LETTER BEFORE COUNTY COURT CLAIM - Parking Eye

Lazos

Hello All,

I have read all the relevant articles and threads available, thank you all for your help.

I am posting my LBCCC Acknowledgment before I send just to ensure that it is relevant and correct. Some sections may be too heavily laced with sarcasm, please let me know your thoughts before I sent this.

Please note, I have appealed and I have already sent one letter asking for a Compliant LBCCC. This is my template to provide them with reasons as to WHY their LBCCC is non-compliant.

"Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: LETTER BEFORE COUNTY COURT CLAIM dated XXX

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of the above letter.



I have studied the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct as you advised in your letter. Thank you forbeing compliant with Section 2.3, it seems that you have a legal team that cancomply with at least part of The Practice Direction. This does raise concernswith me as to why they could not comply with the rest.



Your letter advises that it isfully compliant. It is clear to me that this is completely misleading and untrue. I am sure that a legal department staffed by solicitors should be able to provide me with a compliant letter before claim. A team of trained and learned individuals not adhering to rules set out by the Ministry of Justice and the very legal system which provides them with a source of income, a career and a livelihood. I feel as if I am watching a game of football, but one of the teams is using the rules of Rugby. I apologise for the crude metaphor, I just want to ensure that you understand my concern that an unrepresented person with no legal training is going to have to explain the, very clear and concise, requirements of the Practice Direction.


I am using this acknowledgment to, for the second time, request a FULLYc ompliant Letter Before County Court Claim. I fully wish to fulfil my obligations under the Practice Direction as I appreciate and respect the hard work and time that the Ministry of Justice has sacrificed to ensure that both parties are on equal footing and to guarantee that the courts time is not wasted.


I have debated attaching an extract of the Practice Direction that indicates the requirements you must meet but then I remembered, YOU referred ME to the Practice Direction and therefore you must obviously know what is required and what your obligations are to be compliant. That being said, I feel it is best for me to attach the requirements of the Claimant’s Letter Before Claim to ensure that you do not waste any of the courts time:

(Please note I have added my comments in BOLD)



2. Claimant’s letter before claim

2.1
The claimant’s letter should give concise details about the matter. This should enable the defendant to understand and investigate the issues without needing to request further information. The letter should include –

(1) the claimant’s full name and address; Compliant.
(2) the basis on which the claim is made (i.e. why the claimant says the defendant is liable); Compliant
(3) a clear summary of the facts on which the claim is based; Non-Compliant. As I advised in my original appeal, you have yet to tell me WHY this Penalty Charge Notice has been issued. An ambiguous statement of “By either not purchasing the appropriate parking time or by remaining at the car park for longer than permitted”. In order to effectively provide a defence, it is essential I know exactly what the claim is for.
(4) what the claimant wants from the defendant; Compliant.
(5) if financial loss is claimed, an explanation of how the amount has been calculated; and
Non-Compliant.I am entitled to an exact itemised breakdown of how this charge is calculated.
(6) details of any funding arrangement (within the meaning of rule 43.2(1)(k)of the CPR) that has been entered into by the claimant. Non-Compliant. Please confirm if this section does or does not apply in these circumstances.

2.2
The letter should also –
(1) list the essential documents on which the claimant intends to rely; Non-Compliant. It is your obligation and my entitlement to know what essential documents you will rely on in a claim against me. You have decided to make a claim against me and therefore you must be aware of what evidence you will be using to support your claim? I have no objections to you adding to your list once you have seen my defence, which I will not be issuing until after the start of proceedings. You are obligated to provide me with the list of documents before proceedings have started, under the Pre-action Conduct Steps, set down by the court.
(2) set out the form of ADR (if any) that the claimant considers the mostsuitable and invite the defendant to agree to this; Non-Compliant. I notice in your letter you are actually attempting to justify your refusal to comply with this section of the Practice Direction. I requested the POPLA code when I wrote my original appeal which should highlight my keenness to not waste the County Courts time. I will again request that we refer this dispute to POPLA and I, for the second time, invite you to issue a legitimate POPLA code.
(3) state the date by which the claimant considers it reasonable for a full response to be provided by the defendant; and Compliant.
(4) identify and ask for copies of any relevant documents not in the claimant's possession and which the claimant wishes to see. Compliant


I’d like to refer back to 2.2 (2). I do not accept that this cannot be referred to POPLA. It makes sense for me to have this reviewed by POPLA as they are the appropriate form of Alternative Dispute Resolution for parking disputes. It is important to me that the county courts time is not wasted, when we have a designated resource for this to be reviewed prior to County Court action. I appreciate that if an appeal is made within the 28 days you MUST either uphold the appeal,or provide a POPLA code, but it does not say this cannot be provided after 28 days. Please provide me with a POPLA code and allow me to adhere to the Practice Direction.

It is my understanding that the court has powers to apply sanctions for non-compliance with the Practice Direction. As this letter should be sufficient to outline areas which I see as non-compliant, please provide me with a fully compliant Letter Before Claim within 14 days. If this is not provided to me I will seek the assistance of both the court and Solicitors Regulation Authority for breach of Principles.

Please do me the courtesy of reading and replying to this letter. Please note, if you send me a generic template letter which does not address my requests for information, I remind you that I WILL copy the correspondence to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and ask it to investigate your breach of the Principles set out inthe SRA Handbook version 8, published on 1st October 2013'.

Yours Faithfully,
XXX

Big_Bad_Dad

You've done the right thing. It's time this lot found themselves in hot water for supplying the same old rotten Letter Before Action with no modification. What you are telling them is nothing they haven't heard thousands of times therefore they know their document is below standard.

Lazos

Thanks Big Bad Dad.

Just wanting to ensure that I haven't missed anything or making any incorrect statements.

I also recieved the list of "ParkingEye Court Wins". The exact same template as in CouponMads thread referring to POPLA code being given AFTER LBCCC received.

Big_Bad_Dad

Oh yes the famous "Parking Eye wins".

Ask them for copies of the equally relevant "Parking Eye defeats"! Looks like this is going to court (I am on that boat too). If I were you I would gather as many packs as possible that you can find where Parking Eye suffered humiliation, many are from these past weeks.

Lazos

FYI,

"(2) the basis on which the claim is made (i.e. why the claimant says the defendant is liable); Compliant"

Just double checked the letter, in this instance we have an alleged "Breach of Contract" case.

It is worth noting that they haven't actually responded to my original appeal.

Just to clarify that the event is dated 26/10/2013.
Issued on the 30/10/2013.
My appeal(Non-Genuine Pre-Estimate of Loss, Poor Signage and failure to adhere to Protection of Freedoms) as RK was dated the 13/12/2013.
I received the LBCCC dated 18/12/2013.

I am unaware of how relevant this is at this stage but it does provide some context for anyone wishing to critique the above.

Big_Bad_Dad

This was a very fast LBCCC, all issued in less than two months of original invoice. Did they issue a POPLA code? Did you use that service?

Lazos

Thanks for the reply BBD.

No POPLA code and no formal reply to my appeal.

As in my draft LBCCC, I feel it is best to give them the opportunity to give me a POPLA code and resolve this quickly.

The_Slithy_Tove

Did you get any kind of acknowledgement of your appeal? Did you keep a copy and get proof of posting (if sent by letter)?

PE are, yet again, pretending that they didn't receive your appeal. Strange how so much of their mail goes missing, isn't it?

Half_way

Wat type of car park was this?

Stand alone ( ie pay and display) if so did it belong to anyone?

Retail park with multiple stores

Car park attached to one place ( such as ALDI/Morrisons/Pub)

the reason for asking the above is that you should make a strong complaint to whoever owns the car park if possible, as parking eye are their agents, and they the car park owners are responsible for the actions of their agents.
in other words the car park owner should be able to put a stop to parking eyes antics, and you should also ask them to make sure that this never happens again.

Lazos

I have both soft and hard copies of the appeal.

Appeal was sent 13/12 recorded delivery. Delivered to the address on the 16/12 from Royal Mails CHORLEY Delivery Office.

Attached Car Park-Belongs to a company that I have lodged a complaint with via both Customer Service teams and in the 'Shop'. They have said I need to discuss this with ParkingEye. I advised them that they are the land owners and therefore it is with them to stop. Instore was useless as no manager available, I'll need to pop in at some point.

Coupon-mad

Lazos wrote: »

Thanks Big Bad Dad.

Just wanting to ensure that I haven't missed anything or making any incorrect statements.

I also recieved the list of "ParkingEye Court Wins". The exact same template as in CouponMads thread referring to POPLA code being given AFTER LBCCC received.

If you got that long list of court cases drivel already, you could borrow my letter and adapt it. Or wait till you get a response if the ball is currently in PE's court.