lowell solicitors ccj threat

[Diana M]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

We have received a Court Claim from Lowell Solicitors in regards to an old Very account which was in my wife's name. We are looking to respond to them by e-mail on a 'Without Prejudice' basis making an offer of instalments if they agree to withdraw the claim. On the e-mail we will say if they do not accept our offer then we will follow the requests under CCA and also under CPR, is this the correct thing to do?

I wonder if you have got that approach the right way round.

Personally I would only make an offer if I felt I'd been boxed into a corner with no hope of defending a situation. You're not at that stage yet and may never be. Who knows.

This is the beginning of your claim journey. Why not start with the mindset of 'innocent until proven guilty' . The onus of proof is always on the Claimant. Make them prove they're lawfully entitled to claim this money from an old Very (catalogue?) debt.

As has been said in the previous post, acknowledge the claim (to prevent a Default Judgment if you miss the deadline) and then start asking formal searching questions.

Di

[smoggers]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

Hi
The account was taken out in December 2008 via an on-line application and was accepted straight away with an initial credit limit to start using, in the meantime they would send out two copies of the agreement for us to sign one and return, we cannot recall for sure receiving these and sending a signed copy back. As said in my original post the application had the wrong date of birth accidentally inputted.
From our e-mail records the last payment made on the account was November 2011 when we began to have financial difficulties, from when the account was opened to the final payment Very continued to increase the credit limit to the point where we could not sustain the monthly payments (probably not a good excuse but we were in the credit loop of paying peter to pay Paul).
We have received numerous letters over the years but only recently have started to get our finances back on track.
The last letter we had was from Lowell Solicitors dated 17/05/16 which was a Letter Of Claim outlining they would take Court action if no response with offer of payment within 14 days.
We then received the County Court claim on 05/07/16, it is dated 01/07/16.
We have not acknowledged the claim in any way as yet as we want to avoid a CCJ but cannot afford to pay the full amount circa £3k incl fees/interest, is it prudent to contact Lowell Solicitors before acknowledging the claim to make an offer WOP of instalments?

[Diana M]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

We have not acknowledged the claim in any way as yet as we want to avoid a CCJ but cannot afford to pay the full amount circa £3k incl fees/interest, is it prudent to contact Lowell Solicitors before acknowledging the claim to make an offer WOP of instalments?

See my previous post

Acknowledge the claim and then consider your options.

This claim is likely to be in the Small Claims Court (it's under the £10k limit) so you will be given the opportunity to agree to free telephone Mediation after you've filed your Defence, and if the Claimant also agrees to Mediation you can settle at that stage without a CCJ (it'll be a legally binding agreement though).

You say you want to avoid a CCJ (don't we all) but is that because it could have a negative impact on your employment or maybe future plans to mortgage/remortgage etc?

Di

[smoggers]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

Thanks Di
We don't want the CCJ as it may affect future plans for a mortgage etc. My wife works in finance so yes it could negatively affect this employment.
The mediation sounds good but is this only offered however if you defend your claim or is it an option to take if you admit the claim and then come to agreements during the mediation? and if Lowell decline will it proceed to a hearing immediately?

I presume we would choose 'defend the claim' on the acknowledgement and in the meantime requesting Lowell sols and Lowell for CCA and CPR once the acknowledgement is issued?
My wife thinks that defending the case is not the right course of action as she thinks we do not have a good legal argument to do so as we are aware of the debt and do owe this money, and not being savvy with legal processes she is unsure how we could defend the case? My wife is really stressing over this and really wants to try and resolve before this even goes to court so is it best to make an offer to Lowell via letter now ? I am aware they can just dismiss the offer anyway and carry on but would this look more favourable if it was to go before court?

[smoggers]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

Any further response to our previous post would be appreciated as this is scary time!!

[charitynjw]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

Thanks Di
We don't want the CCJ as it may affect future plans for a mortgage etc. My wife works in finance so yes it could negatively affect this employment.
The mediation sounds good but is this only offered however if you defend your claim or is it an option to take if you admit the claim and then come to agreements during the mediation? and if Lowell decline will it proceed to a hearing immediately?

I presume we would choose 'defend the claim' on the acknowledgement and in the meantime requesting Lowell sols and Lowell for CCA and CPR once the acknowledgement is issued?
My wife thinks that defending the case is not the right course of action as she thinks we do not have a good legal argument to do so as we are aware of the debt and do owe this money, and not being savvy with legal processes she is unsure how we could defend the case? My wife is really stressing over this and really wants to try and resolve before this even goes to court so is it best to make an offer to Lowell via letter now ? I am aware they can just dismiss the offer anyway and carry on but would this look more favourable if it was to go before court?

IMHO

It is always a good idea to bargain from a position of strength.
If you submit a CCA request & they fail to come up with the goods within 12 days (+ 2 for postage), they cannot continue with enforcement until/unless they do comply.
If they do comply, you will be able to examine the documents sent to you for any irregularities.
Just by demonstrating that you are willing & able to defend the claim enhances your bargaining position.
& all that for the princely sum of £1 (plus postage)
If you do not acknowledge the claim via the court (MCOL), they (claimant) will almost certainly apply for a default judgment. The court timetable is now of paramount importance.

[nemesis45]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

Any further response to our previous post would be appreciated as this is scary time!!

Hi,

Given the information re the "agreement " it's my opinion that you should make the make the CCA request asap.
You can still arrive at a mediation a little later in the process, clearly there is some suspicion that the agreement may be faulty or even non existent, take advantage of this as you can be sure Lowell will take an advantage they can to obtain judgement.

nem

[Diana M]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

The mediation sounds good but is this only offered however if you defend your claim or is it an option to take if you admit the claim and then come to agreements during the mediation?

My wife thinks that defending the case is not the right course of action as she thinks we do not have a good legal argument to do so as we are aware of the debt and do owe this money, and not being savvy with legal processes she is unsure how we could defend the case? My wife is really stressing over this and really wants to try and resolve before this even goes to court so is it best to make an offer to Lowell via letter now ? I am aware they can just dismiss the offer anyway and carry on but would this look more favourable if it was to go before court?

There are those who think if you borrowed the money you should pay it back. I'm not one of them. My personal feeling is if a creditor hasn't got the legal right to enforce a debt then that's their problem for not complying with the law at the outset or along the way.

A wise DJ once said "we're here to judge facts not morals".

To answer your first question, telephone mediation is only available after a Defence is filed.

Your wife is worrying that she won't have any legal grounds to defend this claim. That's not known until the Claimant produces (or not) the paperwork. The onus of proving the claim is with the Claimant not with you.

If Mediation doesn't take place (because Lowells don't agree which is unlikely) or you fail to reach agreement at Mediation (which is also unlikely because the mediators are skilled negotiators) then the case will be transferred to your local county court and you will be sent Directions which is a list of things the court wants both sides to do before any hearing can take place. This will include a Witness Statement where you can tell your side of the story and point out any flaws in theirs.

You have the freedom to make an offer to settle any time along the way but once you've filed a Defence you will have got them on the back foot which is always a good place to negotiate from.

Di

[smoggers]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

Brilliant Di, thank you.
Strangely, we have now received a letter from Lowell sols telling us they have issued a Court claim and to contact them to discuss further.
This makes me think even more that they want to avoid going to Court as their own costs to attend would outweigh what they paid the debt for.
My wife is going to speak to them WOP to make small instalments if they withdraw, if they refuse I am immediately going to confirm on-line we are to defend and send the letters to Lowell and Lowell sols.
I am up for a battle!

[smoggers]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

Hi Di

One last question- about to issue the CPA letter as advised should I send a copy to Lowell with the £1 postal order and also a copy to Lowell solictors? Or do I just issue a the letter to Lowell Solictors. My husband has read other threads and he said I need to issue CPA letter and £1 postal order to Lowell and CPR letter to Lowell solicitors for which no payment is required-Is this correct ?

[nemesis45]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

Hi Di

One last question- about to issue the CPA letter as advised should I send a copy to Lowell with the £1 postal order and also a copy to Lowell solictors? Or do I just issue a the letter to Lowell Solictors. My husband has read other threads and he said I need to issue CPA letter and £1 postal order to Lowell and CPR letter to Lowell solicitors for which no payment is required-Is this correct ?

CCA request to the claimant with £1 fee. CPR 31.14 to solicitors.

nem

[Diana M]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

we have now received a letter from Lowell sols telling us they have issued a Court claim

This may or may not be true. You'll only know that when it drops on your doormat.

In the meantime as nemesis says a CCA request goes to the creditor (Lowell Financial or Lowell Portfolio in your case?) .

Then when you receive the court summons (if you do and not before) you should send a CPR 31.14 request to their solicitors (Lowell Solicitors assuming they're named on the claim form).

Di

[smoggers]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

Hi
We sent the CCA request to Lowell with £1 postal order and the CFR to Lowell Solicitors both as recorded delivery, they were signed for on 13/07/16 and 14/07/16, as yet no response. In the meantime we acknowledged the Court claim online that we were to defend, no response from either Lowell or Lowell solicitors so were now preparing our defence (which I calculate is due by 03//08/16 (original Court form issue date was 01/07/16)?
I presume we use the defence under the Court claim links?

[smoggers]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

We have now entered our defence as no response from either Lowell/Lowell Solicitors - can you advise on what happens next? Also are there any examples of outcomes of others members/users of this site in similar circumstances.

[nemesis45]

Re: lowell solicitors ccj threat

We have now entered our defence as no response from either Lowell/Lowell Solicitors - can you advise on what happens next? Also are there any examples of outcomes of others members/users of this site in similar circumstances.

The court serves you defence on the claimant who then has 28 days to respond if they don't respond the court will stay the claim. You will not be informed if this happens so you will have to check with the court to check the status of the claim.

nem