Restons issued a court summons without prior notice

[BIGMAN]

My wife has a long outstanding debt on a credit card held in her previous name.
I have two questions:
1 - They have issued her with a court summons without any prior notice so she has had no opportunity to negotiate. When she called them they said they had sent a letter and that the court case still stands along with their additional fees. They said as far as they were concerned they sent prior warning letter so she has no option but to have the case heard. My wife would have liked to try and negotiate this 8k debt but was not given the choice. Are Restons right? Does it still have to go to court?

2- This credit card debt is mega old and is in her name previous name. She was making nominal payments of a £1 up to i think 5 years ago.
She doe not work and has offered to pay £20 a month against this old debt but Restons want more. They want me to provide my income details in order to get more money from my wife. Do i have to give my details as this is her unsecured debt in a previous name and her name is not on my property?

Please advise
Many thanks

[charitynjw]

Re: Restons issued a court summons without prior notice

Hi BIGMAN & welcome to LB

Where (country) do you live?

[Diana M]

Re: Restons issued a court summons without prior notice

My wife has a long outstanding debt on a credit card held in her previous name.
I have two questions:
1 - They have issued her with a court summons without any prior notice so she has had no opportunity to negotiate. When she called them they said they had sent a letter and that the court case still stands along with their additional fees. They said as far as they were concerned they sent prior warning letter so she has no option but to have the case heard. My wife would have liked to try and negotiate this 8k debt but was not given the choice. Are Restons right? Does it still have to go to court?

2- This credit card debt is mega old and is in her name previous name. She was making nominal payments of a £1 up to i think 5 years ago.

If a summons has been issued then it needs to be dealt with since the court timetable is non negotiable.

Your wife must file an Acknowledgment of Service stating her intention to defend all of the claim within 19 days of the claim Issue Date or risk a CCJ by default.

Restons are a firm of solicitors so who is the Claimant named on the summons and did the debt originate with them or was this debt bought from another creditor?

You say your wife was making nominal payments up until five years ago so do you know when the account was first opened and what it was for (credit card, loan, bank account, catalogue etc)?

You say the creditor/solicitor is asking for an I & E form to be completed by you, but I don't see why you should respond if it's not your debt (unless this was a joint bank account and you are named on the summons).

Di

[BIGMAN]

Re: Restons issued a court summons without prior notice

Thanks for responding Di
My wife has responded to the mcol court website stating she accepts the debt but doesn't agree to the added costs levied by Restons fees and court fees because she never had the opportunity to settle or negotiate out of court.
Going to court was unnecessary.
She is already paying a £40 monthly amount to Restons for a previous debt taken over by Restons that went to court and now it seems they have taken over another debt to hit her again
The previous debt was for a credit card and this latest one also a credit card both in my wife's previous name. They are historical debts before our marriage and are not linked with me at all.
Any advice would be very welcome
Thank you

[BIGMAN]

Re: Restons issued a court summons without prior notice

Does my wife still have to go to court as there was no prior notice and opportunity to negotiate - and does she now have to pay the court fees / costs as this is surely unjust

[Stu]

Re: Restons issued a court summons without prior notice

You could write to them with a full and final settlement offer...

[micro]

Re: Restons issued a court summons without prior notice

You could write to them with a full and final settlement offer...

Out of interest what kind of percentage of the debt should the offer be - so it gets them to bite?

[Diana M]

Re: Restons issued a court summons without prior notice

My wife has responded to the mcol court website stating she accepts the debt but doesn't agree to the added costs levied by Restons fees and court fees because she never had the opportunity to settle or negotiate out of court.
Going to court was unnecessary.

Are you saying your wife has already filed a 'Part Admission' in response to the summons?

Did she consider or take any advice as to whether the debt may be unenforceable in court so she may have had a Defence? If she'd filed a Defence then she may have had the opportunity to negotiate a settlement using the court's free telephone Mediation service (available for claims under £10k) which is legally binding but not a CCJ.

A Part Admission could be followed by the Claimant entering judgment against her (a CCJ) unless she makes an application to withdraw it on the basis that she did that without taking legal advice to establish her rights (if she subsequently does).

Did anyone advise her to make that Part Admission?

Who was the original creditor and how much is the claim for?

Di

[Stu]

Re: Restons issued a court summons without prior notice

Out of interest what kind of percentage of the debt should the offer be - so it gets them to bite?

They pay a pittance for the debt so I guess anything might be possible but from experience of my own, with a paragraph or two about my own circumstances I got 68% discount on the whole debt and it was a CCJ at the time so they could have just dismissed me altogether but I guess it might all boil down to the person on the day, however on another note it was first turned down by the solicitors initially I just cut out the middleman (solicitors) and went back to the debt owner so never give up .....