Court Claim - Lowell Portfolio / Vanquis - 21-9-2017

[Amethyst]

Re: Court Claim - Lowell Portfolio / Vanquis - 21-9-2017

That would be far too sensible and cost effective for the county court xxx

Btw it's Mediation, not remediation

[DeeS77]

Re: Court Claim - Lowell Portfolio / Vanquis - 21-9-2017

Okay I have an update. So now I've received a letter titled "Notice of allocation to the small claims track (hearing) and it begins with the below:

"District Judge ********** has considered the statements of case and directions questionnaire filed and allocated the claim to the small claims track.

Unless the claimant does by 4pm 28th Feb pay to the court the trial fee of £170 or file a properly completed application (i.e one which provides all the required information in the manner requested) for help with fees then the claim will be struck out with effect from 1st March without further order and, unless the court others otherwise, you will also be liable for the costs which the defendant has occurred"

Then the rest just appears to be standard text about court dates etc. When I first read this, I thought it was saying that I had feed to pay - when I read it again I'm now getting the impression that this letter is actually a copy of one that was sent to Lowell, does this sound right? Does this also mean that if they don't provide all the information that I have requested before then it'll be struck out? Sorry this is all new to me and I just want to understand where I stand, this is scary stuff

[Amethyst]

Re: Court Claim - Lowell Portfolio / Vanquis - 21-9-2017

The hearing fee is paid by Lowell, so if they don't pay the fee the case gets struck out.

Have you read the second page of that notice - this is normally where they hide important details of when Witness Statements should be exchanged - so check that thoroughly first of all, you don't want to miss that date.

I'll have a read back see if there's anything else you need do.

Still no sign of documents from the claimant?

[Kati]

Re: Court Claim - Lowell Portfolio / Vanquis - 21-9-2017

you're right ... it's the claimant (Lowell) that has to pay the fee. If they don't in the timescale specified, the claim will be struck out

- - - Updated - - -

beat me to it Ame xx

[DeeS77]

Re: Court Claim - Lowell Portfolio / Vanquis - 21-9-2017

Thank you both. Yes I've read on further, the date to submit statements etc is a couple of weeks before the court date.

Heard nothing more from Lowell, no more documentation since.

[Amethyst]

Re: Court Claim - Lowell Portfolio / Vanquis - 21-9-2017

Cool. Quite normal.

Is the Witness Statement date before or after the hearing fee date ?

[DeeS77]

Re: Court Claim - Lowell Portfolio / Vanquis - 21-9-2017

The witness statements are requested a couple of weeks after the fee date and a couple before the hearing date

[Amethyst]

Re: Court Claim - Lowell Portfolio / Vanquis - 21-9-2017

Okay. So check with the court if the fee has been paid after the 28th Feb, if it has start preparing your Witness Statements to be filed and served on time. The Hearing Fee and Witness Statement dates are points where the claimants might discontinue if they don't have the documents for the case.

Is it still the case all you received is a list of payments ? ( is that list even from a Vanquis credit card btw - just noted the statement said ' Jumper ' - which wouldn't show on a credit card statement - unless it was payment to a company called Jumper I guess, sounds more like a catalogue transaction list )

They still haven't provided anything other than a list of charges to a catalog and a copy of the letter of transfer to them. The charges list was just minimum detail like "Jumper £25 - 10/04/2014", typed out on the letter.

[DeeS77]

Re: Court Claim - Lowell Portfolio / Vanquis - 21-9-2017

Okay. So check with the court if the fee has been paid after the 28th Feb, if it has start preparing your Witness Statements to be filed and served on time. The Hearing Fee and Witness Statement dates are points where the claimants might discontinue if they don't have the documents for the case.

Is it still the case all you received is a list of payments ? ( is that list even from a Vanquis credit card btw - just noted the statement said ' Jumper ' - which wouldn't show on a credit card statement - unless it was payment to a company called Jumper I guess, sounds more like a catalogue transaction list )

Good spot!!! No it didn't say jumper, it was the names of places it says that I spent money so it was actually store names, think I must've just been writing down an example in a rush or something. I just found the letter and it was formatted like below:

Transaction1: Tesco London 090-6574-xxxx
Transaction2: Asda Manchester 789-83663

etc, there were 10 transactions.

I've still had nothing else, they don't even list amounts/values on this letter.

[DeeS77]

So I've just phoned and Lowell have paid the court trial fee, so now I have to prepare a witness statement, does anyone have any tips for this please?

I'm quite shocked as I still haven't had any of the things that I have requested from them, it seems odd to me if they have no evidence? Gutted that I now have to go through the court process, I'm about to be made redundant too

[warwick65]

Just because they have paid the court fee doesn't necessarily mean they will go ahead. the actual court fee is not a great deal of money and even if it persuades 5% of people who say they are defending to cave in, it will be worth their while.

When do you have to file your WS?

Remember , while you can file it at court by email (I think- but don't trust the court to actually say they have received it) you can not use email for the solicitors

[Amethyst]

Some examples of Witness Statements can be found http://legalbeagles.info/forums/foru...ness-statement

The letter giving you the date of the hearing normally gives you a decent outline of what is required by the Witness Statement too.

[DeeS77]

Thank you both, I need to file by 14th with court date at end of the month. They have no evidence so I don't see how they could possibly win.

[Amethyst]

In your defence you have denied that you held a Vanquis card. Do the payments on the transaction list make sense to you ? Did you ever send the SAR to Vanquis ?

You will have a better idea of their case and if they do have any documents when you receive their witness statement - and you could at that point, if they seem to have a strong case, negotiate for an out of court settlement at that point... potentially under a Tomlin/Consent order for installment payments over a period while the claim is 'stayed' at court to be either withdrawn once you've paid it all, or picked up again by the Claimant should you fail on agreed installments. So I would prepare your Witness Statement, send it to court and claimant and then see what theirs says, and then have a good overall assessment of the situation

[DeeS77]

Oh, so I'll receive a copy of their witness statement in the post too? I hadn't realise I'd see anything else before the court date. I'm going to spend a couple of hours this evening reading up on the full process.