Lloyds TSB

Yesterday, for the first time ever, a Bank has won a case against a consumer claiming back their Bank Charges!

Whilst this seems like a major blow to everyone who is currently claiming back their unfair bank charges, thankfully it's not as bad as it first seems, although it won't make life any easier when claiming your charges back.

Ironically, it seems that Lloyds TSB won the case entirely by accident. On the day that the losing case came to court, there were a number of other claims against Lloyds TSB, all of which were settled as normal before the hearing, indicating that Lloyds did not think they had a chance of winning the cases. The losing case was overlooked by Lloyds however, as it seems the paper work was lost and therefore instead of being settled it went to a hearing.

At this hearing, the judge, District Judge Cooke ruled in favour of the bank.

Whilst it may seem that this could spell the end of bank charges claims, it's thankfully not the case!

There are a number of reasons why you can still carry on claiming back your charges, and have a good chance of winning:

• For a start, as the ruling was in the Small Claims Court, the ruling is not binding as a High Court ruling would be, so it won't set a precedent where all similar claims will fail.
• The ruling was made by a single judge, and was his own interpretation of the law. Tens of thousands of cases have been filed in court by people claiming their bank charges back, and so far the judges have been very sympathetic to the claimant. At the start of this week, another judge warned the banks that if they did not stop submitting a defence with no intention of actually defending the claims, he would start awarding extra costs. Just because one judge has ruled in the banks favour does not mean that all judges will copy this.
• An appeal could be launched against the judges ruling, and the ruling could be reversed. The claimant may not make an appeal however, as in the small claims court you are protected from paying the winning partys legal costs (which for a bank would be a large amount). However, if you appeal this protection is removed, and if the original claim is upheld it could prove extremely costly to the claimant.

Obviously, the situation will have to be watched very carefully to see whether this outcome makes a difference.

There are thousands of cases currently in the court system (including my own), so it's a case of waiting to see what happens. It may make the banks bolder however, and not so quick to offer a settlement, or offering lower partial settlements than they would have otherwise done.

For now, it's worth carrying on with claims for bank charges, as this could simply be a one off.

It does go to show though, that you have to take your claim seriously, especially when it comes to filing the claim in court, as you may actually have a proper hearing for your claim.