Claimants of charges from Barclays’ Bank are to face a Circuit Court test to prove them as unlawful.
Barclays sent a Barrister to defend a day’s worth of cases (40-50 cases, in batches of 10), choosing to defend each case rather than settle. This is a major breakthrough for penalty charges advocates who believe that each charge set out is unlawful and unfair.
The cases are set to be heard on the 4th December this year and have been moved to the fast track circuit. Barclays have made it clear their intention to fully defend the cases, however we expect them to make a better effort of it than today.
One of the claimants said today that the “Judge really attacked the bank for not being prepared. The barrister defending didn’t even have all the case notes with him”. Jo, a Beauty Salon owner, also said that the Judge was unhappy that “the bank had not sorted the claims out in a timely manner and had been wasting everybody’s time”.
Stephen Hone, penaltycharges.co.uk founder, said:
“We are really glad that one of the banks we are fighting has finally decided to step up and defend their practices. We are confident that the Circuit Court Judge will find in favour of the Penalty Charges Forums litigants, which will set a precedent which will matter.”
If the Judge finds in favour of the claimants, we believe Barclays will be forced to appeal, tying up our users in litigation for the next year. However this will firmly set precedent across the country and put to rest any question about the legality of the charges.
Mr Hone added: “We are keen to win the cases and see them go to appeal. We believe there are more litigants out there facing Barclays and we org them to contact us. The chance to finally set precedent is what we’ve been waiting for. In fact, we say: BRING IT ON!”
Source: penaltycharges.co.uk
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