I was carping myself when I had my first encounter at court, I too wished I had professional representation but the time went well for me, not sure if you read my write up link here if not. I used the trembling LIP out of his comfort zone approach making the judge know I was out of my league but I was familiar with the legalities of the case and the only falling point would be my lack of experience at court, turned from an aggressive judge into a very helpfull judge. You will be fine, my case has just been discontinued but they do like to drag things out so expect a long journey.

Yep contact the court to confirm it, if you cant confirm it yet get your court bundle and be in court just in case. Their wording if they wish to continue with the case for me was different, with me they requested a short hearing for direction. They give you enough information to get your hopes up but not enough so you have a clue what is happening.

I have contacted the court and they were not aware of the discontinuance, I have by their request sent the court a copy of the letter, if this is a ploy to catch me off guard and miss deadlines there is a chance it will smack them in the face, I just think its Restons normal incompetence and they forgot to let the court know. Time will tell.

I got a letter today from Restons stating that MBNA will be discontinuing the action against me, its not without prejudice so I assume it is genuine (never can tell with Restons). There was mentioned in my previous court appearance order that they should pay my costs, do I send the invoice/claim to Restons or to the courts, can I also request that they clear the record from the credit reference agencies, if my cost is too high can they request it be rejected, bearing in mind the preparation for multi track is very thorough and long winded.

Its allocated to multi trak Should I send a letter "without prejudice" stating that I will not accept the offer unless expenses to date are settled. Should I advise that my solicitor will continue with preparation for the case until such time as I recieve confirmation from the court that this case has been discontinued and I will expect payment of expenses until then. I would also like my credit record to be amended "not sure what wording to put here"

Just got a letter from Restons Without Prejudice of course I still intend to have my expenses paid by them as it is their fault that I have acquired them. Any suggestion of a letter to send to tell them where to stick it and what I need to watch out for.

When I was at court and the Judge assigned my case to a full trial he mentioned that it was a total disclosure case and that I was obliged to mention all evidence even if it was detrimental to my case, has anyone else heard of this and any guidance that may help me. The order came through yesterday and did not mention about the letter from Restons that came late, I am on training at the moment but will ring the court next week to find what was meant by the letter in their eyes and if it affected the order.

The above #262 was accompanied by a letter from Restons saying. I thought it was me being dense but it appears no one else here understands it, on first impressions it makes me think they have dropped the case but the second sentance makes me think they want to take it to a full trial or it could be just to settle expenses etc.

Ist class Royal mail

The letter was postcoded 2/9/09. Because Restons leave it to the last minute to send anything it never arrived in time for me to see it, I hope the court got theirs late as well, the Judge didn't know about it so I guess it did. From what it reads to me, the SJ is to be cancelled and they want a hearing to arrange a proper trial. A trial was arranged anyway on Friday so had they turned up this letter wouldnt have been required and another hearing not needed, unless they were afraid Fridays outcome. I will ring the court on Monday for an indication of what it means.

Just got this letter from Restons not sure what it means.

I did ask for expenses and that was added in the order, he was not interested in the amount so I assume I can sort that out later. Would it be an idea to send my expenses to Restons now so they know how much they are likely to pay to date, if they receive this before the order from the court they may think they have lost outright. It may get them thinking about the extra costs incurred for the next stages of the multi-track route, especially if I let them know I will be employing a barrister/solicitor for each of the stages. I've gone this far I hope they realise I am not going to back down now.

Unfortunately I didn't win the Judge Lotto this time. Didn't go as bad as it could I guess. Run down of the day. I arrived at 11:30, I like to be punctual give chance for nerves to settle, it was a very quiet waiting room, only one suited person on their own and a chap dressed like a tramp **edit** but alas he left, peeping over the suited gentleman's shoulder he had different names on his documentation so guessed it wasn't him. 12 oclock came and went so I asked when I was going in, they said the judge was on a conference call and had another one in the queue so had to wait, I asked if my opposition had arrived and he confirmed my thoughts that he had not. 12:50 I was called in, a rather serious looking grey haired gentleman looking down his nose at me, as soon as he opened his mouth I thought "Doh I'm done for" he said I don't know why the other party hasnt turned up but due to them not being there he would "dismiss or not really, strike off the summary judgement" almost his words he didnt know what to call it which was rather strange, he then said he needed to refer it to trial and gave me a run-down of the process involved using the multi track route. So I am off to trial, not a victory for MBNA but not a total loss for me, its just going to involve a lot of work,time and expense on my behalf. Bit disappointed but not totally unexpected, after all it is a lot of money involved. If I lose I guess I'm living in a cardboard box with my family.

Thank you everyone for your support leaving in a few minutes, court case is at 12 so probably be in by 3, if last time has anything to go by.

It is any minute now That was a PS from my previous post. Soz didn't make it clear.

Just to make you aware, Restons leave everything to the last minute, don't get a false sense of security when 20 seconds before a deadline you have heard nothing, rest assured it will be following in the next 19 seconds. Good luck with your defence.

PS It was adjourned (Guess that's what its called)pending response from the claimant at court because of the invalid default notice, Restons responded by requesting it be returned to court at the last possible moment. As you well know they normally leave correspondence to the last minute and I was expecting a letter or phone call today trying to come to some arrangement, not received it yet so I guess tomorrow. They don't like to give you chance to get legal advice before replying to their time critical offers.

I have it saved as an open office document and it may not be legible for some people so posted as a quote, if it loses formatting I will find another way around it. Its made up of a combination of posts from this site so does not read particularly well but I believe it may have helped me as a sole litigant shaking and quivering by being taken from my comfort zone lost in a sea of sharks and crabs. Anything else you need just ask, im on all day.

Well I am back in court tomorrow (Friday). Just wondered if anyone could give me a few more pointers as regarding my defence, things have changed alot since I started this thread, a summary of the current lines of thought would be nice. When I started The invalid Default notice was enough to quash the case, now its just enough to prevent one course of action. Then the CCA would be invalid if the term's weren't included now it appears it can be in a separate sheet provided it is linked some way and the title for the CCA could be anything not just Consumer Credit Agreement, just trying to get it clear in my head what I am relying on. A summary like Default notice is invalid preventing act XX being used, alternative act XXX can be used but can be counteracted if XX was incorrect. I have seen you guys mentioning things like the above but it would be handy for mine and any other people in the same situation to have like a flow chart on how to defend. I am not as scared as I was last time but they have had more time to prepare so it may be a longer battle.

There is a listed way to remove your card from the site but when you get there you can only change it, you can not actually change the number but the expiry and valid from date, I guess you could remove it if you added another but I am not going to be doing that in a hurry, I have changed the valid from date and expiry but this seams a dodgy way of making a card unusable. I have been told that the player can not use the card unless their is a CCV2 entered but my son showed me that is not the case.

I find it very scary that a company can take as much money from your account if you give them permission to use it once, perhaps they should make people aware when they open new bank accounts. My son has been using on line games for years this is the only one that lets a minor use the parents credit card when they feel like it, he will no longer be able to because I will no longer pay for memberships for him.

Congrats, it was sad when Benny Hill died but I guess his memory lives on in Restons. Could you give me some advice about expenses, I haven't claimed for anything and im back in court in September.

My son aged 10 has an account for an online game, you have the option to play the game for free or pay for members which give you a lot more things to do, there is also an option where you can pay cash for extra in game items like clothing and weapons. I paid for his membership because he is off school and it helps him pass the time when it is raining, I returned home from work one day and he had spent £60 on game content by using the buy option and selecting default card, apparently there is a parental control option that allows you to restrict his actions but it was not made clear and he needs to start playing before it can be set up, I have since set up parental control and could see no reference to blocking use of my card. I contacted NatWest to see if I could get a refund or cancel the charge but they said I have given them my card details and they can use it as they see fit, whether it was authorised by me or not, the only option was to speak to their fraud department and possibly prosecute my son. As you can imagine I will not be taking my 10 year old son to court so I am basically stuffed. I also contacted the game company and they said he needs to enter a CCV2 code before he could use it, my son showed me and you do not need to enter the code, they did kindly offer to close the account for me, very kind considering I have just spent £60 on virtual clothes for it. Any ideas or am I well and truly.

How do I find a solicitor in my area who specialises in this type of thing that i could take to court with me, I guess they will be a bit more prepared this time so may be a bit more difficult, I would feel more confident with someone who understands the legalities with me, They may just be bluffing, Restons sent me a copy of the court assignment letter today when I received one from the court the other day, scare tactics I assume. Im not getting much feedback on my querying the DN and what they can do to have a vaild case, not sure if they can just resume the case unless they have proof of some other evidence that squashes my defence, do they just have to say we want to continue the case or do they need to show some evidence that it should be continued.

Bump