Supreme Court judgment put into perspective
The recent surprise judgment on bank charges has led some of the press to speculate that reclaiming unlawful bank charges has now been blocked, while hundreds of thousand of claims remain with the banks or filed in county courts.
While the Office of Fair Trading assesses its next move and the county courts await guidance on how to process the stayed claims, the banks are already starting to take advantage of the situation in an underhand way. The first to reveal their hand has been Lloyds TSB – recently saved from collapse by taxpayers’ money – which has announced that it will be asking local judges “to apply the principles of the Supreme Court ruling” and to withdraw cases. This gaffe was quickly amended on its website to be less revealing in its intentions by stating that “We anticipate most cases in the County and Sheriff courts will be withdrawn”.
The recent judgment only examined one issue regarding fairness and did not address the main issues upon which most of the stayed claims are based, so the judgment has little relevance, as there are a number of aspects to the issues of fairness and unlawfulness of bank charges. The statements from Lloyds TSB are further evidence of the banks’ unethical behavior and casual mistreatment of their customers.
In anticipation of the banks’ efforts to deny justice to consumers yet again, Penalty Charges Forum has prepared documentation for its members to counter any application by the banks to dismiss claims. The documents are being made available to all free consumer websites that support the reclaiming of unlawful charges as part of a program of collaboration between the main websites in the wake of the recent judgment.
Stephen Hone – founder of Penalty Charges – says "Four consumer websites have united on this campaign to try and bring justice to the 12 million consumers who face unlawful bank charges. We decided to get templates out early whilst we wait for Ray Cox Qc to draft the new particulars of Claim that Martin Lewis has paid for."
Background info
Penalty Charges Forum was founded by Stephen Hone in 2006, Stephen was the first person to start the Campaign on bank charges. www.penaltycharges.co.uk
The other consumer websites now collaborating in the fight for justice against the banks are: Moneysavingexpert, Consumer Action Group and Legal Beagles.
