Legal action against banks due to “abuse” provisions of law firms

From the financial comparator Banqmi, they accessed the testimony of one of the affected consumers. Fernando’s situation (fictitious name) is very similar to the others: He contracted with a revolving card, and seeing that he couldn’t afford the loan repayment installments, he decided to contact a law firm that advertised on Facebook and said he would file a lawsuit. organization to receive the refund of the interest and commissions collected. “it’s a very easy process and it can be free”.

This Madrid resident says “At first contact (lawyers) they tell you thousands of cases have been won and you can raise some money when the process is over, they don’t give you a 100% guarantee but they let you quit”. However, when Fernando decided to file the case through the said office and was in favor of the decision, “The law firm stopped informing me about how the process was going, they even changed my lawyer four times and no one told me anything. there is no time…”, he regrets.

Covers costs and must repay the debt within 20 days

They also promise Fernando before the trial: If the decision turns out to be in their favour, “they will negotiate a comfortable repayment of the debt”, something he says is his “only claim”. “I didn’t want to make money, the only claim I always had was to be able to pay my debt in installments, that’s the only thing that worries me,” he explains. However, he added that he was impressed by this situation: “When the fine came, they asked me to deposit 3,586.07 euros into the court account, and I had to do this within 20 days at the latest.” This user could not pay this amount “because he didn’t have it”, it was much less after paying “600 euros fee and 300 euros lawyer”. and signing a “contract assigning trial costs in favor of the firm”. These costs are worth 2,508,54 Euros.

“I signed the contract on purpose, but I didn’t know there were amounts I gave up, I didn’t know there was that much money,” Fernando explains. This is a usual thing in these legal proceedings against banks. However, as Banqmi financial expert Antonio Gallardo explains, “the court costs in this case are paid by the bank that lost the case and should always belong to the plaintiff, unless the plaintiff agrees otherwise with your attorney in contract”. Gallardo adds “The problem in this and many other cases is the lack of transparency with the client, who is often unaware of the amount of legal costs involved”.

Thus, although he is obliged to pay off the debt of 3,586.07 Euros, Fernando does not and from that moment the financial institution claims this amount through a lawsuit. When it did, the law firm handling the case “ignored” and had only one option: contact the bank to negotiate. “If I had known all this, I would have acted differently, maybe I would have asked for help from the bank from the very first moment, in the end, they helped me”ends.

What should you consider before signing a contract?

Before signing any type of contract or contract, whether with the bank or the law firm, “you first need to look at what the costs associated with the contract are, if there is a fixed part and any other variable. In this case, the fixed part will be the fees and the lawyer and the variable part will be legal costs”, explains the finance expert from Banqmi. However, there are many plaintiffs, like Fernando, who read what they signed before reading it and then were surprised.

Also Gallardo adds, “Lack of information and transparency are just a few of the ways to complain”Gallardo’s comments. This has been upheld by the European Court of Justice (CJEU), which, following a complaint filed by a law firm by a user other than Seville, declared the withdrawal order imposed on him by the law firm as “misleading” for deciding to contact him. Make a deal with your bank and don’t go to court for the costs of setting up your mortgage.

In this case, he assures the CJEU, his lawyers demanded Non-compliance fees that are “higher than originally agreed upon”. While it is true that the contract contains a clause requiring an economic penalty if the client reaches an agreement with his bank without the mediation of the office, the CJEU stated that the Sevilla lawyer “sufficiently told his client about the item in question, which clearly or violates the application of the European Directive on unfair practices against Consumers”.