Court Claim Received

bluetoffee1878

Hi All,
A friend of the family has recently recieved a county court claim for an alleged debt from a parking incident at a co-op store. I have helped a few people with various appeals and POPLA stuff recently with help from people on here and Pepipoo so have offered to help.
So the story so far is: Landowner is Co-op, PPC is Civil Enforcement. Notice to keeper received but unfortunately ignored. The strange thing about this one though is that the alleged debt has been assigned to Debt Enforcement & Action Ltd, so it is them who have issued the claim, not CEL or Co-op.
I've told my friend to send the acknowledgement of service which they have done, and I said I would help with a skeleton defence. I've also told them to complain vigorously to the co-op to see if it can get cancelled that way. I was wandering if anybody thinks it worthwhile to try an appeal to CEL to try and get it back to the POPLA stage.
Any advice appeciated particularly with the skeleton defence, I have done one of these before (with great help from Bargepole) but that was for a claim from CEL not DEAL so I guess it may be slightly different. Thanks in advance.

bluetoffee1878

I meant to add also that the claim details state a claim for either a breach or a contractual charge or tresspass. I guess they are hedging their bets.

eddy1

Hi


it has to be one or the other imho


eddy

Umkomaas

Do a search on here (and on Pepipoo.com) as there are just dozens of similar cases. You will have to acknowledge service, which will give you a further 14 days on top of the initial allocation of 14 days to prepare your defence. But the advice already given on cases here and Pepipoo will largely apply to yours.

How to use the forum search engine here on MSE:

Use the Forum Jump to get back to page one and just above the sticky threads, on the right, is a heading along a line, next to forum tools, called 'search this forum'. Put your key word(s) in and change the default search to 'show posts'.

Coupon-mad

bluetoffee1878 wrote: »

Hi All,
A friend of the family has recently recieved a county court claim for an alleged debt from a parking incident at a co-op store. I have helped a few people with various appeals and POPLA stuff recently with help from people on here and Pepipoo so have offered to help.
So the story so far is: Landowner is Co-op, PPC is Civil Enforcement. Notice to keeper received but unfortunately ignored. The strange thing about this one though is that the alleged debt has been assigned to Debt Enforcement & Action Ltd, so it is them who have issued the claim, not CEL or Co-op.
I've told my friend to send the acknowledgement of service which they have done, and I said I would help with a skeleton defence. I've also told them to complain vigorously to the co-op to see if it can get cancelled that way. I was wandering if anybody thinks it worthwhile to try an appeal to CEL to try and get it back to the POPLA stage.
Any advice appeciated particularly with the skeleton defence, I have done one of these before (with great help from Bargepole) but that was for a claim from CEL not DEAL so I guess it may be slightly different. Thanks in advance.

It is not worth an appeal to CEL but is 'kind of' worth a complaint to the Co-op just to log yet another one with their Head office (they won't do anything though!).

You should read pepipoo threads like this one:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=92737&st=20&start=20

and this one:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=94913

and loads of others you see, reading back pages and pages:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60

And read post #5 of the NEWBIES thread here on this MSE forum, it's what it's there for, as a sticky info thread covering everything to do with PPC issues, post #5 of it being all about small claims court. CEL court claims are specially mentioned.

bluetoffee1878

Thanks coupon mad and the prankster for help so far
We have already complained to Mr Murrells and got a reply today in a nutshell they're not interested. Going to have another go at them though as I know they were paying off cel invoices I personaly have evidence of this.
Also will be contacting SRA regarding the mysterious Mr Shwarts

Acknowledgement has been sent regarding the claim so will start working on the initial defence over the weekend

BT

bluetoffee1878

Interesting developments on other similar threads regarding the dyslexic Mr Schwarts
We've had a fob off reply from co-op complaint but in light of some of the SRA replies to other posters decided to have another go at them
The prankster has a copy of the complaint letter if any regulars are interested in seeing it. I'm sure he knows who can be trusted.

One question for the regulars:

If somebody was pregnant whist committing one of these 'parking offences' would they be protected by the equality act 2010 and would this be a relevant point in any defence?
Thanks
BT

Coupon-mad

Yes and no! I do have working knowledge of the Equality Act, and it does offer certain protection for ladies who meet the maternity sections of the Act (pregnant ladies or breastfeeding mothers and those who have given birth within 6 months previously). But the protection in the Act is not as good as it is for disabled people and does not cover a pregnant lady for indirect 'maternity' discrimination (there is no such thing IIRC). Arguably, a lady could use the sex discrimination section of the Act which does have an 'indirect discrimination' provision which can be argued for a certain section of the female public at large (i.e., pregnant ladies!).

So it's a bit of a convoluted full circle argument. And maybe worth including but it won't be the winning point, and is unlikely to go to any hearing anyway as post #5 of the NEWBIES thread shows you where I give some links about CEL/Co-op cases.

bluetoffee1878

Thanks CM I think we'll probably stick with the tried and tested points. I have read your newbies sticky many times on previous challenges absolutely invaluable info many thanks to you and the other regulars for putting in such a lot of your time to help. It's helped me personally on 3 occasions so I feel obliged to try and help others with the little experience I have and hopefully the support of you guys here and pepipoo.
I'm going to work on the initial defence over the weekend, I would be grateful if one of the experts could critique for me when it's done

BT

bluetoffee1878

So far after advice from the prankster we have sent copies of the claim forms ref the mysterious Mr Schwarts to the SRA and had the usual reply that they have sent it on to their Fraud team as he does not appear to exist.
We've been fobbed off by the co-op but are still going after them.
Acknowledgement has been sent to the court and the automated reply received.
Been working on the initial defence from all the various bits of info on here and pepipoo and I think its in a fairly decent state. Are any of the experts available to take a look at it for me before I send it in?
I'll also start a similar thread on pepipoo just in case the regulars here are too busy and somebody on there could critique for me.

Thanks in advance
BT

Coupon-mad

Yep we are happy to look at the defence and you are perfectly 'safe' to show it here on this thread. This isn't going to be a problem for you to defend and CEL will never turn up in the end! So I hope you have a little notebook started, to note down over the coming weeks, with receipts, all your postage and other costs to claim if they make you show up for a hearing in the New Year, which they will duck.

One day someone should then sue the Co-op for damages for this detriment. IMHO they would settle.