Sueing someone

[zefarelly]

Has anyone ever done it ?

I paid out £400, in February, to enter a race at Spa Francorchamps next month, I have just been told by the organiser that late entries have over filled the grid and theres no space left for me ( he cashed my cheque on 1st March)

Quite clearly its his clerical error, or that Ive been shoved aside in favour of a more wealthy/famous entrant

I now face a battle to get my money back, as well as loosing out as Ive booked and paid out up front for a ferry for the car, trailer and race car, as well as hotels for the weekend whilst we're in Belgium.

has anyone ever taken legal action against someone like this ?

or should I just go to Belgium on the piss for the weekend and beat the shit out of the lanky streak of piss ?

we've worked bloody hard all year to get this far and I'm now seriously fu**ed off with this bastard, its not the first time he's done this either so I'd love to get even with him and make sure no more people get shafted by him (apparently he's screwed other people for race entries as well in the recent past)

 

[Marc]

shit man thats harsh You gotta bug him about you're money, might even be worth chancing the expenses paid aswell to get some extra cash if you do sue him.

 

[CHAPPERS]

f*** sueing, give the **** a shoeing!

 

[D'Angelo Saxon]

Promoters (of all events) are generally the slimiest people you'll ever come across. They try and weasel out of anything concerning money. I'm still trying to get money out of a promoter I played a gig in Lincoln for about a month ago...

 

[sully]

Try looking on the Court Service web site for guidance

http://www.courtservice.gov.uk/cms/3610.htm

If the total claim is under £5k, the cost is fairly small. Even slimy bastards don't like CCJs against them.

Good luck.


Edit:

Should have said - scroll down the page and read some of the leaflets first. All downloadable in Acrobat format.

 

[zefarelly]

a shoeing isnt a bad idea . . . .I have a particularly stout pair of brogues

a CCJ would seriously piss him off as he's essentially a second hand car salesman (and part time classic car journalist) and within his market reasonably well thought of

unfortunately hes also (somehow) a selctor for the Goodwood revival, sdo bang go my hopes of ever getting an entry

 

[Bognor Blue & White]

GB contract law states that as your an indvidual and he's acting in the capacity of a business the law will look favourably on your side and he has to prove innocence as oposed to you having to prove his guilt.
However if it is Belgique law they probably have a different set of terms and it may be difficult to sue.
If you think there isn't a written contract i.e. an offer and acceptance, by merely cashing your cheque he has accepted that you have accepted his offer and therefore a legal contract exists.

You may have to go to the European Court of arbitration, any costs will be bourne by whoever loses, claim leagl aid or, as stated previously, just go over there, get shit faced and give him a good satisfactory kicking!

 

[zefarelly]

thanks Sully . . .will swot up on that later

 

[perseus]

I did not get paid by a publisher for £1400 or so because it was a verbal contract.

I sued through the Small Claims Court after contacting a solicitior. All the solicitor did was add up the interest payments which upped the clainm by about £400. The Small Claims Court procedure takes a long time and requires laying out some sums fo money, not negligible, but not expensive.

Just as it was about to go to Court which would mean me laying out some more money the American publishers paid up in full.

In the meantime, I wanted to sue Tiny Computers for selling a computer that did not work and broke down 23 times in 23 months with hardware faults. I decided it was not worth the hassle. Some people do not like the Court procedure. Not me. Too much of a hassle on reflection.

They will not pay up until they calculate their solicitor's bill is actually higher than the the amount they are being sued for. That is the best scenario. The worst is that they will not pay up at all, even if you win the Court case/hearing.

 

[Titanic]

They will not pay up until they calculate their solicitor's bill is actually higher than the the amount they are being sued for.

Which doesn't usually take long with typical UK solicitors/barristers fees in £150 to £700 per hour range !!

 

[Gwylan]

I did not get paid by a publisher for £1400 or so because it was a verbal contract.

I think you mean an oral contract, all contracts are verbal (unless they're in hieroglyphics).

An oral contract has the same force in law as a written one. - it might just be harder to prove.

 

[zefarelly]

the deal is, He sends race forms and entry costs, you tick to either enter (which I did) and return a cheque or you just tick the 'intention to race' box so he gets an idea of No's for the event

my guess is he's had a lot of late entries, as mine was so early he's forgotten about it, and tried palming me off. I really want to go and race, but if he refuses I will do everything to discredit him and his so called 'fair' racers scheme, he turns out to be worse than the organisation he walked away from.

 

[looney]

If the contract was agreed in the UK its UK law. Only property contacts need to be in writing, any other can be verbal or talky whatever you want to call it.

Just hire some heavies and you'll get your money back a lot quicker.

 

[zefarelly]

they dont need to be heavies Looney, he's built like Rodney and talks like Delboy, clad in a mix of tweed and corduroy, he's unmissable,

I might enlist a few NSC liberal lefties to do the job . . . .I dont fancy a stretch for GBH

 

[Beach Hut]

I would go to a small claims court - I did over a shunt where the driver tried to worm out of it by saying he wasn't driving it was his brother, I had third party cover.

Anyway when I went to the place and explained what happened then the guy asked the other chap his side of the story he just said he wasn't driving it was his brother. Arbitrator tore him of a strip for wasting everyones time and awarded me the £500 straight away.

 

[beorhthelm]

I was going to say to nicly ask for the money and take the holiday. re-read the last bit of you post... taking him to the f***ing cleaners. Tell everyone in the "scene" whats happened. make sure you add on some costs for distress/time taken preparing etc. Go to the weekend anyway and put it about whats happened. Confront him, or even better serve papers on him at the event when he's got a crowd around. No point being violent about it, he'll get sympathy.

 

[perseus]

It was a verbal contract not an oral one. Verbal pertains to words, always, whereas oral does not necesaarily do so. Therefore the term verbal is to be preferred, except when .....

 

[Juan Albion]

Perseus:

 

[Kryten]

Perseus:

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

someone ran me over on a motorbike, he tried to sue me for writing off his bike, he failed so i countersued