Court still allowing consumers to sue over bank charges
The row over unlawful and unfair bank charges has been raging for some time, and many bank customers have managed to reclaim past charged for exceeding the overdraft limit and for returned cheques and direct debits – some going back up to six years – after UK financial regulators stated that the fees were unjust and unfair last year. Finally, earlier this year, regulators and banks decided that a test case was needed in order to determine whether or not the charges were fair.
In the meantime courts and judges were advised that pending cases filed by bank customers that were trying to reclaim their charges could be put on hold until after the test case had gone ahead in order to make a decision easier. However, despite this many consumers are continuing to successful sue their banks, which indicates that many courts and judges are continuing to let these actions to through.
One claimant who won nearly £3000 stated that her case was only heard as a result of the bank not turning up to defend itself. She stated: “When it was my turn, I found out that there was nobody from Abbey to deal with my case and went in to face the judge alone. She told me that as Abbey hadn’t turned up to defend against me, she would be finding in my favour, but had Abbey turned up, she would have granted a stay, as that was what they were all doing until after the test case.”
Apart from in Wales, and in Devon and Cornwall, where a blanket stay of outstanding cases has been granted, courts and judges can make their own decisions, and many are doing this on a case by case basis according to some officials.
Tom Smith
29th September 2007
