Advice for partner - LOWELL

So my partner had a Shop Direct account with Littlewoods. Financial difficulties and life being the pain it is resulted in her trying the A4V and Promissory Note route. Littlewoods handled this is a "complaint" and gave the spiel about not accepting Promissory Notes, no mention of the A4V. These were not returned either.

The account was then handed to Lowell who my partner 3 lettered along with a cease and desist. Lowell obviously took no notice of these and has been sending poxy letters for months begging her to pay and even offered to reduce her debt by half if she decided to make payment.

Today she has received a Pre-Legal Assessment letter for a CCJ if she does not respond within 14 days. We'd obviously like some advice on what to do next? Does she respond and remind them of the 3 letters and cease and desist? Does she forward them the copies of her previous payment via A4V & Promissory Note to Shop Direct?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My experience so far with them is still ongoing.
They purchased my alleged debt in 2015, to which I received multiple letters, including several pre-legal assessments, offering me all kinds of deals. They only got the solicitors involved and came after me when the new rule change came into play in October 2017. They sent me a digital application, some numbers on a piece of paper claiming to be a statement of account, claiming they had reconstituted the agreement and I was liable. I sent off a CCA request, with a £1 cheque to Lowell's ( not the solicitors ), along with a pre-action conduct letter, basically asking for the same things as the three letter process. They should have sent me their pre-action conduct sheet before I sent my letter, but I only received their's a good few days after my letter had been sent, only their's was dated before mine ( very shady company, who will employ some underhand tactics, so be very aware). With the new rules, they have to show that every effort has been made to sort the problem out before it goes to court. A few back and forths with them, they then send a default notice. Then some more back and forths up until now. They will basically ignore some of your requests, or just answer in a dumb way like they haven't understood what you've asked them. They aren't afraid of telling you a pack of lies either.

The next step for them will be court. Then you will have 14 days to acknowledge if and when you receive a claim pack. Then a CPR 18 request will be sent to the solicitors if the debt is under £10,000, or a CPR 31.14 if it's over £10,000, requesting all the same documentation as the three letter process, plus anything else you can think of which may aid your defence. Not sure if those letters have changed from the old site or not, seeing as there is a new three letter process. You will have a month to compile your defence after acknowledging ( possibly 35 days ), maybe someone can correct that if that's wrong. Can't remember off the top of my head from the previous time a claim was made against me.
A court date will be assigned to whichever track is needed. Then both parties will have to supply all the documentation they intend to rely on in court, to both the court and the other party 14 days before the hearing.

No documentation was supplied to me at any stage from my only previous court experience and the claim was discontinued. That was before the new rule change mind and with Hoist portfolio and Brian Carter's solicitors, I think it was.

That's as much info as I can really add. Hope that gives you a bit of an idea. I would definitely read all the Lowell threads on here and you will see how they operate.

Thanks for the info, Theatchet. I'll have a look through and see what else I can find. Their tactics are pretty underhanded and you are correct that they are shady and seem to think ignorance is bliss. The debt is under £500 so I assume it will be a CPR 18 as you suggested.