Vehicle Control Services - HM Courts and Tribunal Service Claim Form received...

Redx

I see you still havent done the research to understand the scenarios and the small claims court procedures

in the case of court, once you are down the paperwork route you can specify your local court, you will be defending yoursel, not appealing (the time for appealing has long since departed)

the papers were served at their local court, as defendant you have the right to have it heard where you want, but if not specified by you then the court of origin would apply

doing the research would mean you can concentrate on the pertinent questions as the other stuff would be obvious (like court procedures)

if its at all possible, you are expected to avoid court appearances, they are the last resort if it cannot be resolved any other way

nigelbb

If the story that you have been spinning us is true (that you have received stamped court papers) then you are far beyond any appeal. If you have been served court papers then you need to respond to this or a default judgement will be lodged against you & if you continue to ignore then you will receive a CCJ.

I am still not clear on the story here. Presumably if it's the wife's car then she is the registered keeper & it is her who has received court papers addressed to her. The OP says that "we have received a Claim Form" which cannot be true as the claim form will be addressed to an individual unless the registered keeper is a limited company.

If it is the RK & not the driver who has been served court papers then VCS will be claiming that the RK is liable for this invoice. They can only do that by either claiming that the RK & driver are one & the same or using the provisions of POFA 2012 to establish keeper liability for unpaid parking charges incurred by the driver. To use POFA 2012 there are a series of hurdles that VCS must jump in order to establish keeper liability. Many (Most? PPCs fail to establish keeper liability because they fall at one or more of these hurdles. In this particular case if the land is subject to Railway Bylaws then in POFA parlance this is not 'relevant land' so keeper liability cannot apply. If notifications of the parking charges either left on the windscreen or posted to the registered keeper do not contain contain particular information or in the latter case are not delivered within particular timescales then again keeper liability cannot apply.

Here is a link to Schedule 4 of POFA 2012 contained in Appendix C of the Code of Practice of the BPA Ltd http://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS_Code_of_Practice_October_2015_update_V6..pdf

Please give us some detail & answer these questions:-

Who has received court papers?
Was the registered keeper the driver?
Were there windscreen tickets?
Were tickets received through the post for each 'crime'?
If there were postal tickets how long after each 'crime' were they received?
If there were postal tickets did they mention the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012?

bod1467

For the avoidance of doubt ... you have court papers, there is no appeal route except by defending the court claim. ANY other appeal route is now irrelevant.

Redx

Wrapper wrote: »

Is there a closed forum?

I don't see what can do me any harm from what's been posted?

I'm an innocent person who's been sent this through the post.

I'm sure it's going to be happening to other people so hopefully they can benefit from this.

not to my knowledge, but this is a public forum, open to 7 billion people

the point is that parking companies READ forums like this one, gathering evidence and screenshots and may use them in court , in which case you are advised NOT to type sentences that incriminate people , hence why you have been told to edit posts accordingly

ie:- dont let your posts become witness statements for the claimant , to your detriment

if the papers were addressed to you, then presumably you are the RK, therefore its not "we" that are being served court papers, its one person, the RK

the RK may or may not have been the driver, keep this info to yourself, no revealing who was driving or you could blow the case !! the papers may have gone to the wrong person and you would use this in your defence if POFA2012 does not apply, especially if its "non-relevant" land due to being railway land and subject to bylaws

leave it to the claimant to try to gather evidence, dont hand them details on a plate , less is more (like a "no comment" interview)

this is not about innocence, its about bylaws or civil contract laws and possible trespass

bazster

You are not appealing it, you are defending it.

It will most likely involve going to court. The near-universal convention for cases on the small claims track is that, where the case is a company vs. a private individual, the case will be transferred to the County Court nearest to the individual's (i.e. your) home. Look out for the option to request this when you get the Allocation Questionnaire from the court: your request is 99.9% certain to be honoured i.e. VCS will have to travel to you, not the other way around.

But it is your wife, the registered keeper, who is named on the claim so she will need to go to court. You can go as her lay representative and speak for her, but only if she is also present.

If you put in a strong defence (which we can craft over the next week or two, or you can pay PPA to do one for you) then combined with you being a long way from Sheffield this might just be enough to get them to drop the whole thing - or fail to turn up at the hearing.

Frankly in your situation (i.e. your unfamiliarity with the processes plus the size of the claim) you might want to consult a solicitor. If VCS realises you are represented (as they will if they receive a solicitor's letter demanding all sorts of stuff from them) this might scare them into dropping the whole thing. The downside is that (i) if it goes all the way to a hearing and a solicitor attends for you it could finish up costing you as much as the claim and (ii) solicitors are often pretty ignorant of this area of law and know less than many people on this forum or at PPA.

Wrapper

nigelbb wrote: »

Who has received court papers?
My wife
Was the registered keeper the driver?
Possibly
Were there windscreen tickets?
In the bit
Were tickets received through the post for each 'crime'?
"Reminder" and intention of court proceedings
If there were postal tickets how long after each 'crime' were they received?
Weeks? Not sure. There were a lot of them
If there were postal tickets did they mention the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012?
Not sure. I can't remember

Thank you

Wrapper

Guys thank you. I appreciate the time you've all put in here.

I'm just going to pay it. It's an uphill battle and for the amount of time it's going to take to pursue it it's too much hassle.

My wife is also heavily pregnant and can do with the stress.

VCS 1 - 0 Innocent people going to work to pay taxes

Redx

ok, so dont say that you received court papers, it wasnt you , or "we" it was SWMBO so keep everything 100% correct without incriminating anyone in public

have a read of this case from last summer

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5207848

airports are like railways , not relevant land

POFA2012 does not apply

VCS tried a court case on that one, dropping it one week before the court appearance

it has many similarities to your case, although yours is about more tickets so has a greater value

Wrapper

Redx wrote: »

ok, so dont say that you received court papers, it wasnt you , or "we" it was SWMBO so keep everything 100% correct without incriminating anyone in public

have a read of this case from last summer


airports are like railways , not relevant land

POFA2012 does not apply

VCS tried a court case on that one, dropping it one week before the court appearance

it has many similarities to your case, although yours is about more tickets so has a greater value

In which case they are more likely to chase up?

Redx

who knows what they will do, all we can say at the moment is they have issued a court claim in their local court, your wife has the right to defend herself in court (or in the pre-court paperwork stages) - in your local court as she can specify they use your local county court

the greater the amounts involved , the more likely they may pursue this, but being non-relevant land they may come unstuck, which is why we never see an airport case get to court, or fails if it gets to court

if bylaws apply then they may fail due to that alone, or non POFA2012 compliance due to it being railway land