Thats what I don't understand. Why would the barrister have told them to discontinue if Humbleman had disclosed the T&C's?? Surely that would strengthen their case because they would then have a copy of the original T&C's from that period in time which they could rely on. Unless there was something in those T&C's which made it unenforceable. I'm not up on this legal stuff but I'd have done the exact same thing as Humbleman, keeping the original back to prove what they were using was a fake.

Thats really bad news. I can't understand how Judges come to decisions like this, when it's clear who's right & who's wrong in the eyes of the law. I believe the Judges are making decisions on what they think is right or wrong from a moral stand point. I have no doubt Humbleman would've paid back all he owed over time if they had treated him fairly from the off & not used threats & intimidation, clearly though from a Judges point of view thats ok!! As for the late submission with regards the T&C's on Humblemans laptop, I don't really understand it. If he had notified them beforehand of these, then surely they would've argued that he had the T&C's rather than attempting to palm the Judge off with a false set, so it would have invalidated that argument about the document.

Hi Humbleman, This good luck message is obviously too late now seen as you'll already be at court, but I hope all goes well. I can't believe we started our fight against this bunch just a week apart, yet my court date (had they not agreed to settle) was at Christmas 2008. They backed off with me in a much stronger position than they are with you, so I find it unbelievable they have carried on. I assume they feel they have nothing to lose seen as you aren't repaying them anyway (other than costs). Anyway I cannot wait to hear the outcome & I really hope its all in your favour!!

Thats not good. I was advised a lot of these county court judges really just don't know these consumer laws as most of them come from different backgrounds. I know you will anyway but just make sure you take the copies of the relevant laws with you. The judge cannot ignore the law that way, if he does you'd have a good case to make an official complaint against him. You could also appeal, although I accept thats another long drawn out & somewhat more expensive option to do.

Hi Humbleman, Glad to see things are still moving along. No doubt you'll have Andrew Cox the solicitor from Weightmans on the phone a couple of weeks before the trial trying to agree a settlement. I seriously doubt this will get to Court as they don't have any chance of winning. They had a slightly better case against me than they do you & they didn't want that going to court. Anyway I hope it all works out for you. I'll keep looking in to until I see your winning statement!!

Does anyone know??

Hi all, Sorry if I have this question in the wrong section but I couldn't work out where it should actually go. Anyway, I took out a £3000 personal loan with MBNA in 2002. On the whole I repaid it as per the agreement, although occasionally I missed the odd payment & was charged £25 by MBNA. Towards the end of the loan repayment I got into financial difficulty even though I only had two payments remaining, unfortunately I missed them. I'm on a DMP & owe them £259 now, I have recently claimed for PPI from them & the FOS have just upheld my complaint & told them to refund me the money plus £200 compensation, so far I've heard nothing more so I assume they have appealed that decision. Anyway back to my original question, can I reclaim the unfair £25 charges or do personal loans fall outside the bank charge reclaim?? Even if I can claim them back would they be on hold at present as per the other bank reclaims & if they are reclaimable is there a template letter for loans anywhere?? Thanks for any help offered.

Forgot to say, any part of Weightmans directions you don't agree with you can bring up & have dates altered etc.

I'd say yes as they are exactly the same as the ones Weightmans requested at my CMC (different dates obviously). I doubt the judge will agree to the ones you are requesting as the case is based on the agreement. The enforceability of & reasons why/why not is for the Judge to decide at trial not at the conference. Again I doubt the Judge will ask if you owe the money at this point, however, should he do so just point out that it's not a simple yes or no answer. You can say you did have use of the money, however future events have led you to believe that it no longer repayable.

subbing

subbing. I'm another one who has an agreement in the exact same format, so I'll be interested at the answer you receive.

Hi Humbleman, Although the debts been assigned to Phoenix, as was mine, have they actually registered that with the Court yet?? When I had my CMC the representative they sent still claimed to be working on behalf of HFC. If so make sure you bring that up with the Judge. I know each Judge is different but I doubt he'll even look at the application form or anything to do with that when you go.

Subscribing. I have the same problem with Egg at present, so I'll follow this with interest.

Thanks Car, I'll certainly ask them to remove all adverse posts on my credit file prior to settling, but I won't deny I'm glad this is all over for now.

Thanks Car, In all honesty the monthly payments are very, very small & will not cause me a problem. I'm not saying I could afford to pay a lot more because that wouldn't be true but it's certainly under my terms. I think I could avoid the whole debt by going to court but avoidance was never my aim (although I have felt like it at times with the way they have acted). It's certainly a result though as you just never know if a Judge would find against you & then the debt would nearly have doubled, this way the debt has actually reduced by some 2k which is massive for me.

I'd be really grateful if one of the knowledgeable people on here would just take a look at this consent form & check I'm not signing anything I shouldn't prior to me returning it to Weightmans. http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk251/geoffmr1/img035.jpg http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk251/geoffmr1/img036.jpg In particular I'm a little unsure as to schedule point 3: 3. Should the Defendant default on the monthly instalments, then the Claimant shall be at liberty to request that Judgement be entered for the full amount. Does this mean should I default at some point in the future that I cannot contest Judgement being entered against me or would I still be able to fight the case as I've done to date??

Thanks humbleman, To be honest I wouldn't have got anywhere without the great help, support & not to mention patience from the people on this site. I have a reduced balance of over £2k & no charge so its a massive result for me. Many thanks for everyone's help throughout this!!

Update: I have some good news. Weightmans have just telephoned to say they are dropping the request for a charge over my property & are happy to continue with the payments they are receiving from my DMP. They are emailing the paperwork to me, however one piece of advice I need is that they said something about vacating the trial which apparently means neither side need to turn up on the day, is this true or some kind of trick?? I will phone the court to check but so far the court staff haven't been that helpful so I trust the good people on here much more. I realise they aren't dropping proceedings just postponing them indefinately, although I'm more than satisfied with this result as I have no problem repaying money I've used which I have maintained all along.

I'm more concerned about my lack of printer ink!! At least new trees can be planted!!

Just for clarity in my own mind, the Dimond v Lovell example of case law I have is 26 pages long. I assume I print the whole document & just highlight the relevant part/parts so the judge can easily understand what I'm referring to?

Must admit, this is beginning to sound very complicated again.

Hi Car, I don't really understand what you mean by case summaries?? Some case law examples were mentioned in my defence, I've also listed them in my disclosure list as something I'd be relying upon & I also referred to the defence in my witness statement for examples.

Thanks for that Steven. Do I need to print off the whole thing & just highlight the relevant part or should I just print off the single page with that section on? I apologise for the constant questions but as I've never been to court before I really don't know what the Judge would want/need to see & of course I don't want to get it wrong on the day. How many case law examples should I actually take & reasonable expect the Judge to read?? I think I have between 5-7.

If the Judge was anything like mine it's unlikely he'll strike out their case prior to the trial. At my case management conference he told the representative they had to produce the agreement at trial or it was a non event, however they had already put in writing they only had half the agreement which is nothing more than an application form with no prescribed terms. He didn't say it had to be the original copy though, although there is legislation to say it does need to be. Weightmans obviously continue these cases in the hope that people will give in & settle prior to the trial, which I would have done had they dropped the property charge, now though I shall take it all the way. They must believe in their own minds they will be able to convince the Judge they are right though otherwise it would seem a very expensive & silly route to take.

Hi all, I'm trying to get all the paperwork ready for the trial next week & I'm aware I need 3 copies of everything, I'd like to complete that by the weekend so I can spend next week re-reading through everything so I'm completely ready on the day. Anyway I'd appreciate some guidance. I have links to all the case law that was in my defence but I'm unsure what exactly it is I need to print off & take. Somebody said I just need to take the summary but I don't really understand what part that is. If I use the example below:- Wilson & Anor v Hurstanger Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 299 (04 April 2007) I'm sure the judge isn't going to sit there & read through several pages, so what part would be the relevant bit I need to take??