Summoned to small claims court

Davidtomdavid

Hi Advice please.

After over 2 years and following the advice on these forums I have finally got a date in court to defend my parking charges.

The background is that I was parking at residential visitor parking near my home. Unknown to me, you needed a visitor parking sticker to park here. The PCNs started appearing, but after researching the company (Link Parking Ltd), they were not part of any body and they would not be able to obtain my details from the DVLA, so I ignored them.

Then one day some NTKs appeared in the post. The company had become a member of the IPC. I defended myself at all points, but without ever getting the charges dismissed.

What should my defence in court be?
It's worth noting that
1. one of the PCNs pre-dated the company's membership of the IPC so in my opinion they should not have obtained my details from the DVLA
2. some of the NTKs were not received within 56 days of PCN issued so my argument has always been that they have contravened POFA here. This defence was dismissed by IAS because they stated they could assume the keeper was the driver. It is impossible to know who the driver was and I can prove this in court.

Is there any part of the Beavis Supreme court case that does not apply because this is free visitor parking?

Thanks in advance.

pappa_golf

correct you have spotted a problem , I think you need to ask the DVLA what dates they handed the info over and to WHO


link parking joined the IPC on 02/04/2014


can you confirm what dates your "offences" took place?

Redx

for a start, its not a summons because its a civil matter in a civil court, not a criminal or magistrates court - you dont even have to turn up !

so no you did not get a summons, you received an MCOL from Northampton or Salford or from a county court (civil court) , you wont find the word "summons" on any paperwork

post #1 of the NEWBIES sticky thread has advice on court claims

if the PPC followed POFA2012 then the keeper can be held accountable, so any defence may have to argue NTK flaws and POFA2012 failures, no locus standii , poor signage , any camera issues and similar legal arguments, so its essential to start by looking at the bargepole skeleton defence and pranksters book

some parts of the beavis case may apply, other may not , because it all depends on the contracts in place and if money was paid out to pharm the site or not (money was paid for the car park in his case)

his case was complicated, as was the judgment, so many people are still unsure how judges will react to your case but you can be sure that unless you point out differences to the Beavis case they will be likely to be swayed by that case in the absence of any alternatives

it makes no difference if you cannot prove who was driving if they can hold you to POFA2012 because it makes you as keeper responsible, so any POFA2012 errors or not being part of the BPA or IPC are also extremely relevant

Coupon-mad

I have finally got a date in court to defend my parking charges...What should my defence in court be?

If you have a court date you have to get the full defence in (to court and to the scumbags) in good time, before 14 days prior to the court date and it can only be an expansion on what you already put as your defence at the time you got the court papers.

So what did you have in your defence at that stage?

Davidtomdavid

Hi Pappa golf - one "offences" took place 24th March 2014, one on 1st April. All others were after 2nd April. I contacted the DVLA long ago to find out who and when they had provided details to, but they did not respond. Should I chase this up?

Coupon-mad - my defence was in 3 parts:
1. NTKs issued prior to Link Parking's membership of the IPC.
2. NTKs invalid as received over 56 days after PCN.
3. Charge of £100 not demonstrating genuine pre-estimate of loss to landowner as was in a free carpark.

Coupon-mad

Point 3 will need to be expanded to take into account the Beavis decision. But this has legs, was this true on every occasion, every PCN?:

NTKs invalid as received over 56 days after PCN.

...that has legs as a defence if you've never said who was driving and are prepared to stand at a hearing and state (if asked by the Judge) HONESTLY that you cannot be sure who was driving on all these occasions and are defending this as keeper because the claimant has never shown any evidence of who was driving on each occasion (could have been anyone who used that car in 2014).

Did you not criticise the signage or say there was no contract? Or anything about them not being the landowner so having no standing?

If not you will need to read up on the Beavis case and the POFA paragraph 8 from Schedule 4, which the Judge will NOT be familiar with.

Davidtomdavid

3 of the NTKs were received within 56 days so that defence does not apply to all. I am happy to state in court that I honestly cannot say who was driving at that time between myself and my wife.

I didn't criticise the signage, lack of contract, or no standing at MCOL stage I'm afraid.

patman99

If you have time, you need to adjust and re-submit your defense to include 'no proof of landowners rights' as this is now the get out of jail free card.

If you have run out of time, make sure to mention that you believe that the PPC has no landowner rights and would need to prove they do.

If you still loose, then if you have the funds, you can appeal to the next level and introduce the landowner rights issue at that point.

Coupon-mad

Davidtomdavid wrote: »

3 of the NTKs were received within 56 days so that defence does not apply to all. I am happy to state in court that I honestly cannot say who was driving at that time between myself and my wife.

I didn't criticise the signage, lack of contract, or no standing at MCOL stage I'm afraid.

OK, so what are you now thinking of saying in your full defence to expand on what you've got? You can't add new stuff without the court demanding you pay £155 or so...

You did mention POFA 2012 so you can probably expand that point to show the ways in which the NTKs for those 3 were not complaint with schedule 4 para 8. You'd need to do that comparison and it's easier than you'd think, because para 8 is in bullet points.

Davidtomdavid

I'm planning to include in my defence (needs to be in soon):

1. Copies of NTKs and PCNs to show dates issued
2. Copy of POFA?
3. Any witness statements which will help prove that it is unknown who the driver was? Or is my word under oath enough?
4. Anything around the PCN being issued prior to the PPC being a member of the IPC?
5. Anything else? Anything to do with Beavis case?

hoohoo

5. Its worth comparing the signage with the beavis signage.
Links charge is hidden in tiny writing, so fails the beavis test. This makes it a penalty and unfair consumer charge.