Possibly going to court, advice please

ManicRuss

Firstly I'm not trying to 'wriggle out' of paying.

I've had 2 parking tickets, scenario A and scenario B.

I have slight learning difficulties which I believe led to my errors that caused the tickets to be issued but I don't ever play the 'victim' - my condition may be an explanation but it's not an excuse and therefore does not play any part of how I want this to play out.

Scenario A - I received a notification in the post that I did not display a valid ticket and the case was going to court. It's very possible that they are correct with this so I am not denying it. However the incident happened in January and this letter states "....despite us previously contacting you and offering the option to pay the initial charge you have failed to respond, documents have now been prepared for court etc". I have heard NOTHING from this company, and the letter says court costs will be added to the total I have to pay. Ordinarily I would say this process is correct and justified however as i said I have not received anything from them. Had I done so I would have taken the opportunity to pay the states 'fine' but now I will have to pay these court costs on top which I feel is grossly unfair. Included with the letter is a photocopy of what they say they sent out and I certainly did use this carpark on the date in question so again I'm happy to accept the offence occurred. I rang the company to state my case but they use an automated system and as soon as I typed in the PCN it said my case could not be discussed as it was on the way to court.

My question is if I state my case to the court that I received nothing (not suggesting the company didn't send it out btw) am I still going to have to pay court costs? I'm willing to pay anything I am responsible for but this seems very unfair.

Scenario B: I received a letter regarding a parking violation, again I'm not disputing it but I felt there were mitigating circumstances so I sent in an appeal. I heard nothing back from them (I had no idea how long these things take, I assumed they'd get back to me) until last week when a bailiff put a note through the door saying it had been passed to them and their costs were added.

Again I am willing to pay for any costs I have incurred personally but I did not hear whether my appeal was successful or not. If it had been declined I would have paid up there and then but as per the above, I don't agree that I should have to pay further costs purely (for whatever reason) due to my not knowing what was going on.

Any advice about the above would be welcome.

spacey2012

WHO has wrote to you.
Describe who they are, what do they call themselves
Answer this first.

ManicRuss

Both are the 'parking enforcement' companies that each car park uses. This was the first thing I checked. One is by the local council (I rang them to check) and the other is the one in charge of the private car park, having subsequently looked in to this their signs are displayed around it.

spacey2012

Please answer the Question:
Again WHO has written to you, not a description of what they do.

An example of the wrong answer : there is a big shop in town that sells loads of potatoes, I dont like potatoes, but they also sell fruit and vegetables, but I dont like apples, why should I buy apples when they bring me out in a rash....

Example of right answer: Asda.

If you are confused is there anyone else who can help you answer the question correctly as you have mentioned you have learning difficulties which given by your answer would I be right to say aspergers's
We will help, we do understand your disability but we need the question answering first.

ManicRuss

I don't have asperger's and neither do I require anyone else to help me to answer these questions.

Do you mean the actual name of the companies?

Timay

ManicRuss wrote: »

I don't have asperger's and neither do I require anyone else to help me to answer these questions.

Do you mean the actual name of the companies?

Yes they do and not the company that runs the car park but the actually company who sent you the letters and who are taking you to court etc

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

This is going to be like getting blood out of a stone......

ManicRuss

Timay wrote: »

Yes they do and not the company that runs the car park but the actually company who sent you the letters and who are taking you to court etc

I'm at work and don't have the details to hand, I will get them tonight.

In the meantime, if we work on the assumption that both are legitimate...

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

No lets not work on the assumption they are legit.

Details first pls

waamo

Its probably going to be a lot easier for people to give accurate advice if you scan and post up all the paperwork you have received.

spacey2012

Assume nothing is rule 1 on here usually, once we know who has sent you letters and what they are, you will get very good advice and very quickly , apologies for assuming you had asperger's but as i know people with asperger's your answer to the simple question did ring very true to my experiences of Asperger's syndrome .

We may need to prioritise the advice and split the problems depending on what and who especially if it is a local council, which we can only confirm by you answering the question asked exactly without embellishing the answers.