Rumours of the heavyweight High Court getting involved in the messy, unfair charges business have been met with mixed feelings, but learn why you should keep pursuing your claim.
Many of us have been attempting (and succeeding!) to recover unlawful charges. So far, we've all been playing a game of nerves with our banks and card companies, as we've had to handle our cases individually, sometimes right to the point of going to court.
At present, claimants are submitting claims to County Courts. The defendants - banks and credit card companies - are either settling before it gets there, or they're not filing a defence, which means they get a default judgment against them. The company ends up paying out either way, but does so whilst denying liability.
The first problem with this is there is no case law to support claimants, which makes many claimants unduly nervous about their prospects. If a company ever bothers to file a defence in the future and - as we'd expect - the judge comes down on the claimant's side, it will be a huge victory for everyone else, as it would make it even easier to claim. This is why companies aren't defending themselves.
The second problem is that in the County Courts we must individually pursue our claims against massive, arrogant, intimidating companies.
Some say we might soon get a helping hand from the High Court, which could order companies to pay claims without a fight. At least two cases have taken steps towards the High Court. In one of these cases, the company panicked so badly that they settled the claim for something like six times the original charges.
In the other, more recent case, the press reported that some judges in at least one County Court, Gloucester, had stopped hearing claims because of a possible High Court case which would resolve all the individual cases. However, it appears that this case has been settled by the bank - not surprisingly - so individual claims have resumed.
The only way, realistically, to force the banks through higher courts is if the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) gets involved. The downside to this is that, if there was a big case on behalf of the consumer, all the County Courts might put a stay on individual proceedings. This will delay claims for refunds, maybe for months or years, as well as possibly tying up money that we've paid in court fees.
I don't believe this is going to happen any time soon. The OFT is so busy that it's currently trying to slim down the number of investigations it's doing. Also, if you have charges going back six years, you need to start your claim sooner rather than later, in order to lock in the six-year limitation period (as mentioned in this article).
So nothing has changed. If it makes you feel any better, I'm just about to start stage four: court proceedings. This will involve paying some modest court fees. I'll give you more information on how the court process works in a later article.
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> For all articles on this subject, see The Ultimate Guide To Reclaiming Bank And Card Charges.
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