Overview

The High Court has handed down His Honour Judge Flaux's Judgment in the case of Alan Kneale v Barclays Bank (trading as Barclaycard). The case concerned an appeal by Barclaycard against Judge Halbert's decision to grant an order for pre-action disclosure, compelling Barclaycard to provide an original or photocopy of Mr Kneale's signed credit agreement. Judge Flaux allowed the appeal, dismissing the application for pre-action disclosure and ordering that the Applicant pay Barclaycard's costs both at first instance and before him.

In the consumer credit sphere, this decision sends a firm message to those firms that are pursuing pre-action applications for copies of credit agreements. It will now only be possible to succeed in such an application by putting forward a positive case to suggest the executed agreement was non-compliant. Even then, the lender will usually be able to recover their costs and this decision removes any possibility of applicants recovering their costs unless there has been significant misconduct by the lender.

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