Parking Eye County Court advice please

In_disguise_2

Hi,

My friedn received a parking fine letter back in May this year, and I told her to ignore it. I did double check the forum at the time to see if this was still the best advice and I didn't see anything that said otherwise. I had succesfully ignored a euro car parks pcn before and told her that she would probably get another couple of letters but they would eventually stop.

As far as I'm aware she got one further letter 2 weeks later but nothing else. Today she has recieved a claim form form Northampton court and I feel awful !!

I've read through the forum again, and can see that she shouldn't of ignored the letter and should of just written to them not accepting.

What do I do now ? I feel that i should just pay it for her ? Or can she appeal ( I think she will think this is a lot of hassle and will be very worried that she will end up in court !)

I feel absoloutley awful that I have given her the wrong advice and so any good advice would now be very welcome.

Thanks

Coupon-mad

It's not an appeal at this stage but she can and should defend.

First she must acknowledge the claim and say she will 'defend in full' (and do tell her not worry about it as it's not a criminal thing and may well not even go to a hearing if you can help her head this off at the pass!).

She can also ask the judge, when acknowledging this, to please consider ordering a 'stay' of the claim so that both parties can use the Alternative Dispute Resolution which is provided for exactly this sort of dispute - namely, POPLA. This is particularly important for her as she is an unrepresented individual who has never been sent a compliant 'Letter before Claim' and so has had no chance to explore the Practice Direction nor sort this out before court.

Double check that she never got a letter called 'Letter befor Action' or 'Letter before County Court Claim'? Be certain about what she got and when.

She should also COMPLAIN very assertively by email or post, to the CEO of the client on site (Supermarket chain?) and do this straight away. Email addresses and examples of strong complaints are in the top sticky 'Successful complaints about PPCs' - and complaints have worked even after court papers were served by Parking Eye. Copy in Parking Eye to the complaint and read other threads like yours on here and on pepipoo because this has been covered lots of times.

I suggest you look at the complaint letter I wrote in the Morrisons Parking Eye case on that sticky thread. Remove the Equality Act stuff from it if she isn't protected by it, but you'd still be left with a strongly-worded rant about PE. She's have to clearly add to the first and last paragraph that she now has a small claim hanging over her for daring to shop/use their facility, and that as time is of the essence she needs them to step in and cancel this within seven days. That complaint goes to the onsite client who contracted PE (if a multi-store retail park send it to ALL CEOs of all stores she used, and as well, to the managing agent of the site who you can find by Googling the place).

The complaint is as urgent as the acknowledgement (which has to be done within 14 days, which extends the time to submit a bullet-point defence by another 14 days). Many of these cases are cancelled before court hearings; PE have sent thousands of court claims to ignorers this year and it's such a shame she didn't simply read any new PE threads on page one of the forum in June - because we have been telling people not to ignore since EASTER.

So now, she and you must be proactive to ensure this is likely to be quashed. Do tell her that if ever she wants to bail out and pay then that's an option right up to any hearing date - so in fact this, now, is NOT a time to fold and pay, bearing in mind I have said there are ways to assertivwely defend and fight back and get this quashed. Also even if a person loses a small claim there is no CCJ or ANY repercussions as long as it's then paid (average £200 is paid to PE where people do lose, no big costs - and not everyone even gets a hearing imposed on them anyway). This is an early step by PE - sounds like without any compliant Letter before Claim - and the ball is in her court to knock this into touch.

She must file a defence within 4 weeks, though, if the complaints don't work. We can help with that if needed but try and try again with the complaint, based on the Morrisons complaint letter I mentioned.

Sentient_being

In_disguise

crikey ! your friend gets her post early

you posted at 09:40 , what time do the royal mail deliver to her today? for her to telephone you and for you to log on an post , you are a real friend to her

you don't need to feel awful

you have read this and the CAG forums many times to know that the fraudulent invoices of this newish devilry to separate the cash from pensioners such as your lady friend...

can't happen in court when argued properly on the Law

Maybe you can represent her at court

spacey2012

Who has signed her papers, is it GBP solicitors ?

In_disguise_2

Thank you for the advice and the support. I think she must have actually got the letter the day before but just brought it to work on Friday. I've read a lot of information on here since, and am about to inwardly digest Coupon mad's morrison post !

Spacey 2012 - the papers were signed by a Rachel Ledson, but a search shows me she features quite heavily in theses cases.

My friend is checking through what she has recieved, but she is certain she hasn't had any letters other than the original PCN, so I will draft a letter and will we send it tomorrow.

I still feel awful and partly resopnsible for this mess but at least we know now !

The parking area in questions is maximum 2 hour stay place but it's free, so I have no idea how they can even try and claimed for losses, it's not like they are losing any revenue !

It's all very frustrating, but thank you again for your help.
:beer:

trisontana

According to Parking Eye's twisted logic, the cost or erecting the signs, staff wages and even membership of the BPA can be counted as "losses" when trying to screw money out of motorists. That's the sort of people you are dealing with. Rachel Ledson is supposedly a trained lawyer but she goes along with that myth.

zzzLazyDaisy

This is the second county court claim from PE in two days where the defendant says they did not receive a letter before claim. I do hope this is not a new tactic by PE!

If your friend is certain that she did not receive a LBC (it would normally have been a signed for letter, so difficult to miss) then I suggest that she sends this letter:

(but don't send it if there is any chance that an LBC was signed for, because this could act to discredit her)

Daisy

---

ParkingEye Ltd
Legal Department

[Insert Address]

[Insert Date]

For the personal attention of Rachel Ledson (Supervising Solicitor)

Dear Ms Ledson

ParkingEye Ltd v [Name]
Northampton County Court case number [xxxxx]


I am the registered keeper of vehicle registration number xxxx.

I have received the above court claim which was signed by you. I confirm that the claim is disputed and I am now in the process of preparing a fully pleaded defence, which will be filed with the court within the relevant timescale.

The purpose of this letter is to bring to your attention the fact that I did not receive a Letter Before Claim, and your company did not take any steps to follow the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct, as it is required to do before starting legal proceedings. I am sure that, as the solicitor in charge of the legal department, you will have procedures in place to ensure that the Practice Direction has been complied with before you sign the court papers, so I am presuming that this must have been an over-sight on your part.

Nevertheless, your non-compliance leaves your company open to sanctions by the court under Para 4 of the Practice Direction.

In the circumstances I am writing to invite you to consent to a joint application to the court for a stay of these proceedings, in order to enable the parties to complete the pre-action process.

I also take this opportunity to invite you to agree to this case being referred to the Parking on Private Lands Appeals service (this being the suitable form of ADR set up by the Parking Industry to deal with such disputes.

I look forward to receiving your positive response shortly.

Yours faithfully

PRINT NAME (sign with a squiggle.)

---

EDIT - just to be clear - RL is unlikely to agree to this proposal, but the letter will be useful later, when the issue is raised before the court, and/or if costs fall to be decided.

In the meantime do NOT take your eye off the court timetable and make sure that the acknowledgement of service and defence are sent in on time.

D

Coupon-mad

In the meantime do NOT take your eye off the court timetable and make sure that the acknowledgement of service and defence are sent in on time.

Any update, hope you made sure your friend lodged their defence in good time? Or have they got it cancelled by the retail managers yet by loudly complaining? Do update your thread. Help is out there, see this to help with your case, I do hope you/friend haven't folded.

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/do-you-have-court-hearing-with.html

A lot has happened with PE small claims in recent weeks, read the blogs there.