Stand Up for Yourself Against the Bank & Megabucks Lawyers

[chrissa1]

We have been paying off a Personal Guarantee that we gave to Yorkshire Bank back in 2002. We have been paying it off at £800.00 per month and then £600.00 per month and lately it has been a real struggle. Anytime we didn't pay on time we were threatened with bankruptcy proceedings.
After many e mails and phone calls we agreed with these lawyers Addleshaw Goddard, that we would pay £600.00 per month again. We managed this for most of this year but then with the credit crunch etc, orders dried up. I wrote asking for a short "holiday" into the New Year and predictably just got another letter threatening bankruptcy.

I went to the County Court and filed an Application to Vary an Order. We were in Court yesterday and I WON. They had sent a solicitor to represent them. The Judge asked him if Yorkshire Bank had an Order on our house and he confirmed they had. The judge then asked him if we were possibly in negative equity and he replied that we were, so he then said, "Then why is A.G. pursuing Mr & Mrs W when they stood no chance of getting money by going down this route?

I put my case that we were not trying to resist paying off this debt, just that we were asking for a "holiday" to allow us time to bring in 3 orders from the Middle East. I was expecting the Judge to ask me what we could afford and I was going to say, £200.00 or thereabouts, hoping that the judge would allow this. BUT, he said, “I make an order that Mr & Mrs W will pay £50.00 per month until the end of June and then it will be looked at again! RESULT!

The solicitor for A.G. then asked for £713.00 costs to be added to our debt and the Judge nearly lost his temper. He said an emphatic "No Mr D, If I awarded costs against Mrs W who has had the bravery to start this action, then no one would be able to come to the courts to ask for help in repaying a debt”.

[fredpuli47]

Quite right too. Good to hear that County Court judges are as robust as ever. That kind oft application (here for costs) is one that they traditionally reply to by rolling their eyes, sighing and saying 'If you MUST Mr X !" before promptly refusing it. Some lawyers leave their common sense at the door, unfortunately,. and feel they must make daft applications because the solicitor who employs them or an important lay client (here a bank) expects these to be made.

[Barmaid]

One of the things I love about CC judges. Good on you Chrissa for fighting your corner.

Fred - I am sure you know that sometimes we have to make stupid applications cos we are instructed to do so - whether we like it or not. Very often we know that we are doomed to failure and are only inviting a damn good kicking but if instructed to make said application (as long as it is legal) make it we must. In this case I am glad the Judge saw the sense of it.

[ummmm]

Nice one :-)

They should always help the people willing to pay. We can't completely predict the future. A business went bust owing us 100k...if it wasn't for the understanding of the bank we would have gone under. They made sure we didn't...

[fredpuli47]

Barmaid, your instructions are to do the best for your lay client. That includes ignoring instructions from instructing solicitors which make the case worse or which may adversely affect the lay client's prospects before the same tribunal in that case . If the professional client wants to do that anyway he doesn't need counsel. He can make things worse all by himself (after all that's what he's uniquely qualified to do) He uses counsel is to get the best result. That's why he takes counsel's opinion.If he's got any sense, he takes it. If counsel has any sense and is not of such seniority to know that, whatever he does, the solicitor will automatically trust him to use his expertise and discretion as the case develops, he makes sure, if need be in the strongest terms to say what he will do in certain circumstances.

Believe me, if counsel did everything their solicitor wanted, they'd lose a lot more cases than they do already.

This was a solicitor. I'm not surprised.

[chrissa1]

I'm glad you had an understanding bank ummmm, that sounds like an oximoron.
Thank you barmaid and fred for your comments. I just feel now that this large firm of lawyers have to stop bullying us. I can remember my late father a solicitor saying many times, "I know Mrs So n So will pay what she can, she's going through a tough patch at the moment but she Will pay". The thought about putting her into Banktruptcy would never have entered his mind.