Court Action - Defence

sunny1223

Hi,
I've now been served with court papers in relation to a number of PCNs I've received over the last few years.
I have acknowledged the court papers online and have to submit my defence next week.
I have followed all Daisy et al stickies and advice so far and prior to the papers being served I exchanged multiple letters with the PPC, requesting information in respect to the PD (which they failed to provide).
what I want to know is, do I save the letters for the date of the hearing or do I send them in with my defence?
re my defence - is it worth me sending this to the forum for review before I submit it?
any other pointers?
Many thanks in advance and for help received so far!

Coupon-mad

Hopefully you have read all the links in post #5 of the NEWBIES thread and got a copy of the Parking Pranksters Guide, and realised that you can - later on after the Directions Questionnaire directs the case to your local court - try asking the local court for POPLA instead (if it's a BPA member like ParkingEye or UKCPS or Excel).

Yes you can show your defence here, they will see it soon enough!

And if you are talking about 'years' is this Excel banding together some pre-POFA and post POFA tickets? Tell us more, tell us who.

sunny1223

Many Thanks Coupon mad. I've got 10 PCNS - 1X 2011, 1X 2012 and 8x 2013 (post ANPR). PPC is Excel and they are making a claim for all of these PCNs.
Up until the point I received LBA I hadn't applied to POPLA as unfortunately I'd lost touch with what the current regulations were.
However, after LBA I asked for POPLA refs to no avail.
I have bought a copy of the Pranksters guide and am collating my defence in conjunction with this.
let me know if you need any more specific information.
thanks again

bod1467

Any PCNs prior to October 1st 2012 are non-admissible to the claim, as there was no keeper liability until that date (with the introduction of the Protection of Freedoms Act). So your defence should include words to the effect that the claimant is pursuing the wrong party.

Coupon-mad

sunny1223 wrote: »

Many Thanks Coupon mad. I've got 10 PCNS - 1X 2011, 1X 2012 and 8x 2013 (post ANPR). PPC is Excel and they are making a claim for all of these PCNs.
Up until the point I received LBA I hadn't applied to POPLA as unfortunately I'd lost touch with what the current regulations were.
However, after LBA I asked for POPLA refs to no avail.
I have bought a copy of the Pranksters guide and am collating my defence in conjunction with this.
let me know if you need any more specific information.
thanks again

Do show us your defence words or send me a pm and I will try to respond in a few days. I have some Excel defence wording but it's best if you draft something first so you understand the issues (as you are the one who will have to explain them and win if you end up at a hearing if Excel proceed). At this stage it's a matter of acknowledging the claim and then writing a bullet point skeleton defence (not too long) so the court can see there are prospects of defending the claim and will move it on to Directions Questionnaire N180 stage and allocating the claim locally to your nearest county court building. Then you can prod the local court with a letter in the hope they might direct the parties to use POPLA instead... or to strike out the claim as it's an unrecoverable mess, including pre-POFA old cases where there is no legal liability for a keeper (and it's far too long ago to know who was driving/could have been different drivers in 2011) and they cannot rely upon the POFA 2012 for those ones.

Read post #5 of the NEWBIES thread if you haven't already. Read ALL links there in post #5 only. Tells you what happens when, how to write to ask for POPLA instead, some example defences, and lots of cases won including Excel ones and others like appeal cases, which will be useful transcripts to include in your exhibits. Appeal cases like ObServices v Thurlow and CEL v McCafferty are persuasive, and other Excel cases are of course relevant but a Judge doesn't have to consider other Judges' small claims decisions. Do not go mad and start citing every Parking Eye case you see, randomly quoted, no no no. Only PE v Beavis and the fact it's going to the Court of Appeal anyway, to rebut Excel relying upon it.

P.S. you may want to compare notes about your exhibits & defence & experiences along the way, as moral support with this poster:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/65868985#Comment_65868985

sunny1223

thanks for your support Coupon Mad - that's really helpful :-)

Coupon-mad

A poster I have been discussing their defence with for several weeks, has just got the local Court to direct the case to POPLA instead (his was a ParkingEye claim):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5006337

Can be achieved even when a hearing date has been allocated. Write once the case gets to your local court (after your N180 Directions Questionnaire).

hoohoo

As well as the pre Oct 1 2012 ones being unenforceable against the keeper, excels early Ntk were not POFA compliant and missed the required texts.

They do not serve you with copies of the NTK until later, so for now you will have to say something like:

The Notice to Keeper served by Excel do not comply with the requirements of POFA 2012 and therefore keeper liability does not apply. They therefore have no cause of action against the keeper.

Excel have not included copies of the Notice to Keeper with the claim and I therefore put them to strict liability to produce copies so I can show they do not comply.

sunny1223

thanks Coupon Mad and hoohoo!
I have just submitted my N180 Directions Questionnaire, so will keep you posted....

sunny1223

Hi,
I have agreed to mediation and have an appointment, but after reading some of the threads, I am guessing its pointless and won't achieve what I want.
Any thoughts on how to cancel it? Do I just say I've changed my mind?

The_Deep

It is pointless if you want to pay nothing. PPCs are old hands at mediation and will beat you hands down The only mediation worth having is Popla, but that is not mediation it all or nothing adjudication.

Do not cancel, ask for Popla, the industry standard appeal system funded by BPA members. Agree to be bound by there decision, If the PPC demur it will place them at a disadvantage should they win and want costs.