Saturday 16 June 2012

GLC unfair bank charges update: 'phase 2'

GLC has been developing and refining new legal and factual arguments to reclaim unfair bank charges, with success following the UK banks victory before the UK Supreme Court in late 2009. 

The process has been slow and challenging, not least because all banks have sought to remit consumer claims from the small claims procedure to the ordinary court, exposing clients to the risk of significant awards of expenses. To counter this we have obtained civil legal aid to protect our clients, but that in itself was a tortuous process with the banks objecting to the granting of civil legal aid to the legal aid board.

We remain of the opinion that the ability of UK banks to push consumer small claims into the ordinary court  with an exposure to potentially unlimited expenses is not ECHR compliant. Pursing a case before the European Court of Human Rights is a slow process and two years down the line, we await to hear whether our case of Walls v. United Kingdom will have traction. 

That said, the time spent has been invaluable. The process has disclosed the multiple lines of defences through very long and detailed adjustment processes. We know the arguments and defences of the banks. We have ingathered case law, refined and adjusted our position.

The Board of GLC has agreed that we should now move to 'phase two' of our three stage strategy. This will involve, working with our partners at the Glasgow Advice Agency Ltd, raising much larger groupings of litigations on behalf of consumers in the East of Glasgow, and across the South of Glasgow.

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8 comments:

  1. Caroline Sullivan17 June 2012 at 18:41

    This is long awaited and excellent news. I look forward to future updates and this good work being rolled out across the UK.

    Keep up the good work GLC and thank you.

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  2. Good work GLC you are like a "light at the end of a dark tunnel " I hope soon we will all be able to share and use this light :) Regards Gary

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  3. Very well done all at GLC...keep up the good work...I also have a feeling things might be moving on south of the border very shortly as far as bank charges are concerned!
    Regards
    Dougal

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  4. I was just about to submit my case to court using some of the defences in the Sharpe Case and the Reid Case. I thought that these cases were going to be a long drawn out process or be settled with no comment being made. I am glad that you have now kept consumers up-to-date as I can now think of waiting ubtil you roll out phase 2 to have a better chance of success, even though my case would probably end up in the Ordinary Procedure due to the fact that my claim is in excess of 34 pages.

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  5. Well Done....!

    It is about time that the greedy bankers were bought to heel!

    Best wishes to Mike Daily and all involved.

    Happy Christmas to everyone and a sucessful New Year!!

    Dougal

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