CEL - County Court Claim

Scorer14

Hi,
I'm a newbie, so apologise in advance if I'm a little lost by all of the useful information on here! I've tried to make sense of what applies to me so here goes:
-My registered car parked in Coop in February 2013, 45 minutes over the 2 hours parking
-Received PEN [unsure of date received but letter states issued 19/2/13], for £45 [reduced rate if paid in 14 days] I ignored this
-Received final reminder to pay PEN [as above I don't have envelope but funnily enough its dated the 19/2/13 same date as the initial PEN?!?], now £90. Again I ignored.
-January 14 received notice of assignment of debt, read some of the boards here at this time and as it seemed many of us got this letter I ignored this
-March 14 received court papers from Northampton county court.
From reading the information, am I too late to complain to coop? What steps should I now take?


Many thanks

da_rule

Firstly you're never too late to complain to Co-Op, they seem to be paying their customers charges left right and centre.

In the mean time you need to acknowledge service of the claim form. Instructions on how to do this will be in the paperwork, you should be able to do it online.

You will then have 28 days from the date of the form to prepare and submit your defence. In the newbies sticky thread there is guidance and links to information on preparing a defence. ParkingPrankster has also written a very good ebook on the subject (link in the sticky thread), it's a couple of quid but well worth it.

The_Deep

Of course You are not too late to complain to the Co-op, anytime in the next six years will be fine.

There are some weird goings on between the Co-op and some of their parking managers, it almost look as though Co-op are sick and tired of them ripping off their customers and are paying these penalties themselves. Have a read of this.

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/have-you-received-court-claim-from.html

Others will be along to tell you how to stick it to this company, my job is to boost morale.

Scorer14

Many thanks, do you think it is better to go to the Coop personally or write email? I'll have a look at the Coop threads to see how others have handled.
I will acknowledge to the court today, assume scanning the document to the email address provided will suffice?
Thanks again.

da_rule

If you're going to scan I would also suggest posting it. Just to cover the bases.

Scorer14

Thanks, I will. The letter does say you should received an auto-response but I will do both just in case.

Coupon-mad

Hope you realise you have to defend as well, after acknowledging a claim, and you don't get any response as such you just have 28 days from receipt of the court papers altogether? DON'T just acknowledge then rely on the complaint, as that would see you lose by default due to no defence submitted in time.

There's a section about Small Claims in the NEWBIEs thread that I expect you read already, when you read the sticky threads at the top before posting. Shows you what you need to know. And do confirm that of course, you've already searched the forum to read all the other CEL court claim threads too, as you would do on any forum when any standard letter/scary claim arrives. Sooo much advice already here on the forum to learn from.

Scorer14

Hi,
I have been reading everything on the forum [lots to digest] but think I know what I need to do.
I have been to the Co-op today and taken pictures etc, spoken to the staff there and got details of the store manager and CEO etc so wrote my letter to them this evening.
I plan to complete the acknowledgement of service tonight and email this to [EMAIL="ccmcce-filing@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk"]ccmcce-filing@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL] and also send in post as advised. I assume after that I have 28 days to submit a defence?
Just a few questions;
-The date of service on the claim form is 24/3, is that the date I have to respond with the acknowledgement? As it's tomorrow and only received the letter on 21/3 [Friday], postal date 20/3.
-Once acknowledged will I receive a pack from the court to write defence or do I just do this on the N9B in the pack
Many thanks for your help

fil_cad

I bet the co-op wont be renewing scamming CELs contract in a hurry.:rotfl:

Coupon-mad

Scorer14 wrote: »

-The date of service on the claim form is 24/3, is that the date I have to respond with the acknowledgement? As it's tomorrow and only received the letter on 21/3 [Friday], postal date 20/3.
-Once acknowledged will I receive a pack from the court to write defence or do I just do this on the N9B in the pack
Many thanks for your help

I am pretty sure the timings are all set out by bargepole in one of the links I gave in the Small claims section of the NEWBIES thread. You have 14 days to acknowledge and bargepole's info I linked in the sticky thread mentions it I am sure. Also I already told you above that you will not receive anything from the court yet:

after acknowledging a claim, and you don't get any response as such you just have 28 days from receipt of the court papers

Scorer14

Hi,


I have appealed to the co-op but got a letter back to say they sympathise with my situation but suggest I pay the fine! I have of course emailed them back with a stronger email and sent a letter to the CEO.


I would be grateful if you could send me some tips as to what to include in the defence reply to Court. Many thanks.