Our Outcomes and Case Closures
Learn more about our recent court cases and the outcomes by exploring our Court Case Outcomes section.
Writing off a CCJ - Client vs Lowell Solicitors
In November 2023, A client approached our Debt Support Team with several CCJ`s and debts that they were struggling to handle, Our debt support started to work with the client and communicate with all the agencies that were attempting to collect a balance on behalf of a supplier and or creditor.
The case officer soon noticed that Lowell Solicitors had a CCJ against our client for a balance with an energy provider, However when asking for information about the CCJ Lowell Solicitors refused to provide the information. After a complete investigation and contacting HMCTS our team were able to obtain the CCJ and the information to investigate the CCJ.
Our team uncovered that the CCJ was actually obtained in breach of HMCTS rules and documents were not served to our client as required by the Courts during a money claim and so after speaking with the client in great detail the client agreed to allow our team to complete an application to set the CCJ aside, this is a legal way of getting rid of the CCJ as this will impact our clients credit file and much more.
Our trained team made the application and made Lowell Solictors aware of the application as per the process, Lowell Solicitors stopped all collections action pending a court date, Upon recieving a court date Lowell Solicitors sent our client and our team a letter stating that they will not be attending court and will let the court determine the case even after telling us over the phone that they will defend the application on behalf of their client.
In court a hearing is expected to be around 30-45 minutes long, But this court hearing was all of five minutes, the Judge reviewed the case in full and as our legal representative and in house Solicitor was about to put the case to the Judge they were stopped and just stunned by the Judges next action.
The defence that Lowell Solicitors had filed was thrown out instantly and the CCJ was set asside (written of in full) and costs awarded to our client, This allows our client to recover any costs from Lowell Solicitors including travel and legal costs.
Our client was very happy with the outcome, Case Closed.
Lowell Solicitors and their client had no comment.
Section 21 Eviction & Debt Recovery
A private landlord that has been a client of ours for over two years came to our legal aid team with a case for an Eviction and Collection case against her current tenant.
The landlord had a resident in one of her rented properties that hadnt been paying rent and in breach of their tenancy agreement and the landlord wanted the property back to sell.
Our team instantly issued a Section 21 (a) eviction notice to the resident sent via recorded delivery, the resident responded making claims and accusations about our client and refused to leave the property and even became abusive to our team.
We were about to have the matter passed to the courts for a possession hearing when we were contacted by the local council advising that the resident had contacted them asking for housing support and that they wanted some more information regarding the eviction that our team were more then happy to send over.
After a complete investigation the resident accepted alternative housing via the local council and moved out of our clients property, and our team proceeded to persue the outstanding rent and costs.
The case for the rent arrears and costs was heard at Birmingham Civil Justice Centre in January of 2024 and our client was issued a CCJ to the value of £1,344.39 plus costs, We advised the resident of this outcome and they refused to pay the debt.
Our team again contacted our contact at the local council that rehoused the resident and requested the residents new contact information and address so that enforcement action could be taken, After sending the council the CCJ the council officer responded with the information we requested, However in a complete turn of events the resident then also contacted the case manager and asked to set up a payment arrangement for the balance.
And to current date the resident has been making regular payments to clear the balance and continues to work with our team.
Our client is happy with the result and now has their property back to sell.
Case Closed
Recovery of Costs - Failed Complaint - Client V British Gas Limited
In Febuary 2024 a client approached us with an issue that they were having when complaining to British Gas, they had a dispute with the energy provider after customer service failings and complaint code was not followed correctly, costing our client money and alot of time trying to get the issue resolved.
Our client made a complaint to the energy provider and when they attempted to resolve it our client was not happy with the outcome and wanted to esculate it as per their right to the energy ombudsman service but the energy provider refused to issue a vital document that enabled our client to do this.
Our dispute team contacted the energy provider and swiftly got the vital document allowing our client and our team to speak to the energy ombudsman and allow them to investigate the issue.
Our client went all the way through the ombudsman process and still had no resolution to the case and we were therefore instructed to collect the costs via Small Claims Court, The claim was drafted and submitted to HMCTS.
The case never made it to a court date, we sent British Gas a letter offering out of court settlement and their solicitors accepted the offer, However we did face some issues and communication issues in getting the matter settled in full.
British Gas Limited finally settled the case with the following actions:
- Pay our client via BACS the value of £200.00.
- Issue a full and formal apology in the form of a letter.
Case Closed - Settled
Failure to provide Contracted Services - Client V Hutchingson Group
(Three Mobile)
Our client made a complaint to the company regarding their contract sim only package that was sold to them back in 2021.
Our clients contract had expired, The company did not resolve the matter and when our client contacted us and passed the complaint to the Communications Ombudsman service for review, However the company challenged the application to the ombudsman and the case was thrown out by the ombudsman.
A case was drafted and passed to HMCTS to be sent through the small claims process however before we could even get the case passed through the process we were directed to pre court mediation services and our client and the defendant agreed to settle without court intervention with the following actions:
- Pay our client via BACS to the value of £250.00.
- Clear any remaining outstanding bill and charges.
- Allow our client to cancel services free of charge.
Case Closed - Settled
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