nope, but you can complain about misconduct to the Solicitors Regulation Authority "Action can only be taken if the solicitor has broken the rules of professional conduct – which all solicitors must follow. Breaking these rules, is called misconduct. Some examples of possible misconduct * the solicitor lies to you or others * the solicitor uses his or her position to gain unfair advantage of you * the solicitor is holding money that belongs to you * the solicitor fails to comply with an undertaking they have given to you or your solicitor * the solicitor discriminates against you on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age If the solicitor has engaged in misconduct, the Solicitors Regulation Authority can take action in the public interest. But the SRA can't pay you compensation. Before you write to us, it might be useful to discuss your concerns with your own solicitor, or call our helpline – 0845 608 6565."
davenport lyons sued me Hi, this is my first post and I have read most of the threads, this particular one caught my eye. I was sent 2 letters from DL saying that I had downloaded Test Drive Unlimited and Race 2008, both demanding payment of £572 and £530. I myself had definitely not downloaded these games - tbh I wouldn't know how to - you have to do it through Bit Lord or something don't you? but it was the wording of the letter that was threatening, accompanied with legal jargon etc etc. We have wireless bb thru Sky. I felt physically sick when I read the letters and didn't know what to do. They had been delivered through normal post, not recorded delivery. My first action was to go to Citizen's Advice but I couldnt get an appointment until a week after receiving the lettes and I had to pay up within 21 days or else face going to court!. By the time I got to see a CAB advisor they had not heard of anything like this at all and advised me to seek a solicitor with this kind of knowledge. This took another 10 days to even speak to someone! The deadline was getting nearer and I like a lot of people on here had read forums etc etc where people were saying to ignore the letters and make out I hadn't received them. When I did finally speak to the solicitor on the day before the deadline was up she advised me to write a letter denying any activity and suggested I send a payment of £200 as full and final settlement. I even wrote to my local MP and got an appointment to see her - she's not heard of anything like this before! The deadline day came and my husband woke me up to say that he had just seen on Sky News that a woman has been fined £16k for downloading a game. This was the final straw - it was bad enough having this whole thing hanging over my head, not knowing if I should ignore it or not, would I get more letters, it was even beginning to affect my work. It was too stressful to say the least, so on the day of the deadline when I got home from work I sent a bank transfer for the whole amount - over £1,000 because I was afraid that by sending a letter as the solicitor advised it would have been received after the deadline and would lead to further proceedings. At the time I felt relieved but now feel stupid for giving in so easily! But, when you are in that position its not easy to just ignore threats like this.
That's a shame, and it's exactly why these companies do these kinds of things - scaring people into paying up for something you never did. Tbh I'd be contacting my solicitor and starting procedure to claim it back.
A solicitor told you to send a letter saying it wasn't you, but to also send money to them, which would be taken as an admission of guilt??? If your innocent you don't send them any cash, you don't say sorry and you don't make an other admission that could then be used against you. you deny the guilt and ask them for proof. Surely sending them a partial payment will simply encourage them to send yet more letters demanding yet more cash as you are obviously worried about something and will happily pay cash to make the worry go away.
The Courts wont take an offer to settle pre-trial as evidence of you admitting anything. It would be counter productive to the whole process if they did. The courts are meant to be the last resort... so they encourage making a settlement before it gets to court. If anything making an offer works in your favour as if the other side reject a reasonable offer the court will take that into account when they make their decisions on the amount of damages/ or making a costs order.
Hey all, Got a letter on 03/10/2008, demanding a payment to Davenport Lyons for copyright infringement of the game "Test Drive Unlimited", for the sum of £565. The only people in this household with some sort of idea when it comes to things like this is me and my brother - and we both don't recall downloading the game at all. We find this a bit suspicious as everyone else is claiming they haven't downloaded this game either. Just to confirm, the first page of the letter states: So they're fining you for the upload of the file, not the download. Although, if you were to download the file (or part of it), you would immediately be uploading what you've downloaded to other peers on the P2P network. It's the way P2P works. I noticed in a previous post someone mentioned phoning Virgin, and finding that they haven't passed their details to DL, which makes this whole thing even more fishy... We're going to try and get a free half hour consultation with our solicitor, to give the papers a once over to see if it looks legit, as it doesn't have any official stamps or signatures on it, but only a set of badly photocopied sheets. Just out of interest, what time and date were your "hit"? (PM me) The time our "hit" was (a Saturday morning), I would have been at work, and my brother would have still been in bed! We're going to leave it for a couple of weeks, and see if anyone starts to reply to this thread with similar problems. I plan to phone Virgin soon, just to confirm they haven't passed our details to DL.
This is horrible. I am inclined to say we all donate like £10 for a trust fund that will have one of us bit-techers go to court against these asswhipes. It is getting out of hand because the everyday joe cannot afford to go to court and out of fear, gives in just to avoid fee's for something they probably didnt do. This is harrassment and must be unlawful to make such demands. I think I will write a letter to our MP when I get a chance just so this issue can be highlighted! We should all do the same! Keep us posted guys on what they say!
An IP should not be enough. A MAC address should be needed at the very least to narrow it down to a single device / computer if they were to accuse you personally. Even then it canot prove that you were the person at the machine. I think this sort of thing shouldn't even get a lookin with a court, it's just silly. I'm surprised they do not send out a more general warning letter saying that your connection is being used to 'facilitate' illegal file sharing and if this continues then there would be legal action taken against the owner of the connection. This would be educational aswell as none aggressive and and would be much fairer. It would also be valid grounds to act as they have given the user a chance to sort of any problems they might have had with security / Kids on the net up to activities they should not be. I bet they would be hard pushed to defend this in court in my eyes. Unless the judge was equally ignorant to how file sharing and technology in general works. It seems too presumptuous that the owner is the source of the problem. Then again i'm not one to give leagl advice. I'm going on sheer logic.
See thats were you're going wrong the legal system isn't about right or wrong, truth or lies or even about justice and injustice its about who has the most money to pay for the best lawyer, slightly jaded view I know. Apparently its a wonderfully enlighten society we live in as well, where every has their say in court. Yep we all get our say its just that unless it involves pound/dollar/euro's/yen signs no one actually listens.
I wouldn't call your view jaded, I'd call it an honest interpretation...an interpretation that I completely agree with. I can't believe this type of thing continues to go on. Luckily it looks like some countries have caught on and stopped them, hopefully more catch on soon. I wish you the best of luck matthew223. I'm rooting for you! On a side note the US will probably be targeted next. I might be posting and asking for help this time next year.
Davenport Lyons Hi All, i have just received a letter from the above solicitor for the exact same game as EXCEL under post number 308, Christ I don't even like driving games, never mind download and share one, I have also wrote to Virgin media today to find out if they have passed over my details as I read on another forum that virgin media where denying this?? Really do not know what to do?, also they said I used EMULE to share this file I don't use Emule so that is also very strange,,,, Any help would be appreciated EXCEL I was hit at 16.08:39 date 09/08/2007 And at that time I would of been at work until 5pm so strange again... Thanks all
Don't respond to the letter yet. Go and visit a solicitor armed with the letter, Gareth's response letter from this thread and any more information you can get (reading through this thread is a start). If your solicitor tells you to make a payment, find another solicitor. If you have done nothing wrong, there's no need for you to pay any money to DL. Do you have any way of proving that you were in work at that time?
@ Fibblebot - Even if he is delpy8 can prove he is at work, DL would most likely argue that he could have left it running during the day, while he was at work.
Davenport Lyons Hi All, Got a response from virgin media, Dear ............ I am writing in response to your email received dated 08/10/08. I tried to contact you by phone however I was unable to reach you. We at Virigin Media strictly do not give out any of our customer's information to anybody. However there are chances of giving out customer's information only if there is any court order received. We are obliged by law to do this. While working on your complaint I came across the below link which relates to your email query, http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article4569180.ece If you have anything to discuss you can call our Customer Care on 0845 454 1111. Kind regards .............. Customer Concern Virgin Media
