Help-Law of Contract Issue- Court Case Pending!!

[safepark]

Hi, I really need some sound legal advice with rather an unusual case basically about breach of contract.

 

The company in question was hired to help us claim for being mis-sold an endowment.

 

They can be referred to a third party claims handler.

 

We have since discovered that their practices were regulated by no-one in an official capacity. On a voluntary level they were pretty much self regulated by a body that there top guys sat on the board of!

 

More recently they are regulated by The Ministry of Justice, who cannot take on rhetrospective cases but do offer civil legal advice on an individual case basis.

 

They did review our case that spans over 4 yrs & concluded that we had a very strong case for breach of contract.

 

Ok so i will begin with my story.... We hired them, they asked us to provide them with specific details about when we took out our endowment. They went to FSA and made a complaint about the insurance company who had provided our endowment. They awarded us monetary compensation. We queried it and were not very happy with the award, as it seemed very small in comparison to the endowment shortfall amount.

Then we had a second cheque arrive without warning for a lesser amount and with no covering letter. We contacted our hired company to see what it was all about. Turns out that we had been awarded lesser still because'we were not relying on the whole original amount of the endowment policy to pay our current mortgage'. This was laughable because not only were we relying on it, but a whole lot more since we had moved and had a much bigger mortgage now.

We obviously disputed this and asked where they had got this information from? They did'nt seem to know! So we asked them to go back to the insurance company, telling them of the error and asking that they re-evaluate the claim.

They not only refused to do so, but also lied by trying to scare us by saying that if we queried it then we may get a lesser award still!

We have since learned that the FSA have devised a formula for calculating compensation, so that it was fair. The company in question knew this and would have easily been able to perform such a calculation.

 

We were annoyed that we had lost out on money seemingly twice over and that this company were not acting in our best interest by wanting us to get the correct and higher settlement. We wrote to them stating as much and pointing out that there errors had caused us financial loss and as such their breach was resulting in our termination of any contract with them.

 

We then concentrated our efforts to dealing with insurance company directly and getting the right compensation.

 

The third party company non-the-less billed us for 25% plus vat of the lesser award, that we never accepted.

 

We have been through their grievience procedure and Ministry of Justice.

They went away for a while but have since come back out the woodwork looking to settle debts. they have been bought out by another company (does this have any bearing on claims?)

 

We have always denied any alleged debts and have stood by non-performance and breach.

 

We tried to arbritrate with them over a small fee for administrative term and hit brick walls. We have both sent cease and desist type letters.

 

They are going to file to small claim court wednesday next week, so we need to make our next move fast and clever.

 

We were going to make a fixed offer for admin time (a days work max!!) and again stand by the fact we owe them nothing as they caused nothing but headache for us, that we cleaned up and finalised directly with insurance company as they flatly refused to!

 

Letter templates and advise urgently needed..

[flyingdoc]

In all honesty I would say that what you need to do is to get a solicitor involved. If these guys are in the business then they will have access to professional legal opinion and to go up against that without proper legal representation would be indadvisable.

I would say, from what you have posted here, that you should have a case against this company but I would advise against taking them on alone.

 

You have already made your position clear to them, let them file and then submit a defence and counterclaim.

At this juncture I dont think any clever letters will make a difference - they are either going to issue or not - they may still be bluffing.

Did you ever get any compensation? where is that case upto - that will also have bearing on their case against you.

[patrickq1]

sounds like BF a rip off company they done us the same i am now persuing it further and have refused to accept there data they sent me...

patrickq1

[patrickq1]

read it again you may need legal assistance on this one bt if you can contact PT on this forum i will try find him and bump your post to him for better advice but the writer above is correct let them sue and this way you can certainly use the CPR RULES OF ENGAGEMENT and find out wther they have had any commissions paid to them by the other side but also the cpr will then allow you to inspect all there documentation and letters they have produced on your behalf etc

patrickq1

[safepark]

You guessed right!!

 

We continued our claim directly with the insurers and proved that our third party imtermediaries had infact got it right first time, then for no apparent reason, had that offer lowered to our detriment, through their misinformation. So OK we all make mistakes, but these guys refused to see that they had. They seemed happy with the fact that we had got ANY settlemnt not THE BEST possible settlement based on correct information.

We have proven this, (though we have never disclosed this to them-should we?), by dealing directly proving them wrong and being awarded a higher settlement.

 

BTW i thought that the small claims court was so that the common man could get some justice? We cant afford solicitors fees and will be representing ourselves.

 

What are the rules of engagement?

[palomino]

You say you can't afford solicitor's fees. Unfortunately you can't not afford them. If the case is as watertight as you say then the fees should be recoverable from the other party, but can you take that chance?

[safepark]

Ok can anyone recommend a good solicitor in this field? I can at least contact them about this

Thanks

[flyingdoc]

where in the world are you?

[safepark]

We are in the East Mids.

 

I thought i would mention that the amount in question is a shade over £1000 which is why it will be the small claims court and we have not hired a solicitor.

 

If were going to could we claim for their fees if we win outright?

 

What if the judge did a 50/50 type win

 

Could the opposition not only claim for there originally alleged fee + solicitors fee if they win?

 

Any Rules of Engagment Letter templates would be good please

[safepark]

Bump

[flyingdoc]

if it is a small claims then the only costs they can claim is the issuing fees for the court - they cannot claim costs for solicitors etc.

[safepark]

Ok so for those of you who had replied to this thread, would you still say that solicitor representation is essential? Also taking into account the sum of money involved?

 

Thanks

[flyingdoc]

Have you spoken to the CMR? (claims management regulator) This is a body set up within the Ministry of Justice to monitor and regulate the claims management industry.CMR: Claims Management Regulation

 

Perhaps have a chat with them, they may be able to give you some information and support (or even look into the practices of the company concerned.)

[safepark]

Have you spoken to the CMR? (claims management regulator) This is a body set up within the Ministry of Justice to monitor and regulate the claims management industry.CMR: Claims Management Regulation

 

Perhaps have a chat with them, they may be able to give you some information and support (or even look into the practices of the company concerned.)

 

 

Thanks Yes I have contacted them and someone is calling me back.

 

Still after letter templates re; rules of engagement

 

cheers

[patrickq1]

CMR: Claims Management Regulation

perhaps it would be better to look at the CPR RULES here you will find the correct procedures in the rules of engagement ,

Civil Procedure Rules Homepage

[patrickq1]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legal-issues/173201-why-you-shouldnt-use.html

follow the threa d i have posted under cpr rules to gather all information they must comply with what is written under CPR RULES hope i have nt confused you safe anyway have a good new year

patrickq1

[patrickq1]

also read this newspaper thread ok

Scandal of 'no win no fee' cowboys - Home News, UK - The Independent