Smart parking ,DRP charge, SHOCK

@OP. I notice you didn't respond to my post #10.

As and when this gets to the Letter Before Claim stage, send them this letter - that refusal to provide any information is outrageous.


First, read the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct. It is part of the court rules and it obliges potential Claimants and Defendants to do certain things before they issue proceedings. All PPCs ignore it, which is not on. Most judges don't care, unless you make the right sort of fuss about it and then they might.
https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/pd_pre-action_conduct

This is the letter I'd send:

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your letter of x.

When your client's debt collectors first started contacting me, I asked them for details of the basis upon which money was being claimed, including all photographs taken of the vehicle at the relevant time. Extraordinarily, I was told (in blunt terms) by [name of debt collectors] that no such evidence would be provided "until this gets to court" [try and reproduce the exact words used].


You have now sent a Letter Before Claim. However, your letter contains insufficient detail of the claim and, again, fails to provide the photographic evidence which I requested as long ago as [date - if you don't know exact date, put the month and year]. It does not even say what the cause of action is. Nor does it contain any mention of what evidence your client intends to rely on, or enclose copies of such evidence.


This action on the part of your client is a clear breach of its pre-action obligations set out in the Practice Direction - Pre-Action Conduct, with which as solicitors you must surely be familiar (and with which your client, a serial litigator of small claims, must also be familiar). As you (and your client) must know, the Practice Direction binds all potential litigants, whatever the size or type of the claim. Its express purpose is to assist parties in understanding the claim and their respective positions in relation to it, to enable parties to take stock of their positions and to negotiate a settlement, or at least narrow the issues, without incurring the costs of court proceedings or using up valuable court time.


Nobody, including your client, is immune from the requirements and obligations of the Practice Direction. Your client cannot simply refuse to provide the relevant information "until this gets to court" [or whatever they said].

I require your client to comply with its obligations by sending me the following information/documents:

1. an explanation of the cause of action
2. whether they are pursuing me as driver or keeper
3. whether they are relying on the provisions of Schedule 4 of POFA 2012
4. what the details of the claim are (where it is claimed the car was parked, for how long, how the monies being claimed arose and have been calculated, what contractual breach (if any) is being claimed)
5. a copy of the contract with the landowner under which they assert authority to bring the claim
6. a copy of any alleged contract with the driver
7. a plan showing where any signs were displayed
8. details of the signs displayed (size of sign, size of font, height at which displayed)
9. If they have added anything on to the original charge, what that represents and how it has been calculated.

I am clearly entitled to this information under paragraphs 6(a) and 6(c) of the Practice Direction. I also need it in order to comply with my own obligations under paragraph 6(b).

If your client does not provide me with this information then I put you on notice that I will be relying on the cases of Webb Resolutions Ltd v Waller Needham & Green [2012] EWHC 3529 (Ch), Daejan Investments Limited v The Park West Club Limited (Part 20) – Buxton Associates [2003] EWHC 2872, Charles Church Developments Ltd v Stent Foundations Limited & Peter Dann Limited [2007] EWHC 855 in asking the court to impose sanctions on your client and to order a stay of the proceedings, pursuant to paragraphs 13 ,15(b) and (c) and 16. I will draw to the court the fact that I have expressly requested this information since as early as [date or month/year of first request] yet your client has refused to provide it, saying that it will not do so until this matter reaches the court.


Until your client has complied with its obligations and provided this information, I am unable to respond properly to the alleged claim and to consider my position in relation to it, and it is entirely premature (and a waste of costs and court time) for your client to issue proceedings. Should your client do so, then I will seek an immediate stay pursuant to paragraph 15(b) of the Practice Direction and an order that this information is provided.

Yours faithfully etc.

These cases are all authority that the court must punish a party who fails to comply with the Practice Direction. Don't expect this to necessarily work. PPCs always ignore the practice direction - but quoting this case law may make a difference. At the very least, it will protect you on costs later.

If they issue anyway without responding substantively, I would recommend that you write to the court with a copy of the letter complaining about their failure to respond and ask it to stay the proceedings pursuant to para 15(b) and to order the Claimant to provide the information you have requested before any stay is lifted. If your claim contains the usual incoherent Particulars of Claim which do not say what the claim is but just contains some unintelligible wording with a number plate and some figures, then complain about that too and ask the court (in the alternative) to strike out the incoherent claim pursuant to CPR Rule 3.4. You should invite the court to make either an order under its inherent case management powers (contained in CPR Rule 1.4(2)(c) and Practice Direction 26, paragraph 5.1) or to treat your letter as an application rather than requiring you to formally issue one (which it may do pursuant to CPR Part 23.3(2)(b)).