| Court claims may resume |
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Iain Milligan QC, defending Barclays Bank, has told the High Court that the banks could be back in court as early as next week facing thousands of county court claims that had been suspended pending the outcome of the test case. Many county court claims were suspended last summer until a final judgement was made in the case before Mr Justice Andrew Smith at the International Dispute Resolution Centre. This was part of the agreement made between the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the banks before the test case began. The test case is set to clarify whether the OFT has the power under the 1999 Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract regulations to determine whether bank charges are unfair. Mr Milligan told the court that the automatic lifting of the ‘stays’ was a problem facing all the banks. Customers could write to the courts to revive their claims and ask for summary judgement in their favour if the banks do not respond. On the 12th day of the High Court hearing, the court also heard from Mr Robin Dicker QC on behalf of HBOS who said "the language used by the banks in their terms and conditions did not fall short of the ‘plain and intelligible’ language requirement". Mr Dicker said "the banks were obliged to use language that was straightforward and clear, not obscure or ambiguous". The OFT had asked the court to rule that bank contracts were not in plain English giving it room to investigate them. Mr Dicker highlighted the 1993 European directive which had brought about the current legislation "There is no hint that suppliers have to give consumers all details or facts, or advise them how the contracts may operate in the future" he said. The case is expected to finish this week and the judge has said he will consider making a recommendation prior to any judgement on the matter, but that the recommendation would have to be even-handed. |
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