Suggested template for particulars of Court claim. This is for a none MCOL court claim (i.e. direct with my local court). Note that this is slightly different from the standard bank claim as its a loan account so the charges are added to the amount owed rather than taken from you directly so the wording is slightly tweaked. Para 1. I only have one remaining account with the SLC so my wording is for that - for those of you with one you'll have to tweak the wording slightly to cover them all. There should be no reason why you don't chunk them all together anyway since SLC do on their letters. Para 5: because the SLC's main office is in Scotland the county court in England will have to consider where the case can be heard (Scotland has a different basis for law) but since we started joining all the EEC institutions the UK had to come up with a way of allowing cross boarder legal disputes to sort this out - for civil law (i.e. not criminal) that is the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgements Act 1982 as amended. The county court will tell you they can't guarantee service as the SLC address is outside their jurisdiction. You can agree to serve the claim against SLC yourself - they issue the claim and then you get two of the copies of the claim form back. One you send to SLC (first class recorded) and the other is for your records. You then write a letter to the court to confirm the date and time the claim was served (you get this by phoning the royal mail recorded number on the back of the orange recorded delivery slip and quoting the reference number). Thats why you need part b of para 5. Some courts will just send it anyway - mine did. Alternatively you could just use the SLC's address in Bristol (the one for their data controller) but I'm not sure how that would play out in court. This is only a suggested template as I am not legally qualified so any changes you want to make are up to you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Claimant has a [ or number of accounts] student loan account [s] numbered ########### ("the Account") with the Defendant which was opened on or around ##/##/199#. 2. During the period in which the Account has been operating the Defendant applied numerous charges to the Account in respect of purported breaches of contract on the part of the Claimant and also charged interest on the charges once applied. The Claimant understands that the Defendant contends that the charges were applied in accordance with the terms of the contract between itself and the Claimant. 3. The Claimant contends that: a) The charges applied to the Account are punitive in nature; are not a genuine pre-estimate of cost incurred by the Defendant; exceed any alleged actual loss to the Defendant in respect of any breaches of contract on the part of the Claimant; and are not intended to represent or related to any alleged actual loss, but instead unduly enrich the Defendant which exercises the contractual term in respect of such charges with a view to profit. b) The contractual provision that permits the Defendant to levy such charges is unenforceable by virtue of the Unfair Contract Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (1999), the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the common law. 4. Accordingly the Claimant claims: a) the return of the amounts applied in respect of charges and interest taken on those charges in the sum of £###.## b) Court costs; c) The claimant claims interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year, from the date of each offence to the date this claim is issued in the County Court of £##.## and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgment or settlement at a daily rate of £#.## 5. With regard to jurisdiction the Claimant contends that: a) The Claimant is a consumer within the meaning of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 as amended. The claimant is domiciled within England and Wales and therefore under the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 as amended, the ######## [insert name of your local county court where you want the case heard here]County Court accordingly has jurisdiction. No proceedings are pending elsewhere between the parties hereto in respect of the subject matter of this action. b) The Claimant shall, upon issue of this claim, be able to serve notice of the claim against the defendant by means of a signed for recorded first class postal delivery, and / or service by transmission of the claim via telephone facsimile to the fax number stated on the Defendant’s headed letters. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey no problem. just got my allocation questionaire through for Student Loans Claim. By the way it helps when you get to filing a claim at the court stage if you quote the Civil Jurisdiction and Judegements Act 1982 as amended. This is because the SLC main office is in Scotland and so you want the case heard under English law here in England - I'll add the text of the additional paragraph to a template on the general thread. The Badger

I won my case - Barclays settled up with over 4 weeks to go - Mr Lombardi was going on holiday and wanted his desk clear by the sounds of it! I got £841 off them including - thats all the charges, the interest and the court costs plus a little something for making me send them a 290page court bundle (I figure if your going to do something do it properly!). I went and opened an account with another bank yesterday as I am now out of my overdraft and my bank loan is gone - so next week I'll be taking my account into Barclays and telling them which orifice to insert it into! :0) That just leaves my claims against Barclaycard and the Student Loans Co to go now! The Badger

I settled two weeks ago - my court date was 4th April. They wrote to me and then I argued over the phone till they added something for the Court Bundle I'd sent them that day (all 290 pages!) I'd leave it till they contact you - if all else fails go to court - they can't win and they will probably settle the day before - jsut be sure to let the court know if they do so the session isn't wasted - don't want the judge to think bad of you should you need to bring anything else before the court (like Credit Card etc.) Good luck. The Badger

Hi Mlphw, The address I sent stuff to was the Glasgow address for most of the letters - I just used the data controllers address for my Subject Access Request to get the information out of them on my account etc The Data Controller is the named person under law who must be responsible for the implementation of the Data Protection Act in each company/institution. So I figured that I might as well go to the organ grinder not the monkey as it where. For the general letters (like the initial request for payment and then the Letter Before Action) you can use either but I tend to use the Glasgow address anyway. The Badger

Yeah - £841 paid by barclays. Settled on the day I sent the court bundle - grrr! still got them to up it by the £41 for the inconvenience of the court bundle (all 191 pages of it!) Just Barclaycard and the Student Loans to sort now. I'm a Happy Badger

Just done the pagination and baring any last min letters I have to send my court bundle is 276 pages! 3 copies of that is going to bankrupt me! good job I'm claiming the costs back but still - its really annoying knowing the barstewards are going to settle at the last minute and it'll have been pointless waste of time. grrr... just pay up barclays!

For those not sure about the terms and conditions of their original loan I have included a scan of my Credit agreement with the terms and conditions. Its on the "student loans - general" thread. Hope its useful. The Badger

Zboo - they take it from you wages? IF so your on the new scheme not the old one (i.e. you started your uni degree after Aug 1998) in which case the system is regulated by its own piece of legistlation rather than the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (which the old system is on). I'm on the old so I'm not sure about the new system and how you challenge it - you'd need to look into the law that was used to set it up in 1998. But if you find out then let everyone know. Thanks The Badger

mlphw, Why give them more time? My advice is that if you have sent them in the post and they didn't reply thats their problem. You have copies of the letters for later reference. They can't ignore a court claim without giving you a default win against them. As long as you gave them fair and reasonable oportunity to respond and settle your greivance before resorting to the court then your fine - in these cases thats two letters with 14days notice for each (28days for any company is more than enough to deal with a complaint) Good luck - your ahead of me now as my first letter only went out last week after I found some nasty additions to my account and had to sort that first. The Badger

Ahh online defence = no signature ... Muppet ;o) Made me smile on a monday morning at least.

Might not be legally binding if they haven't signed it. Mine says: "I believe that the facts stated above are true. I am duly authorisedby Barclays Bank PLC to sign this statement on its behalf." If they haven't signed it surely that means that the defence might be a pack of lie and would be inadmisable - also how does the court know that the defence was even written by someone with authority to speak on behalf of Barclays. Ring the court - or better still send a letter to the dictrict Judge at the court with a request that he look at their defence and decide if he will allow it - if not request judgement in your favour to end the case! Worth a try. Good luck

The AQ only includes a court fee if your total claim is over a set value (my claim is for over £700 and didn't require a court fee to be paid when I sent my AQ). Its best to ring the court to check. Hope that helps. The Badger

Cheers Bicester1 Hmm need to add all the letters in as I'm adding the cost of them to my claim.... so the more the merrier - might wait till court ask for it. The Badger

There is a potential draw-back to claiming your costs for letters etc: The bank might decide to claim the same rate for the letters they sent saying "you're account is over your overdraft level etc....." and make the charges your claiming back the same level as your charges to them! Before court you can ignore this, but once you get into court the judge might just think thats reasonable... but its unlikely. Your argument against this would have to be: your a private individual and have to devise and write each letter in full and do all your own calculations. Whereas they are a large company sending out letters much more often and thus the cost of a proforma letter generated by a computer would be considerably less. The time taken for them to write a letter to you is probably only 2seconds - as such the wear and tear, electricity etc. is lower and the volume they are producing means they have an economy of scale for the paper, envelopes etc. But you should consider this before deciding to charge the costs of the letters. Good luck The Badger

Your court claim may include costs. I think its best to only claim the costs of the letters after you start the court stage. That way you can claim you gave the bank/Credit Card a reasonable opportunity to reach a settlement prior to the court stage. Doing this throws a sharp constrast between your willingness to be completely open and the fact that the bank / CCard co. won't explain in detail their costs. I have been trying to work out how to calculate the cost of my correspondence with my bank / credit card. I decided that the best way was to work out the cost of electricity, consumables, postage and then the wear and tear on the equipment. Electricity: I added together the wattage use of all the parts of my computer to get the total watts per hour. All electrical appliances have a power rating in either Watts or Amps on them - usually a label on the plug or on the back somewhere. If its in Amps you multiply that by the volts (240v for most equipment) to get watts. total that up and you have the power usage per hour for your equipment (don't forget lighting - bulbs are rated in watts so its easy) Then look at your electricity bill and get the cost per unit (one unit is a kWh - or 1000W per hour) - your bill will quote it before VAT so multiply it by 1.175 to get the full value. Use this to cost the power per hour of your computer, printer, lighting etc. Consumables: You can just use my figures as they are based on pretty average costs for paper and envelopes etc. Ink - I figure that my cartridge will do about 1000 pages per cartridge. so I divided the cost of the cartridge by 1000 to get the cost per page. Don't forget you print off three copies of everything - one for the bank, one for the court and then one for your files. Finally the wear and tear. This was the hardest bit. I estimated the value of my computer equipment and then decided that if I used it 24/7 it would last about 2 years before being worn out. So I divided the value of my equipment by 730 (365 days x 2) to get the daily depreciation. Then divided that by 24hours to get the hourly rate of depreciation / wear and tear. I figure every letter takes at least an hour each. Here is my costings explanation: Explanation of Costs. Electricity Power usage: Lighting: 1 bulb 100W Printer: 60W Computer: CPU: 500W Monitor: 600W Peripherals: 180W Computer total: 1280W Total Power usage: 1440W Total power usage = 1440W (1.44kW per hour) Cost of electricity: 11.64pence per kWh Total usage 16.76p per hour. Wear and Tear on Equipment: Total cost of equipment £2500.00 Expected normal life: 2 years. Depreciation per day £3.43 Depreciation per hour 14.3p Consumables: Paper 1.4p per page Envelopes 0.19p per envelope Ink 2.3p per page. All letters are printed in triplicate and distributed as follows: Defendant copy Court copy Claimant’s file copy Postage: All letters posted Royal Mail 1st Class Next Day Signed For. For a letter up to 5 pages £1 per copy - 2 copies (Defendant & Court): Example letter: 2 page letter + updated statement (total 3 pages). Electricity 1 hours x 16.76p 16.76p Equipment Depeciation: 1 x 14.3p 14.3p Paper: 9 x 1.4p 12.6p Ink: 9 x 2.3p 20.7p Envelopes 2 x 19p 38p Postage 2 x £1.00 £2.00 Total 302.3p Total: £3.02

Got my court date now - but when do I send the court bundle? Bit concerned that I might miss a deadline as I know Barclays will pounce on it! Thanks The Badger

Got my court date! 4th April - bit further off than I'd hoped! When do I have to send the Court Bundle? The badger

Have a look at the library of documents on the general bank charges forum. There is a template for the non-compliance court claim. The Badger

By the way, You shouldn't charge them for letters till you get to the court claim stage as you have to show the court you have given them a reasonable oportunity to settle the claim prior to court - so the initial letter and the Letter Before Action (plus any rejection of settlement if they offer less tha 100%) should be free. Since the whole issue is that the Bank/Credit card companys are not willing to explain the costs to them of sending you a letter etc. by sending them a precise breakdown of your costs you throw their refusal into sharp contrast. The only danger to this is that the court could use your calculations and apply them to the banks charges - so each charge your claiming might be reduced to £3 and you get the rest back - rather than the whole amount. But I think this unlikely. The Badger.

stuflo Your court claim includes costs - you should add the cost of preparing any letters etc to your claim and send them an updated statement of account with your additional costs on them. I've been adding £3 per letter as I can justify that cost as: - I always send them recorded next day (£1 per letter - one for the bank one for the court.) - I have a receipt for envelopes (cost divided by number of envelopes in the pack) - the paper: cost of a ream of paper divided by the number of pages (remember you print off three copies one for them one for you one for the court) - Ink: epson says there is an expected number of pages per ink cartridge (using "best" setting) therefore cost of an epson ink cartridge divided by that number of pages times the number of pages printed. - electricity (I could work out the power usage of my PC and printer and then multiply that by my electricity companys cost per unit (kWh) if I wnated to be picky). - Wear and tear on the computer (you have to estimate this) - my time (you could work out how long you spent on this and multiply this by your normal rate of pay at work - i.e. how much you would have been able to earn if you working rather than doing the claim). The last three I just estimate and it's usually about a total of £3 which I think is therefore justifiable. You could use the same formula to work out how much the court bundle cost you to produce. Hope that gives you a guide to working out costs. The Badger

I spoke to the SLC yesterday and they said "These charges have now been approved" - I pointed out that that was impossible without a chage of the law! she didn't reply to that. SO beware they tell lies (not that you didn't know that already!) The badger

kapowaz, Signed for 1st class for a letter is only £1 and I'll be adding them to my claim the moment it gets to the county court claim stage - as its a "reasonable" cost. You can then ring up and find out the time and date the letter was recieved - which if the SLC/Bank/Credit Card deny you can remind them you have a Royal Chartered institutions evidence proving they are lying - tends to shut them up! I've read elswehere on here that £3 per letter would be a "Reasonable" and justifiable cost on all letters to the bank/credit card/SLC as you can explain the £3 as a direct cost to you - postage, paper, envelopes, ink, electricity for the computer and your time. You can only add them to your claim once you get to the court claim stage as you have to show you've tried to resolve your complaint reasonably before hand. It has the benefit of stricking a stark contrast between your costs as a private individual being only £3 compared to £30 for a computer generated pro forma from a large company. It should be almost impossible in court for them to question it without screwing their own argument! The Badger

Cheers Steve Just waiting for them to either acknowledge the claim or pay up - thye have till Thursday, first thing on Friday I will be at the court with a request for judegement if they don't file a response in time. Not far to go now! The Badger

Oh I think the £3 included the £1 recorded signed for postage. The other £2 is for paper, envelopes, ink cartridges, electricity for the computer, wear and tear on the equipment etc. As long as you have a list of what the £2 is for you can justify it! I guess in a way thats the essence of the whole issue - the banks/SLC charging £30 for a letter is disproportionate and therefore unfair / unlawful. The Badger