Starting a court claim for SAR non compliance

[car2403]

Doesn't matter, does it? Sir/Madam should do

[lee32uk]

Thought not

 

cheers

[FM79]

Good luck Lee!

 

Got my Notice of Issue today and noticed the Request for Judgment section.

 

They don't make it easy, do they?

[Andy01]

Hi Iam reading your thread as I may have to go the same route. Have you heard any thing since the last letter to court?

[lee32uk]

Hi all

 

I have received a reply from my local Court regarding my letter in post #122. They are basically saying they won't help me. To say im annoyed is an understatement. Their response is below.

 

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

RE: Lee32uk v Royal Bank of Scotland

 

Your letter to the court was referred to a District Judge, however the Judge made no comments.

The Court staff are not legally qualified, therefore I am unable to give you any advice. I suggest you contact a Solicitors or the CAB if you require further assistance.

 

Yours faithfully

 

N Jackson

 

Claims section

 

 

 

I can't understand why they are making it so difficult for me

Any thoughts on my next move ?

 

thanks

Lee

[citizenB]

I dont know what is going on here, lee. I will ask car2403 to look in on you as he seems to know what is going on. This is so unfair.

[lee32uk]

Thanks Citizen

[citizenB]

lee, there is a court complaints procedure you can follow. I will have a look in my local court for information on Friday.

 

However, if you are able to pop into your own court you will probably find it near the clerk's office.. It should be on your side of the counter so you wont have to ask for it.

 

Hopefully before then, another CAGer might be able to offer some assistance.

 

[supasnooper]

Court Leaflet ex343 has some info.

 

See the link below -

 

Information About...

 

 

 

HTH

Edited October 21, 2009 by supasnooper
added link

[FM79]

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

RE: Lee32uk v Royal Bank of Scotland

 

Your letter to the court was referred to a District Judge, however the Judge made no comments.

The Court staff are not legally qualified, therefore I am unable to give you any advice. I suggest you contact a Solicitors or the CAB if you require further assistance.

 

Yours faithfully

 

N Jackson

 

Claims section

 

 

 

Good luck,

FM

Edited October 21, 2009 by slick132
possible disrespectful comment about judge removed

[lee32uk]

Thanks for the replies everyone, and thanks for the link supasnooper.

 

I have roughly filled out the EX343 form describing all events from the beginning:

 

 

 

 

I made the above claim against The Royal Bank of Scotland, as they failed to fully comply with a Data Subject Access Request. After the 40 day time limit had expired, I wrote to RBS giving them a further 14 days to fully comply with my request. This was ignored by RBS, and so I commenced Court proceedings against them using an N1 (Part 7) claim form, asking for compliance and costs that I had incurred.

 

My claim form was accepted by the court, and RBS were given a deadline date of 1st July 2009 to respond. The day after the deadline date, I rang the court to ask whether RBS had responded, and I was told that they had not. I was then advised to send the 'request for judgement' form back to the court. I sent the form back, along with a brief covering letter asking that RBS comply with my request.

 

I then received correspondence from the court stating that I would have to pay a further fee of £150. As I am not a legal person, I asked on a consumer group website, and was told that the fee would only apply to a part 8 claim. As my claim was made under the civil procedure rules part 7 then a fee should not apply.

 

I wrote back to the court on the 25th August 2009 explaining that my claim was for damages and costs and therefore the civil procedure rules part 7 and 12 apply. As the claim is not a part 8 claim it should not attract a fee. I also asked for default judgement to be entered as the defendant failed to reply by the deadline date of July 1st 2009.

 

The court then responded with the following: Your letter dated 25th august has been placed before the district judge who has made the following comments: “The claim clearly seeks an order for the defendant to do an act, i.e. an injunction. I do not intend to correspond further.”

 

As the Judge is now unwilling to correspond further, I wrote to the Court manager and explained that I was not asking for an injunction. I am asking for an order requesting specific performance, in that I am asking the court to order that rbs send me my full sar and also pay my costs as stated in the claim form. This is a specific option available to the court contained within its powers under s.7(9) data protection act 1998. I understand that an injunction would be requested to prevent the defendant from behaving in a specific way, but i am asking that the Court order the Defendant to specifically perform an action, namely complying with my s.7 Data Protection Act Subject Access Request. I am a litigant in person, without legal training, but this is my understanding of this situation following some research using the internet.

I am now at a loss on how to proceed, as I have been advised that my claim is a part 7 claim, not a Part 8 claim. I appreciate that the Judge is unwilling to enter into any further correspondence with regards to my claim, but I would like to ask for your help in seeking clarification surrounding these concerns. I would, therefore, appreciate your help on this matter.

 

 

The court responded with the following:Your letter to the court was referred to a District Judge, however the Judge made no comments.

The Court staff are not legally qualified, therefore I am unable to give you any advice. I suggest you contact a Solicitors or the CAB if you require further assistance.

 

Does the above look ok ?

 

thanks

 

Lee

[slick132]

Hi Lee,

 

I've made a few tweaks as shown in red. Also moved the para about the court manager's response.

 

I've dropped the comments about using a consumer group website - some judges seem to look down upon the internet as a poor substitute compared to their knowledge and experience.

 

Good luck with this.

I made the above claim against The Royal Bank of Scotland, as they failed to fully comply with a Data Subject Access Request. After the 40 day time limit had expired, I wrote to RBS giving them a further 14 days to fully comply with my request. This was ignored by RBS, and so I commenced Court proceedings against them using an N1 (Part 7) claim form, asking for compliance and costs that I had incurred.

 

My claim form was accepted by the court, and RBS were given a deadline date of 1st July 2009 to respond. The day after the deadline date, I rang the court to ask whether RBS had responded, and I was told that they had not. I was then advised to send the 'request for judgement' form back to the court. I sent the form back, along with a brief covering letter asking that RBS comply with my request.

 

I then received correspondence from the court stating that I would have to pay a further fee of £150. As I have no legal training, I researched the matter and understood that the fee would only apply to a part 8 claim. As my claim was made under the civil procedure rules part 7 then a fee should not apply.

 

I wrote back to the court on the 25th August 2009 explaining that my claim was for damages and costs and therefore the civil procedure rules part 7 and 12 apply. As the claim is not a part 8 claim it should not attract a fee. I also asked for default judgement to be entered as the defendant failed to reply by the deadline date of July 1st 2009.

 

The court then responded with the following: Your letter dated 25th august has been placed before the district judge who has made the following comments: “The claim clearly seeks an order for the defendant to do an act, i.e. an injunction. I do not intend to correspond further.”

 

As the Judge was unwilling to correspond further, I wrote to the Court manager and explained that I was not asking for an injunction. I was asking for an order requesting specific performance, in that I was asking the court to order that RBS respond fully to my Subject Access Request and also pay my costs as stated in the claim form.

 

The court manager responded with the following: "Your letter to the court was referred to a District Judge, however the Judge made no comments.

The Court staff are not legally qualified, therefore I am unable to give you any advice. I suggest you contact a Solicitors or the CAB if you require further assistance."

 

This is a specific option available to the court contained within its powers under s.7(9) data protection act 1998. I understand that an injunction would be requested to prevent the defendant from behaving in a specific way, but I am asking that the Court order the Defendant to specifically perform an action, namely complying with my s.7 Data Protection Act Subject Access Request. I am a litigant in person, without legal training, but this is my understanding of this situation following research.

 

I am now at a loss on how to proceed, as I have been advised that my claim is a part 7 claim, not a Part 8 claim. I appreciate that the Judge is unwilling to enter into any further correspondence with regards to my claim, but I would appreciate your help in clarifying this matter.

[gezwee]

Still think the DJ is misunderstanding part 8 protocols and acting outside of their remit, trouble is will he/she admit to erring?

 

Forgive me for sounding thick but is it not possible to pass this in front of another DJ on same circuit...... if original has failed to comment another could not be seen to upset the funny handshake brigade by reviewing.

[lee32uk]

Thanks for that slick

[citizenB]

FIngers crossed, lee

[The GodMother]

it is possible to pass it to another judge from what i know but they might get a bit annoyed.

[FM79]

Good luck Lee. I hope you can get another judge to take a look.

 

Best,

FM

[jowil1973]

What was the outcome of this?

 

I issued an N1 at County Court for non-compliance of SAR. The bank filed no response and I was awarded Judgment By Default - including costs.

 

However since then I received a letter from the bank saying I had no argument and not mentioning the Court action at all.

 

I called the Court and was advised to write to the Court Manager (including a copy of the banks letter) asking him to request a Judge look at the Judgment (pointing out it was mainly for information with only costs forming the financial part) but received a one line response saying it is not for the Court to advise me how to proceed.

 

Surely the Courts must want to uphold their own procedures?

[gezwee]

What was the outcome of this?

 

I issued an N1 at County Court for non-compliance of SAR. The bank filed no response and I was awarded Judgment By Default - including costs.

 

However since then I received a letter from the bank saying I had no argument and not mentioning the Court action at all.

 

I called the Court and was advised to write to the Court Manager (including a copy of the banks letter) asking him to request a Judge look at the Judgment (pointing out it was mainly for information with only costs forming the financial part) but received a one line response saying it is not for the Court to advise me how to proceed.

 

Surely the Courts must want to uphold their own procedures?

 

 

Banks and financial institutions rarely defend, damages amount to circa £200 - £300.00 which is below the true physical cost of producing all data in some instances.

 

Its entirely up to you, the DJ will have awarded damages and costs only by default and would not be concerned with argument outside of their remit. If you wanted more (data) you would have needed to issue draft directions for the court to apply which would form part of the initial order prior to damages being decided. Not entirely sure if you can revisit a damage/costs judgement once ordered.

 

It may be advisable to enforce the original judgement before revisiting SAR (after a reasonable period). This 'should' give you the option to apply to the court again with a fresh claim should they fail to comply. Not sure how a DJ will view this but I guess the worst that can happen is that there is an order for compliance at the 2nd attempt.