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14th January 2007 MY EMAIL IN REPLY
Dear Mr xxxxxxxx
Re Your settlement offer
Thank you for your email of 11th January 2007.
Leaving the costs issue to one side for the moment, your offer still falls short of the amount of my claim with county court interest. I do not accept it.
I am not sure that I understand your statement in relation to CPR 27.14(2)(g) not applying. I believe that the judge does have discretion to award costs in the SCC against a party who has acted unreasonably.
You also stated on the telephone on 3/1/07 that I should not forget that Barclays has incurred the same costs. I have considered this statement and in answer I have to say that Barclays' legal costs in relation to my claim cannot amount to very much - you filed the same standard (summary) defence that you file in all claims of this nature, and an allocation questionnaire. Possibly one hours work all told. You failed to comply with the court's directions to submit evidence, so I am unable to agree with you. You also had the opportunity of settling this as soon as the claim was issued, so you did not need to incur any costs.
I am not disputing your entitlement to defend my claim. Indeed, had you in fact done so, I doubt whether you would now be offering to settle. Barclays has not provided any supporting evidence in relation to its defence, therefore the defence amounts to little more than a series of unsubstantiated denials and I consider that you are now trying to masquerade it as a legitimate attempt to resist my claim in court, in an attempt to give substance to your claim to have acted reasonably. I would ask you once again to take responsibility for your actions before I am forced to refer to the matter of your unreasonable conduct at the hearing; those actions being in wasting the court's time and causing me to have to prepare my case for trial when it was never your intention to proceed to trial.
Your ex gratia offer of £100 leaves me with just £40 in respect of the time I have spent preparing for the hearing, when I allow for the expenses I have incurred. I have already notified you of the significant number of hours I have spent attending to this. However, I am mindful of the fact that the court may decide that a proportion of this would be irrecoverable, given the time I have needed to spend researching the procedures. Therefore, in the interests of a settlement before the hearing, I am proposing that you take responsibility for the time I have spent on preparations for the hearing, since 11th December 2006, and that I will further reduce this, as a goodwill gesture for the purposes of a settlement out of court only, by 14 hours 45 minutes, leaving a claim for 26 hours of work (£240.50). As you will see this reduces the overall claim by 25 hours, nearly 50%. Together with my expenses, my offer is to reduce my claim for costs to £299.86; say £300.
This is my bottom line and should you not agree to this proposal, I shall be putting forward the full amount for the court's consideration.
To summarise, I will accept the following amount from you, without conditions, in order to discontinue my claim:
£
charges 242.33
court fee 30.00
county court interest 11/8/2004 to 16/1/2007 35.51
sub total 307.84
costs 300.00
Total 607.84
If you do not agree to my terms then I will have no other option than to deem my claim as unsatisfied and proceed to the hearing. As it is now too late for a cheque to clear or for a bank transfer to reach my current account before Wednesday, I will accept a banker's draft by courier delivery by midday Tuesday (16th January 2007), which would allow sufficient time for me to notify the court that the hearing should be cancelled.
Yours sincerely
Dear Mr xxxxxxxx
Re Your settlement offer
Thank you for your email of 11th January 2007.
Leaving the costs issue to one side for the moment, your offer still falls short of the amount of my claim with county court interest. I do not accept it.
I am not sure that I understand your statement in relation to CPR 27.14(2)(g) not applying. I believe that the judge does have discretion to award costs in the SCC against a party who has acted unreasonably.
You also stated on the telephone on 3/1/07 that I should not forget that Barclays has incurred the same costs. I have considered this statement and in answer I have to say that Barclays' legal costs in relation to my claim cannot amount to very much - you filed the same standard (summary) defence that you file in all claims of this nature, and an allocation questionnaire. Possibly one hours work all told. You failed to comply with the court's directions to submit evidence, so I am unable to agree with you. You also had the opportunity of settling this as soon as the claim was issued, so you did not need to incur any costs.
I am not disputing your entitlement to defend my claim. Indeed, had you in fact done so, I doubt whether you would now be offering to settle. Barclays has not provided any supporting evidence in relation to its defence, therefore the defence amounts to little more than a series of unsubstantiated denials and I consider that you are now trying to masquerade it as a legitimate attempt to resist my claim in court, in an attempt to give substance to your claim to have acted reasonably. I would ask you once again to take responsibility for your actions before I am forced to refer to the matter of your unreasonable conduct at the hearing; those actions being in wasting the court's time and causing me to have to prepare my case for trial when it was never your intention to proceed to trial.
Your ex gratia offer of £100 leaves me with just £40 in respect of the time I have spent preparing for the hearing, when I allow for the expenses I have incurred. I have already notified you of the significant number of hours I have spent attending to this. However, I am mindful of the fact that the court may decide that a proportion of this would be irrecoverable, given the time I have needed to spend researching the procedures. Therefore, in the interests of a settlement before the hearing, I am proposing that you take responsibility for the time I have spent on preparations for the hearing, since 11th December 2006, and that I will further reduce this, as a goodwill gesture for the purposes of a settlement out of court only, by 14 hours 45 minutes, leaving a claim for 26 hours of work (£240.50). As you will see this reduces the overall claim by 25 hours, nearly 50%. Together with my expenses, my offer is to reduce my claim for costs to £299.86; say £300.
This is my bottom line and should you not agree to this proposal, I shall be putting forward the full amount for the court's consideration.
To summarise, I will accept the following amount from you, without conditions, in order to discontinue my claim:
£
charges 242.33
court fee 30.00
county court interest 11/8/2004 to 16/1/2007 35.51
sub total 307.84
costs 300.00
Total 607.84
If you do not agree to my terms then I will have no other option than to deem my claim as unsatisfied and proceed to the hearing. As it is now too late for a cheque to clear or for a bank transfer to reach my current account before Wednesday, I will accept a banker's draft by courier delivery by midday Tuesday (16th January 2007), which would allow sufficient time for me to notify the court that the hearing should be cancelled.
Yours sincerely
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