Need a solicitor/legal advisor. Can you help? (Personal Debt)

[epicpotato]

Hi all.

I've previously posted about this debt and have gone down the route of contacting StepChange and making a monthly offer that the budget from them suggested I should offer. I will post links to the previous threads at the end of this post.

We've come to a point where we have been sent a form that I'm not sure what to do with. StepChange advised me to get legal advice and Citizens Advice and National Debt Line (live chat) have indicated that it is a form that I need to fill out and return. I originally thought that I had been sent a copy of the form and it was for the solicitors acting on behalf of the loan that needed to fill it in, because it is full of legal jargon, and I do not understand the form, or any of the questions on it.

I'm looking for a solicitor that takes on work and gets paid what I can claim in Legal Aid. I've called about 30 local solicitors that I've found on lawsociety.org.uk but I cannot find anyone who deals with a personal debt that has gone to court. I understand that under the current climate, everything is being done over the phone anyway, so I guess that finding somebody local isn't really that necessary.

If anybody reading this knows of a solicitor/legal advisor that can help and will work for what legal aid can pay, I'd really appreciate if you could point me in the right direction, and/or tag people in this thread. It is a very old debt and I was trying to find out if it was statutely limited, but after not being able to be conclusive about that, I've gone ahead and made the offer that StepChange advised.

Thank you in advance.

The previous posts:

Claim form received from FWJ Legal Limited to be heard at Northamption - LegalBeagles Forum

Does a defendant need to return a N149C form? - LegalBeagles Forum

[Celestine]

Hi

Can you show us a redacted copy of the form please?

Legal Aid does not cover much these days, certainly not legal debt advice.
Depending on the size of the financial claim against you (I'm assuming you're being sued?) then the claim will fall into 'Small Claims Track' if it is under 10k. No legal costs can be recovered (usually) in small claims cases, so you can't really hire a solicitor without costing yourself more money needlessly.

We can help you fill in the forms and what to use to defend a case. Tell us a little bit more and we can take it from there.

[epicpotato]

Hi

Can you show us a redacted copy of the form please?

Legal Aid does not cover much these days, certainly not legal debt advice.
Depending on the size of the financial claim against you (I'm assuming you're being sued?) then the claim will fall into 'Small Claims Track' if it is under 10k. No legal costs can be recovered (usually) in small claims cases, so you can't really hire a solicitor without costing yourself more money needlessly.

We can help you fill in the forms and what to use to defend a case. Tell us a little bit more and we can take it from there.

Hi. It's my partner's debt and it is a foreign student loan debt of just over £36k (so not a small claims court issue). Half of that is add-ons that they have added onto it.

The form is an N181, with an N149C covering letter. I'm just posting before I scan it, but it does seems to be the same as the N181 forms that I've found on Google. It is "Proposed Allocation to the Multi-Track" and I haven't got a clue what that means.

Really, all I need help with is filling out that form as I have no idea what any of the questions mean. I've already returned the Claim form to both the Solicitors acting on behalf of The Swedish Board of Student Finance, and to the court.

We haven't heard anything until this form turned up. Do you still want me to scan it? It does appear to be the same as the N181 forms that I've found on the internet.

[epicpotato]

Hi

Can you show us a redacted copy of the form please?

Legal Aid does not cover much these days, certainly not legal debt advice.
Depending on the size of the financial claim against you (I'm assuming you're being sued?) then the claim will fall into 'Small Claims Track' if it is under 10k. No legal costs can be recovered (usually) in small claims cases, so you can't really hire a solicitor without costing yourself more money needlessly.

We can help you fill in the forms and what to use to defend a case. Tell us a little bit more and we can take it from there.

This is the form.

N181 - Directions questionnaire (Fast track and Multi-track)(04.14) (publishing.service.gov.uk)

[Celestine]

OK thanks - Notice of Allocation to the Fast Track means that the case is being allocated to the fast track of the court system. Sadly this doesn't actually mean fast, it would be more accurate to call it Large Track! Cases over 10k -25k go into Fast Track. Higher amounts usually go into Multi Track which although your partners case is in this value bracket, has not gone into that track because it is a 'simple' debt recovery without great complexity.
The tracks allow the courts to plan how many hours/days to hear the case. Small claims can be anything from 15 minutes to a couple of hours in court. Fast Track is one day. Multi is at least two days.
The N181 is a fairly standard form which just allows the court to decide what steps to take next.
Have you defended the case? On what grounds?

[epicpotato]

OK thanks - Notice of Allocation to the Fast Track means that the case is being allocated to the fast track of the court system. Sadly this doesn't actually mean fast, it would be more accurate to call it Large Track! Cases over 10k -25k go into Fast Track. Higher amounts usually go into Multi Track which although your partners case is in this value bracket, has not gone into that track because it is a 'simple' debt recovery without great complexity.
The tracks allow the courts to plan how many hours/days to hear the case. Small claims can be anything from 15 minutes to a couple of hours in court. Fast Track is one day. Multi is at least two days.
The N181 is a fairly standard form which just allows the court to decide what steps to take next.
Have you defended the case? On what grounds?

Thank you very much.

The N149C covering letter indicates that it is being proposed to be allocated to the multitrack. I've attached a scan of the covering letter.

[Celestine]

OK - as your partner is unrepresented, he/she will be a litigant in person, so some directions will not apply.
Other than that, there is not much to achieve in disputing the allocation so simply make sure you fill it in, serve copies on the claimant and send to the court.

Does your partner have any defence arguments of strength, otherwise the costs will just rise by fighting it?

[epicpotato]

OK - as your partner is unrepresented, he/she will be a litigant in person, so some directions will not apply.
Other than that, there is not much to achieve in disputing the allocation so simply make sure you fill it in, serve copies on the claimant and send to the court.

Does your partner have any defence arguments of strength, otherwise the costs will just rise by fighting it?

Thanks again for replying. The only thing that she disputes are the huge amounts added on.

She completely admits that she owes the money, but she is my full time carer and her only income is Carer's Allowance. It's not that she wants to fight it, but for them to review her offer (as after laying out her budget with StepChange), that is all that she can afford, and has no assets of any value. We were expecting communication back as to whether they were considering her offer or not. This proposed allocation to the multi-track has completely thrown us. I literally have no idea what any of the questions mean. Most are Yes/No questions, but the wording of the questions isn't anything I have ever come accress before.

[Celestine]

Does your partner own any assets like a house or a valuable car?

without an asset to go after, they will only end up with a payment plan but not dissimilar to whatever Stepchange suggested.

Absolutely dispute any charges that don’t make sense and cross reference them against the original contract terms for the student loan.

if the case goes against, they will need to apply (Form MC100)to the court for a Means hearing to decide a payment plan. (This is usually just calculated on income/expenditure)

[epicpotato]

Does your partner own any assets like a house or a valuable car?

without an asset to go after, they will only end up with a payment plan but not dissimilar to whatever Stepchange suggested.

Absolutely dispute any charges that don’t make sense and cross reference them against the original contract terms for the student loan.

if the case goes against, they will need to apply (Form MC100)to the court for a Means hearing to decide a payment plan. (This is usually just calculated on income/expenditure)

Thank you again for spending your time on this with me.

She does not have any assets. We rent our home and she doesn't drive.

My only dilemma is what to fill out on this form. The first question is "Given that the rules require you to try to settle the claim before the hearing, do you want to attempt to settle at this stage?" With tickboxes for yes or no. I thought that's what we attempted to do by sending a reply to the initial claim, detailing the budget and offer that StepChange talked me through.