... but it is reqd for the legal effect .... so leave that bit of the sentence ( the 'with the statutory fee' bit ) out of the defence and send a second cca request WITH your £1 now xxx All will be well.

The ( rather pants ) response you got from Lowell's solicitor was in relation to the cpr request so don't worry xx

Did you do a subject access request to Provident ? If not, do that too, while you're posting stuff

[Yazz1972]

Thank you again.
I haven’t done that to provident but I will first thing and send another CCA to Lowell’s WITH the £1

[Yazz1972]

Submitted my defence today. I feel sick with worry. I haven't slept properly for weeks now worrying. What is the next step? What can I expect from here?

Thank you for any help :-)

[Amethyst]

Well done Don't let it stress you out, what is the worst can happen ? they get a judgment against you and you agree affordable monthly instalments... yip that's about all - so long as you stay on top of it and follow the court processes it really will be fine - it's under £800 - if you went to court and lost it might go up another couple hundred, and then you ask the court for instalments, submit your IE and pay £10 a month.... so please do not be losing sleep over it !!!! We are here to help.

So now the defence is in the court sends it over to the claimant, and they have 28 days to decide if they want to continue.

If they do the court sends you a directions questionnaire which you fill in and return and tells the court which court to send the case files over to, sorts out mediation calls if appropriate, and whether you're on holiday at all in the next 6 months...

If they don't then the case will be put on hold ( stayed ) until they do, if ever.

Once the case file is sent to your local court, they have a look and issue any directions ( instructions ) and set a hearing date. They will tell the claimant to pay a hearing fee, and then both sides put witness statements and documents to rely on in the claim in to court.

That's usually the stage where one or other side decide not to carry on and, if the claimant, they discontinue, if you, you try negotiate a settlement under a consent order ( so the case stays on hold while you make payments ) … if they are unreasonable then you go through to the hearing, or even change to make an admission and offer to pay rather than going through the hearing.

There's lots of if's, buts and maybes, but nothing awful will happen to you - we're here and will help all we can, so please please please don't be worrying about it xxxx

[Yazz1972]

Thank you so much. Very comprehensive post. I feel more relaxed now. So the next stage is the 28days.