PCN (NW) Court Claim Issued

stgmoss02

Could anyone offer advice on the following? We had a PCN that went to a County Court Claim which we then defended & the 28 days for a response ran out back in November 2013 so we thought we were OK & had forgotten about it to be honest. Today we have received a Notice Of Proposed Allocation To The Small Claims Track with a form N180 to complete. They are suggesting a 1 hour phone service to try & sort it without it going to court. My initial reaction is to complete it & say we do not want to go to mediation? Surely they are way out of time with this now? We were happy with our defence & would be prepared to take it to court if needs be but thought the time to do that had run out? Any advice welcome thanks.

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

I would say no to mediation, unless you want to see what they have to say etc...

Aaron_Aadvark

POPLA states that it offers "Alternative Dispute Resolution by way of Arbitration."

You may wish to request the court to use this method of arbitration.

salmosalaris

Aaron_Aadvark wrote: »

POPLA states that it offers "Alternative Dispute Resolution by way of Arbitration."

You may wish to request the court to use this method of arbitration.

As PCN (NW) are now in the IPC I think this will prove futile.
If they were members of the BPA at the time of the event and the court did order referral to POPLA ( which is a rare event anyway ) would be interesting to see how that was handled

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

stgmoss02 wrote: »

Could anyone offer advice on the following? We had a PCN that went to a County Court Claim which we then defended & the 28 days for a response ran out back in November 2013 so we thought we were OK & had forgotten about it to be honest. Today we have received a Notice Of Proposed Allocation To The Small Claims Track with a form N180 to complete. They are suggesting a 1 hour phone service to try & sort it without it going to court. My initial reaction is to complete it & say we do not want to go to mediation? Surely they are way out of time with this now? We were happy with our defence & would be prepared to take it to court if needs be but thought the time to do that had run out? Any advice welcome thanks.

Could you give more information about the service? Is it a mediation firm? Is there a cost? The trouble with that is a generic firm will not be up to speed on the law. You could offer that you would be happy to use a specific parking arbitration firm, but you are aware that the other side would probably object to this as it is well known that most properly defended cases are lost by the claimant.

Since you filled in your defence, there has been a lot more information to go armed with and the courts are starting to get the hang of it (have a read of a few recent court cases on Parking-Prankster). If you are sure of your ground and prepared for the chance of losing, is hard to see what the use of the phone service would be.

da_rule

IanMSpencer wrote: »

Could you give more information about the service? Is it a mediation firm? Is there a cost? The trouble with that is a generic firm will not be up to speed on the law. You could offer that you would be happy to use a specific parking arbitration firm, but you are aware that the other side would probably object to this as it is well known that most properly defended cases are lost by the claimant.

Since you filled in your defence, there has been a lot more information to go armed with and the courts are starting to get the hang of it (have a read of a few recent court cases on Parking-Prankster). If you are sure of your ground and prepared for the chance of losing, is hard to see what the use of the phone service would be.

The mediation is offered for free by the courts. Below is a link to the form N180 which the court issues which has information on the service:
http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/n180-eng.pdf

Whilst there is no duty to mediate, it would probably be best to do so as it shows reasonableness of the party. This isn't important for the case as a whole, but the judge can make reference to it when deciding costs. If you refuse to even attempt to mediate then the court may ask you to justify your reasoning.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

da_rule wrote: »

The mediation is offered for free by the courts. Below is a link to the form N180 which the court issues which has information on the service:
http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/n180-eng.pdf

Whilst there is no duty to mediate, it would probably be best to do so a it shows reasonableness of the party. This isn't important for the case as a whole, but the judge can make reference to it when deciding costs. If you refuse to even attempt to mediate then the court may ask you to justify your reasoning.

As there is no obligation to settle, definitely worth a chat, if only to point out the futility of the other side's case. I'd settle if they accepted not attempting to pass on costs and a nominal sum like £10.

Coupon-mad

stgmoss02 wrote: »

Could anyone offer advice on the following? We had a PCN that went to a County Court Claim which we then defended & the 28 days for a response ran out back in November 2013 so we thought we were OK & had forgotten about it to be honest. Today we have received a Notice Of Proposed Allocation To The Small Claims Track with a form N180 to complete. They are suggesting a 1 hour phone service to try & sort it without it going to court. My initial reaction is to complete it & say we do not want to go to mediation? Surely they are way out of time with this now? We were happy with our defence & would be prepared to take it to court if needs be but thought the time to do that had run out? Any advice welcome thanks.

This form was to be expected and is covered in the links under 'Small Claims' in the NEWBIES thread. Bargepole sets out in a link there, 'what happens when' (and I added other useful links too which should help). You don't have to agree to mediation and do not be intimidated if you do try it - you owe NOTHING and must not give away who was driving, so be rehearsed to say you can't help the Claimant (and have no legal reason to do so anyway)seeing as you only got the NTK four months after this alleged parking event.

IMHO you should seize the chance to put a covering letter with the N180 suggesting the case should be struck out because this claimant has no standing. i.e. they do not own the land nor do they have assignment of rights to pursue this matter in their own name. Under POFA 2012, the claimant could be the landowner seeking damages under tort or an agent of the landowner (or the landowner themselves) seeking an unpaid parking fee - but not a site contractor seeking damages for breach of contract. Particularly not a contractor which has not fulfilled the strict requirements of the POFA2012 in terms of deadlines and wording re the NTK.

You could say 'this is the wrong Claimant pursuing the wrong Defendant' - should be landowner v driver if there was any claim to be made and this claim from THIS Claimant is a complete waste of the Court's time in a case where 'keeper liability' under POFA 2012 does not apply.

The POFA 2012 is also linked in the NEWBIES thread for you to spot the flaws if you've forgotten them from when you checked the law/deadlines that they missed, when you sent your defence.

Others in the same boat here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4778047

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4787128

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4779596

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4777641

...so please read the info around your thread on the forum (and exchange pm's with these posters). Make sure you read other threads & info, not just your own thread and certainly read the sticky thread FAQs at the top with the 'Small Claims' info that is already here.