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" Identity and holding oneself out " are very important issues. I am amazed that anyone holding the office of solicitor does not readily appreciate the potential importance. Where a Solicitor has conduct and care of the preliminaries or the case itself, a high standard of work will - ought be expected by the Court particularly as to settlement or withdraw of demands for money.
ECJ Cases clearly restrict the traditional approach to recovering money, the validity of judgments so the landscape is much more complicated in the case of banks such as Lloyds because of Competition Law interacting with Consumer Protection provisions, More directly there is also the issue of Costs and the correct basis upon claim costs. As an organ of the bank it seems highly unlikely to be appropriate for a Bank
to claim costs on a normal client retainer basis albeit I have no idea if such costs are being claimed by Lloyds. Costs are no doubt only recoverable for a Bank under LIPA or as a head of Special Damage save for Penalty Clauses within the original
contract which may thought to be Unfair. Then there is the issue of where costs may be claimed from a Bank - it is much more likely to be appropriate to taken a punitive on costs where an employed Barrister or Solicitor has run or permitted any useless claim to be run or run in an oppressive fashion . Then there is the issue of Disclosure - and the Disclosure that must be given when running or preparing a demand / case; a Solicitor is absolutely duty bound to provide full disclosure and to explain lapses and absences on Disclosure. These are some immediate examples of how the duty of the Solicitor impacts on " Debt Collection " and highlights that shoddy or inappropriate conduct by a Bank may stand to be enforced against the solicitor personally either by the Court or by the Professional Body [ highly unlikely ] . The fact that solicitors have care and control of bank caseloads irrespective of those who work under them, should in fact be a good thing - as it ought to prevent spurious claims being made, the destruction or concealment or non-production of documents, a proper investigation and explanation of complaints, better staff training albeit many of the unqualified staff seem to do a fine job in a systems neither fit for purpose, customer or employer,, and prompt immediate resolutions - all factors that a District Judge might ask when inquiring from the outset why a a matter has not been settled ! Finally I might add, these cases also put under the spotlight the Regulatory Bodies who if they do their work properly can protect the individual and solicitor from a whole raft of commercial conduct and practices, including billing and recovered money targets, that are not proper measures in maintaining the correct standards in the administration of justice.