Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

[solarnewt]

I was harassed by a company and I took them to court. It took years and I suffered mentally.
I was unfit for work, however ATOS decided that, because I was taking the harassers to court, I was fit for work and stopped my benefits. this devastated me and had an effect on the court case. I could not get legal advice as I was not on benefits.I have been existing on very little. I have debts.
the harassers appealed the courts decision and they lost.
I could not defend myself properly against their legal team and felt paralysed. I had no one to talk to and I am very isolated.
the harassers were not transparent and omitted and bent the truth and got away with far more. I know the case and probably every single document and better than anyone. I know every lie they told and can show how they did it and where the lies are in the case. there were so many that I just didn't have the skill in getting it across to the court, in writing, and making it clear to understand.
i have no legal training and although I could prove beyond doubt that they did more than they were found guilty of (and to criminal levels) I was not able to as I am unskilled in law and a shadow of my former self. my confidence had been crushed.

I am now in default and there is an order from the court that I have not responded to.
I live in constant fear of bailiffs coming to take what little I have left, or from being jailed for not paying.

my life is an avalanche of documents coming from all directions, a total mess. I dont know where to start to get things back in order.

the only good thing to come out of this is that these days I dont get many harassing phone calls but from the ones I have had, it is clear that these companies are still harassing people as if it is their right to do so.

I know that the phone calls are still happening to 1000s of people daily.

there is nowhere for anyone to turn for help if they are getting harassment calls from a company. no organizations are dealing with this. no advice except on forums and this is sparse. the effect can be devastating on a person or a family's mental health.

I need to pay my debts and I need to make sure that people know what to expect from these type of harassers.

[Amethyst]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

What a horrible situation for you to have had to go through, I really hope we'll be able to help in some small way to getting things back on track.

Firstly, the court order....that needs dealing with so could you type it up or scan/photograph it and post it on here (take off any personal details in a programme like PAINT first) or feel free to email it to admin@legalbeagles.info and I'll do it for you. Lets make sure you are up to date with that and take it from that point.

Then we can have a look at everything else, benefits, ATOS, other debts etc okay xxx

Welcome to the forum xx

Sharon

[Amethyst]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

Thank you for the documents by email. So basically you have a costs order of quite a large amount against you.

Could you send me a copy of the original judgment in the case and your original claim (Particulars of Claim) too please.

Did you take the case to appeal after losing at county court?

[solarnewt]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

the original particulars had two parts - harassment and data breaches but they got the data part struck out.

I have sent you the particulars of 2010 by email.

I need to scan the judgment. it will be tomorrow when I can do that.

Also it was them who took it to appeal after losing to me at county court.

thank you for welcoming me to the forum.

I was on the CAG and I had friends that helped me too.

I couldn't have got this far on my own.

Amanda

[Amethyst]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

Do you have a link to your CAG thread, might save having to repeat yourself xxx

[solarnewt]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

the original particulars had two parts - harassment and data breaches but they got the data part struck out.

I have sent you the particulars of 2010 by email.

I need to scan the judgment. it will be tomorrow when I can do that.

Also it was them who took it to appeal after losing to me at county court.

thank you for welcoming me to the forum.

I was on the CAG and I had friends that helped me too.

I couldn't have got this far on my own.

Amanda

[Amethyst]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2013/882.html No need to scan Found it. Sorry took me a while to put two and two together xx

[Amethyst]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

Summary of Case

Tort – Harassment. The defendant bank made or attempted to make over
500 telephone calls to the claimant in respect of her accounts with
the bank. The claimant brought proceedings against the bank seeking
damages for harassment. The judge found that the calls had amounted to
harassment and awarded £7,500 in damages. The Court of Appeal, Civil
Division, dismissed the bank's appeal on the basis that the judge had
been right to characterise the calls as intimidation and there was no
possible ground for interfering with the judge's assessment of
damages.

Summary

The claimant was an account holder with the defendant bank (the bank).
The bank wanted to speak to her as she had exceeded her overdraft or
credit limit on one or more of her respective accounts with the bank.
The claimant did not want to speak to the bank and requested that they
desist from calling her. The bank refused to do so and continued to
call or attempt to call the claimant. Between December 2007 and May
2008, the bank made or attempted to make 547 telephone calls to the
claimant regarding her accounts. In April 2010, the claimant issued
proceedings in the county court seeking damages for harassment under
the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. The bank denied harassment
and counterclaimed for outstanding charges on the claimant's accounts
totalling just over £10,000. The claimant did not contest the
counterclaim. Shortly after the bank had filed its defence and
counterclaim, it made a 'drop hands' offer of settlement to the
claimant (the offer). That was the second such offer that the bank had
made and it also included a confidentiality clause. The claimant did
not respond to the offer. At a hearing in February 2012, the judge
held that the bank's conduct had amounted to harassment and awarded
the claimant £7,500 in damages. The counterclaim also succeeded. Both
parties applied for their costs in the claim. The judge concluded that
the claimant was entitled to her costs up to the date of the expiry of
the offer, from which point each party would bear their own costs. The
bank appealed against the findings on liability and quantum in respect
of the harassment claim, and against the decision on costs.

In respect of the harassment appeal, the principal issues that fell to
be determined were whether the judge had erred in: (i) failing to take
into account the context of the calls, in particular that the bank had
had a good reason to contact the claimant; and (ii) assessing damages
at £7,500. In respect of the costs appeal, the bank submitted, inter
alia, that the judge's decision on costs had been perverse.

The appeals would be dismissed.

(1) The existence of a debt did not give a lender the right to bombard
the debtor with calls. It was for the debtor to decide whether they
wanted to discuss the matter with the creditor.

In respect of the harassment appeal, the claimant had made it
perfectly clear that she had not wanted to speak to the bank, and she
had been perfectly entitled to do so. Once the bank had phoned a few
times, it had been clear that no progress was to be made. Further
calls had been futile and should have been stopped. The judge had been
right to characterise the calls as intimidation and they had been
wholly unjustified. In respect of quantum, there was no possible
ground for interfering with the judge's assessment of damages.

Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [2003] IRLR
102considered; Majrowski v Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust [2006] 4 All
ER 395considered; Conn v Sunderland City Council [2008] IRLR
324considered; Ferguson v British Gas Trading Ltd [2009] 3 All ER
304considered; Da'Bell v National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to
Children [2010] IRLR 19considered.

(2) In respect of the costs appeal, the order which the judge had
crafted had been one which he had been entitled to come to in the
exercise of his discretion.

Jeremy Howe Barrister."

[Amethyst]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

Hi Thankyou for all the documents and emails, very much appreciated.

I think you need to deal with this situation asap and get a big fat line drawn underneath the case and everything surrounding it so you can get on with life.

So, what is your situation property wise ?

Have you had any contact from the court or defendants since the costs order was made ?

Need to know exactly what has happened since the costs order so we know what the next step for you to take is.

[solarnewt]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

on CAG I am Leeds1 though I havn't posted on there for a couple of years or more.

I was communicating by phone and e mail mainly.

[solarnewt]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

Actually I responded to their offers.

here is a copy of an e mail I sent. this was when I had legal aid -

"i provisionally accept the tomlin order under the following conditions -

the bank agrees and accepts that it did not, at any time, look into my complaints under the customer complaints procedure regulations set out by itself.

the bank agrees and accepts that the bank refused me service at the branch and refused me access to pay my accounts.

the bank agrees and accepts and is aware that it had put a block on my accounts which should not have been there and did not remove it or inform me when it knew it was there.

the bank agrees and accepts that the bank did take phone payment to clear arrears in jan 08 and then did not process payment and did not inform me.

the bank agrees and accepts that the bank sold and bought back my accounts.

the bank agrees they have not accepted responsibility for its own irregular actions which are governed by statute law.

The bank agrees that behaving in this manner is likely be vexatious and to cause alarm, upset and distress to the receiver of the treatment."

all too late now, I know. I should have studied law. I went to the appeal on my own. Sadly, I didnt realise the importance of offers at the time.

Amanda

[Amethyst]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

Ouch. Okay. Did you get help from a solicitor with that response through Legal Aid ?

Main question need to know before we can go further with sorting this out - do you own your home?

and

Have you had any contact from the court or defendants since the costs order was made ?

[Nibbler]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

How much do you owe and to whom? Types of debt etc rather than naming companies.

As said, do you own property/equity or valuable assets?

Do you have any realistic potential to pay them all off?

[solarnewt]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

I did that response to the tomlin order myself.

I do not own my own home, I am renting.

and regarding contact from the court or defendants since the costs order was made - there has been no contact.

Debts are - I have a council tax default and I am in danger of getting a meter fitted with Eon as I owe them money.

Amanda

[solarnewt]

Re: Telephone harassment from a company - is there help available or advice?

things are worse than I say but my main reason for coming on here was to try and get myself talking about this and to get motivated to move forward.

I would like to keep fighting. The bank have concealed the silent calls deliberately.

the final call log provided by the bank shows they admit to making 7 silent calls which the bank denied making in their witness statement.

the bank use different ways of logging calls.
these are:

RPC – right person connect

Generic release F = security not answered

Recall release = caller asked to be called back

Attempt

Connect

No Answer

Abnormal agent end

Answer machine




Silent calls (appendix 1 skeleton argument)

Appendix 1 skeleton argument. - In this document, the banks final submission of call logs, the bank admit to making 7 calls that can be proven to be silent.

calls in these call logs have been repeatedly logged wrong by the bank.

These are transcripts 4, 5, 17, 28, 34, 51 and 52.




Transcripts 5 -17 and 51

Human input logged these calls as -"connects" on transcripts 5, 17 and 51 - here the bank admit that the calls were connected. These calls can be proven to be silent calls by looking at the transcript numbers 5, 17 and 51.Therefore the "sub total of Connects" suggested by the bank is wrong.
Human input also logged these calls as "security questions not answered" on transcripts 5, 17 and 51 This is wrong as there were no security questions asked and I could not refuse to answer the security questions as all of the calls were silent. The sub total of “security questions not answered” suggested by the bank is wrong.

Transcripts 4 - 28 - 34 and 52
Four of these calls were made during the time when collections were unable to process payments due to the banks errors and when the bank had been given instructions by collections to not serve me in the branch between January 8th and February 11th 2008. These are transcripts 4, 5, 17 and 28. These calls served no purpose and should not have happened at all as evidenced when the bank admitted error in transcript 19.
Transcripts 5 and 17 have been logged as times when I refused security questions when I should not have had the phone calls at all.
Transcripts 4 and 28 have been logged as times when the call did not connect ("attempts") when I should not have had the phone calls at all.
The following calls have been logged wrong automatically by the banks system. These were silent calls.
Automated input logged as - "Attempts". This is wrong as these calls were actually connected calls and can be proven by looking at the transcripts numbers 4, 28, 34 and 52.
Automatic input logged as - "No answer". this is wrong as the following calls were answered as evidenced by the transcript numbers 4 and 34.
Automatic input logged as - "Answer machine". This is wrong as the calls were answered as is evidenced in the transcript numbers 28 and 52.
Automatic input logged as - "call rang out". This is wrong as the call was answered as evidenced in transcript 4.
Because there were calls that were answered, the sub total of "Attempts" is wrong.
The banks system is capable of harassment from automatic input.

I need to say, these are just the calls that are on the final log submitted by the bank. there were 3 other versions. they edited and altered them.

there are at least 11 silent calls the bank have been able to conceal this way.

the system is designed to hide this. there are more than one occasion of each error. these show beyond reasonable doubt that the bank have courses of conduct in each area.

the problem I had was my lack of confidence and inexperience and it was impossible for me to afford to get a forensics report on my phone as I could not afford. I did approach them but they are used to dealing with the police and not the public.

I am considering contacting the Centre for Investigative Journalism
who have joined with Ian Taplin who have formed -

http://www.whistleblowersuk.org

not to be confused with whistleblowers.co.uk who I approached before.