As I have mentioned in a previous legal update, the attempts by solicitors and claims management companies that accuse our members of mis-selling finance agreements are still ongoing. And. if you receive any letters, we recommend you do not ignore and send them over to Lawgistics to deal with.
The last update mentioned that of the dozen or so potential court cases related to mis-selling finance agreements, none had reached a final hearing. Well, we now have had one go to a final hearing, and you will be pleased to know that our member was successful. As with all these cases, the judge will make a decision based on each individual case and they will all have their different idiosyncrasies.
In this particular case, the key factor in our member’s defence was the commission figure that had been presented to the customer. The document contained other information and the customer had signed the document to confirm that he had read and understood it.
The customer’s solicitor was attempting to claim their customer was not a financial expert and he was rushed into deciding to take out the finance agreement to purchase his vehicle. The customer was a middle-aged man who had bought numerous cars on finance for approximately 30 years, so the fact he was pleading ignorance was quite quickly dismissed!
Now we don’t know if this is a coincidence, but since this decision, the same firm of solicitors has made “drop hands” offers on two of our other cases. For those unaware of the legal terminology, “drop hands” means the Claimant is withdrawing the claim completely and each party is to bear their own costs. Therefore, for our member, there were no costs as they did not have to employ an expensive solicitor.
It is important to note that despite one of these two cases taking over a year to conclude, we cooperated with the solicitor and corresponded on behalf of our member throughout the entire process. Therefore, it is important to ensure that if you receive any of these letters, forward them to Lawgistics. We will “play the long game” with them on your behalf.
Octane Finance is the broker of choice for new and used car dealers nationwide. With our uncompromising service levels and our genuine and professional approach, you and your customers can trust us to deliver.
