Hi, As my loan was taken out in 2003 I don't seem to be able to use the new CCA in my case I feel I have a case as they gave me a settlement figure and then added charges on the day the loan was redeemed to force the re-possession of my house as they knew I would have a shortfall. (I managed to make it up and the loan was redeemed!) They have never broken down my charges even though I have asked on many occasions and as far as I am concerned they made up the amounts off the top of their head! I am challenging them to prove that they did not do this but I am still unsure of what I can base my legal arguments on. It is definately an unfair relationship, but the legislation was not in place at the time.

I have a court date next week where they will hear my arguments on why my case should not be struck out. I sent a letter outlining my reasons why I feel the case should be continued as I feel the Supreme Court judgement does not apply to this case. However, I am not sure where to go next with legal arguments to continue my action against swift. I also don't know whether I need to form a basic legal argument when the judge hears my objections to the strikeout or whether he will just listen to reasons I stated in the letter to the court. I am currently trawling the forums to catch up on the latest developments!

Objection to Strikeout sent!! I will be in touch!

Hi Everyone. So after all this time I get a letter form the court with intention to strike out my claim due to the Supreme Courts ruling on bank charges. I personally feel that in my case, Swift acted particularly unfairly as at the time I tried to pay the loan off by re-mortgaging they added charges on top of the settlement figure so on the day of completion, I had a shortfall and even though we begged them to reduce the charges, they refused. I believe they acted like this as I was 7 days from them re-possessing my property and they were trying to force me out of my home. I had 48hrs to find £3.5k which I managed to find and save my property. These spurious charges have never been fully broken down despite me asking them to do so on many occasions. My intention was always to get them to explain to me exactly what these charges were for and how they could be justified. I am now in the position of my claim being struck out in the next few days. I am unsure of what to do next. I am also worried about costs as Swift estimated their costs to be £10k. If anyone could give me some advice, it would be apreciated.

Hi Mrs Foot. I was just wondering if there was a public gallery available for your court hearing? I was interested in maybe attending. It is a long way to come and I may not be able to get the time off work, but I feel it would be beneficial for me as well as lending you my support! I'm sure that there are a few others that may want to lend their support as well. If you could find out if the public can attend and if so, let me know the address of the court and the time of the hearing, I will do my best to attend. Good Luck!

Sorry for taking so long to update! I received the Witness statement a few days before the case management conference as they forgot to include the actual statement in their witness bundle! I asked for disclosure of further information on Monday which gave us a good oppotunity to discuss this request in the case management conference. The Case management conference went well. I spoke to the solicitor before hand and we agreeed that the best course of action would be to wait and see what happens in the case of Mrs. Foot due in court on 25/4. I was a bit worried about the telephone conference as it is the first time I have actaully spoken to the judge or the Solicitor personally. However, Judge Taylor from Horsham County Court was very good. He opened by asking "What's all this about then?" the solicitor expalined the detials of the case.. "So it's a bank charges claim is it? These are all being settled out of court aren't they? So what's the problem in this case then?" I took an instant liking to him! The solicitor then asked for the case to be heared by a circuit judge as Mrs Foot's case has been referred to Michael Chambers QC who is apparently the most senior judge in Wales. Judge Taylor then argued with the solicitor for a while as he couldn't see why this case needed to be referred to a senior judge. He asked me if I was happy for this to be referred as it would abviously increase costs to myself even further if I lost. So I said that I didn't understand why this was required as this was a simple case of whether or not they made a profit from charges. I explained that I had made a part 18 request for among other things disclosure of their audit report where they claim parity between the costs and charges of their credit control function. I also told the judge that I has asked for true copies of the Solicitors bills regarding the litigation charges of £1968.00. I said that if I received that information then I would be willing to reduce my claim accordingly. Judge Taylor then said "So if you receive this information then you are willing to reduce your claim which will take you below the £5000 small claims limit, then you can have the case re-allocated to the Small Claims track thus reducing the cost risk to yourself?" I agreed that I would be happy to do this if they provided actual proof of their solicitors costs. I was surprised that the Solicitor hadn't tried to force the case into Multi track as in Mrs. Foot's case. Mine has always been in fast track due to the amount of my claim. Perhaps it was on his agenda but decided against it as Judge Taylor seemed mildly irritaded with the defence from the outset and after the judge started talking about re-allocating to Small Claims, he probably thought better of it! The solicitor then argued about the request being disproportionate etc. However he had only received it the day before due to the delay with the witness statements. He then started to mention Barry Paul's case where the judge didn't order disclosure, however he failed to mention the circumstances or the fact that the judge in Mrs Foots case had ordered disclosure ;-) In summary, the judge adjourned the case for 2 weeks to give the defendants time to respond to the Part 18 Request. He also requested a copy of the Part 18 and the transcript from Barry Paul's and details of Mrs. Foot's cases. There will be another telephone conference on the first available date after the end of April. All in all I think it went very well. I feel I am in a better position. By then Mrs Foot's case will have been heard. I will be keeping my fingers crossed for her! So there are a few things that can happen now. If they come up with proof of the litigation bills, I can reduce my claim and have it re-allocated to small claims (Which will make me feel a lot better about everything!) If they don't comply with the part 18 I can try to get the judge to order disclosure.

UPDATE.. I have a case management telephone conference set for 16/04/07. This is an administrative hearing before a Judge when the Judge can check that the preparations for trial are on track and make any further orders required to assist this. It is also an opportunity for the parties to explore whether the claim is capable of settlement. I have already sent them a letter (Part 36 CPR. "Without Prejudice save as to costs" ) indicating that I would be prepared to except a settlement figure that is far less than the amount I am claiming. However I never even received an acknowledgement of this. Apart from Swift sending me a "Goodwill" refund of approx 10% of the amount claimed (Accepted as part payment before court action) they haven't made any attempt to settle this matter without court action. The witness statements must be received by both parties by 30/03/07. After this, I intend to submit a part 18 request for further information. I expect them to send me a witness statement similar to Mrs Foot, so my part 18 will ask them to provide evidence of their internal review where they concluded that their Credit Control Department doesn't make a profit which should be included in their witness statement. As Mrs. Foot's case they will object on the grounds that the request is excessive for the case at which point I will ask the judge to make an order for them to disclose this information. Hopefully the judge in my case will side with me, but after Mrs. Foot's experience I'm not holding my breath! I read somewhere that a judge has ordered disclosure in some cases but I can't find the threads. However I assume at this point the defendants have caved in and offered reasonable settlement. As swift stated that they are willing to go to the high court if they loose, what's the odds that they won't offer settlement if the judge grants the order? ;-) I'm not sure what to expect from the case management conference. By the time the date comes along, I expect to be ready to ask the judge to order disclosure. Should I use this opportunity to sweet talk the judge? ;-) Will I be able to make the judge aware of cases where disclosure has been ordered? If anyone can offer any advice it would be apreciated! Until then I have to just sit back and wait!

Hi Mrs Foot. I don't have a trial date yet. I have a case management telephone conference set for 16/04/07. I have just posted on my thread for further advice regarding this.

As my case against swift is for £7000 I have never requested this to be handled in the Small Claims Track. It was allocated to Fast Track, so I will be interested to hear what excuse Swift come up with once I submit my part 18.

Hi Mrs Foot. Keep going! I am right behind you with my case and watching with interest! It seems that the problems so far with ERC's are to do with proving that the ERC's are a penalty for breaching the contract. This isn't an issue with our case for charges against swift. Luckily I hadn't mentioned the ERC and at the moment I am keeping it that way! What we have to prove in our case is that they make a profit from the credit control function by charging such high penalty charges. Barry has proved that it should be quite easy to shoot down their witness in court even for novices like us. They admit in their witness statement that they carry out analysis of income received and expenses incurred from the credit control function. Unfortunately Barry didn't issue a part 18 request for them to disclose this information therefore the judge in his case had to accept the statement from their witness that the credit control function didn't make a profit. If we can get the judge to order them to disclose this information we assume that this will show that they do in fact make a profit and will provide the evidence to allow the judge to rule in our favour. If they fail to comply with a court order to disclose the information then we can apply to have the defence struck out. Hang in there!

Thanks Alan. I will read CPR on part 18. I had a look at the CPR for disclosure last night and it answered some of my questions. As I am a PC engineer I have a habbit of trying to figure out things myself before reading the manual! P.S. I don't think you are being cynical! As I said before, I am behind Alan & Mrs. Foot's cases, against Swift so I know what they are going to say and do before it happens. They haven't surprised me yet!

Another thing! my disclosure is due next week followed by the witness statements 2 weeks later. After which, I will issue my part 18 as I will require further information. (Its difficult as I know what the witness statements will say as I assume they will be exactly the same as Barry and Mr's Foot's, But I have to give them the opportunity to not give me any information regarding their costs before I ask for it. ) Anyway. I'm confused about disclosure!? If I get information from my part 18 request (Unlikely unless I get an order from the judge) surely I will have to add this to my disclosure list? otherwise I will not be able to rely on it to support my case. Am I allowed to ammend my disclosure list if I receive further information from my part 18 request at a later date?

I am currently writing my disclosure list. Witness Statements are due to be filed within 2 weeks. I don't see the point of filing a part 18 until the witness statements are filed as in Mrs Foot's case, they just said that all information requested in the part 18 would be included in the witness statements (But of course weren't) so I will have to wait! An extract from a letter from Swift regarding my complaint..... "As part of our group is authorised and regulated by the FSA we are required to perform an evaluation of the revenue and the costs from our first mortgage arrears activities. such costs include a proportion of staff costs, premises, stationary and telephone and IT systems. We are satisfied that this evaluation meets our regulatory requirments." This information is what I will be asking for in my part 18 as this was exactly the information that Barry needed in his case against Swift to prove that they indeed make a profit from the charges and not just break even as the witness claimed. As Barry had not asked the court to order them to present this information to the court prior to the hearing, The judge had to accept the witness statement as there was no evidence to the contrary. I thought that in the mean time I could try another angle. As these companies are regulated by the FSA, does this mean that the FSA keep detailed audit reports on the companies they regulate?. If this information exists, can this not be used to support our claims? Does anyone have any experience with the FSA and getting information regarding the audits / compliance reports on the companies that they regulate? I guess that they will say that this information is confidential but if that is the case, can we not get the courts to order them to hand the information over? Any advice or information would be greatly apreciated.

In light of Barry loosing his case against swift, I need to issue an order for them to disclose evidence of the reviews that Swift make of the "Credit Control Function" At the moment my case is at the disclosure by list stage, so do I wait until I receive their witness statements before asking the judge to make this order?

Thanks Alan. This has put my mind at rest! Do you think swift's solicitors are not aware of the cost limitations for Fast Track? or maybe they are just quoting figures of £10,000 to scare me into withdrawing my claim? Can I complain and if so, who do I complain to? Congratulations on your settlement by the way, fantastic result! Have a wonderful Christmas break. You deserve it!