Excel & Me Part 2

claretmad62 · 28 February 2017 at 2:09PM

Just one thing, is the Beavis case relevant to us...given the judgement came well after our PCN date ?

Coupon-mad · 28 February 2017 at 2:26PM

Yes it still is, and it is important to distinguish your case and in any defence, argue that (unlike in the Beavis case) there is no legitimate interest in penalising drivers at this location and so no commercial justification for the charge - meaning the claimant has not 'disengaged the penalty rule' which the Supreme Court Judges in Beavis confirmed was undoubtedly 'in play' in a parking charge case.

The unusual legitimate interests in that case alone saved it from being held to be a penalty = otherwise it would have been unrecoverable in law. Not so here; private firms cannot simply punish drivers in pay & display car parks and this was not a comparable 'free licence for two hours followed by a charge' scenario. The PPC will say the Beavis case helps them, so you need to know how to say 'no it is not similar and this is why'.

claretmad62 · 28 February 2017 at 4:29PM

Ok...so Beavis lost his case because there was no transaction between the parking operator and the driver.....a free parking area, the contract applied if he went over the free period as this was clearly shown on the signage.

In the case of ParkingEye Vs Cargius it was held that the Beavis case did not apply since parking was paid for rather than free for a limited period. The judge distinguishes it by reasoning that in Beavis the charge was justifiable as it was their only income, whereas in a paid car park, only the hourly charge is being lost by overstaying (e.g. £2); anything above that is clearly a penalty.

So using the Cargius argument in my SA is ok if they bring up Beavis

Coupon-mad · 1 March 2017 at 1:47AM

Yes, that is right.

claretmad62 · 11 April 2017 at 10:46AM

Morning all, just got a message (photo) from my wife. Claim form received from CCBC, for the 2nd alleged contravention. This time with your help, I need to put in a lot better defence as I made a hash of the last one. So any help would be much appreciated....1st steps ?

cm62

claretmad62 · 11 April 2017 at 12:40PM

Just looking over the letters we have received, and need to double check. But we seem to have gone from a Letter of Claim to a Claim Form....no Notice of County Court Claim Issued letter. The timeline seems much shorter this time out aswell !

DoaM · 11 April 2017 at 1:34PM

claretmad62 wrote: »

So any help would be much appreciated....1st steps ?

NEWBIES FAQ post #2.

Coupon-mad · 11 April 2017 at 3:38PM

claretmad62 wrote: »

Morning all, just got a message (photo) from my wife. Claim form received from CCBC, for the 2nd alleged contravention. This time with your help, I need to put in a lot better defence as I made a hash of the last one. So any help would be much appreciated....1st steps ?

As well as acknowledging it and following post #2 of the NEWBIES thread, you could also write to your local court and point out that this Claimant is issuing separate claims to you for matters which are essentially the same issue, which is not only harassment but causes more court fees to arise and more time off work for the unrepresented defendant.

The PCNs should have been grouped together into one claim. Lamilad has the wording for that as he had to write the same thing.

You should also make that point at the top of your defence. No-one should be subjected to this torture by claim forms, one by one over a period of months.

This is like a builder suing you for the (alleged unpaid) cost of one wall of an extension then waiting and separately suing you over another wall, etc. Not how the court should be used/abused. There should be one hearing only so make that clear.

claretmad62 · 11 April 2017 at 4:37PM

Ok, will log into MCOL & acknowledge service of the claim, and read thru the Newbies thread.

Had a brief look this lunchtime, some very in depth Defences out there.... Will put something together over the next few days and put up for discussion / advice.

What about them going straight to issuing the claim form, and no Notice of County Court Claim... is there any mileage in that ?

Many thanks all

claretmad62 · 11 April 2017 at 4:56PM

Ok another thing, just trolling through the letters now. BW let this one slip at tad, I had a letter in early July where they just repeated the claim that the £154.00 balance still stood and that as this was a Civil matter there was no requirement for "strict proof". Then a gap of 6 months, where they re-visited everything again, is this something I can use....even if just to say how incredibly incompetent they are ?

Excel & Me Part 2

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