Bank charge court claims need to be watertight

Experts have warned that consumers that are trying to reclaim bank charges from their banks through the courts need to make sure that the case they are putting forward is solid and watertight in order to increase their chances of successfully reclaiming back the cash from the bank.

Apparently a number of claimants are failing to provide the right documentation or are failing to put forward their case properly, and this can increase the chances of the judge ruling in the bank’s favour.

Judges are becoming impatient with these cases, as there are many pending and blocking up the court system, and banks fail to turn up to defend themselves, which means that the claimant wins the case by default.

Experts claim that judges are now looking to get rid of what they describe as frivolous claims, and this could affect those that do not put forward a strong enough case or provide the necessary paperwork and documentation to support their claim.

Lloyds TSB has already won two cases, where the judges ruled in the bank’s favour rather than that of the claimant. A judge in Hull has also stated that he may strike out twenty claims against banks. Experts think that all of these lost of struck out cases could be the result of sloppily put together cases and inappropriate or inadequate documentation from the claimant.

Thousands of consumers have been claiming back charges from their banks going back up to six years, and these charges were applied for exceeding the overdraft limit on the account, as well as for returned direct debits and cheques. However, where banks have reduced to repay the full amount many have decided to file a small claim against the bank through the courts.

Tom Smith
30th June 2007