This is the response I received from the Ministry of Justice following a Freedom of Information request I made concerning the number of claims issued by Restons and the firm I worked for, Weightmans:
Year | 2002 / 2003 | 2003 / 2004 | 2004 / 2005 | 2005 / 2006 | 2006 / 2007 | 2007 / 2008 | 2008 / 2009 | 2009 / 2010 |
Claims issued by Restons | 2733 | 3369 | 3460 | 5761 | 9004 | 6757 | 6511 | 8992 |
Claims issued by Weightmans | 2362 | 1137 | 2307 | 1646 | 2981 | 2373 | 17475 | 14821 |
Restons had other clients but for the year 2006/2007 Weightmans, which didn’t, issued 2,981 claims on behalf of HSBC (HFC). This firm said in Chambers legal directory for the same period that they only issued proceedings in 20% of cases. This means they were instructed in 14,905 cases. At an average collection charge of £1,500 that means that £22,357,500 in illegal charges was added in that year. I know Restons were instructed in a similar number of cases because the bank said they wanted to compare us “apples for apples”, so £44,715,000 in illegal charges were added in the period 2006/7. The figures increased in following years.