I am a volunteer Personal Budget Counsellor and am helping several people to reclaim their unlawful bank charges. The first person is at the N1 stage (others soon to follow) and I'm trying to figure out exactly what goes where on the form. I have looked at many threads on this site and have also purchased the Small Claims Proceedure book. I would be grateful for some advice on a couple of issues:
1. Do we put our local court in the top box on the N1? In our case, it is Reading, so I'm assuming we add "Court of Reading" after the words 'In The...'
2. In the section headed Value, do we simply put the total amount we are claiming? Or should we put the amount of the bank charges, then list the amount of interest, and a total figure? I'm puzzled about this heading as we have the Amount Claimed box at the bottom of the page.
3. Is the best address to use for the Defendent the Swindon one I found on one of the threads? We haven't had any direct contact with that address in this claim, so I was wondering if we should continue to use the Northampton address we have been using for the prelim & LBA.
4. My client is on benefits. When we complete the Amount Claimed section, what should we put in the Court fee section? Should we just leave it blank and when she takes the form to court, she also takes in the Application for Fee Exemption (EX160) - then the court can sort it out?
5. In the Particulars of Claim, I have copied the information I found in the library section, changing the details as appropriate. Under point 5, where I am writing what the Claimant claims, there is a section for interest. The wording I am using is "Interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year from 14th November 2000 to 5th July 2006 of £541.61 and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgment or earlier payment at a daily rate of ???" The ??? is because I'm not sure what to put there. Can someone help me out with this daily rate please.
I really appreciate the guidance which is available on this site, but I do sometimes find it difficult to follow everything in a systematic way. Once I've done this first claim from start to finish (successful, I hope!), I'll be fine. Thanks so much for making the site available, and taking the time to answer our queries.
A Quick extra request: Should there be any attachments to the N1? Should I attach a schedule of the bank charges & how we calculated the interest? Or is that something we hold onto and take to court, if necessary? Thanks