Taking legal action against an individual over unrepaid 'loans'

[BankFodder]

So do we gather that your 11-year-old son lives with you .

You are the legal guardian or custodian. Your son lives with you as a result of some court order and your ex doesn't have any legal control over him .

 

This is certainly not an area that I am familiar with, but if your ex still has some kind of legal status in respect of your son then it could complicate matters .

I'm a bit surprised at what you are telling us about the bank account because it sounds to me as if your son has an adult bank account even though he is 11 years old and I would certainly consider making a complaint to the ombudsman .

 

If you did bring a legal action then it would have to be in your son's name but being bought by you in his name.

You could only do this if you had legal custody or control over your son and your ex did not.

You suggest that you might be prepared to enter into some repayment plan instead of going into litigation .

I don't think this is a good idea. I think that you need a judgement in your favour.

 

And after that if you want you can talk about having some structured scheme of repayment but with the threat of legal action hanging over your ex's head.

 

However, having a judgement against your ex is not necessarily useful if she does not have any assets.

You must always consider how you are going to enforce a judgement against someone.

 

Simply being able to wave a piece of paper saying that they are in debt to you is not going to be helpful if you aren't going to be able to force repayment

 

Finally, what is the effect of all of this on your son. It seems to me that his interests should be paramount .

Although it might eventually mean a loss of money, you should probably consider whether it might be in his best interest to avoid conflict, but simply to make him aware that in future he should not give his money away in any circumstances, even to his mother .

If he's prepared to understand that, then it might be a better way to go rather than to put him through the business of having to take a legal action, to give evidence against his mother and eventually maybe even to begin an enforcement process against his mother.

 

Is the loss of this money a serious loss to you or has it become a matter of principle ?

If it has become a matter of principle to you, maybe it is not a matter of principle to your son and maybe it would be simply better to learn the lesson and then to get everybody to move on.