SCS Law Letter before claim for multiple PCNs-over £1000!!

DiegoFuego

Hi and thank you. I do not have the forms to hand so I may be wrong but to my recollection I do not think I was sent 3 copies of the forms. Do I have to photocopy the forms if that is the case?

Quentin

DiegoFuego wrote: »

Hi and thank you. I do not have the forms to hand so I may be wrong but to my recollection I do not think I was sent 3 copies of the forms. Do I have to photocopy the forms if that is the case?

You wouldn't get 3 copies.


Yes, you do the copying.

DiegoFuego

Hi all. Long period of silence but there has been recent movement.

I now have a set court date.

What are my next steps in order to get the best chance of a favourable outcome?

I thank you for your replies and your interest in my case so far.

DoaM

Time to read again the NEWBIES FAQ ... one of the posts addresses the court process.

Coupon-mad

We hope you know about Witness Statement/evidence stage (from reading the NEWBIES thread post #2 - if not, re-read it now!).

In that local court letter with the hearing date, you will have a date to file your WS and evidence, so what's that deadline?

DiegoFuego

Given what has been said previously in this thread, I am conscious of being identified by giving the deadline as that would be two weeks before the court date. I do have a number of weeks to submit what is required. I have not yet read that part of the newbies thread and I shall. Will what is written there simply explain the process or will it explain what I have asked about in terms of achieving the best chance of success?

Coupon-mad

Change the date a bit then, give us a deadline between 2 and 3 weeks before and we'll work to that. But really, you have no need to hide, people here post openly and win, almost 100% of the time. 4 out of 4 on 31st May and that's normal for this forum:

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/bad-day-for-gladstones.html

Will what is written there simply explain the process or will it explain what I have asked about in terms of achieving the best chance of success?

Both! Honestly, there's a lot of info there about this stage, WS, evidence and then responding to the other side's useless WS with a last minute skeleton argument and a costs application. All covered, with recent examples to copy from.

Show us your draft WS and tell us what evidence you are including in the file for court (the other side's copy can be emailed but make sure your Court/Judge gets a lovely, clear, paginated bundle in a ring binder, with a contents page et al).

DiegoFuego

Hi all. Below is my witness statement. As I have no recollection of the events due to the length of time, I have struggled to think of what to include. Anyway, please critique as savagely as you can!

I, ……………………., am the defendant in this case.

1.The facts in this statement come from my personal knowledge. Where they are not within my own knowledge there are true to the best of my information and belief.


2.I am not liable to the Claimant for the sum claimed, or any amount at all and this is my Witness Statement in support of my defence as already filed.


3. I am the registered keeper of the vehicle in question in this case. However due to the long passage of time since the alleged contraventions, I am unable to recall whether I was the driver.


4. As stated in my defence, the dates in question are unremarkable and I therefore have no recollection of the circumstances surrounding these events.


5. I recall receiving some letters in the post from the claimant and I ignored them as I believed them to be scam letters due to the excessive amounts being claimed. I felt vindicated in that decision when I received no further letters or contact of any kind from the claimant on this matter.


6. I was then surprised to receive a letter before claim from the claimants representatives. I did some research into why I may have received this and it seems the claimant and similar parking companies are submitting masses of court claims for old “parking charges” and are inappropriately using the court system as a form of debt collection.


7. Despite my inexperience, after a lot of research I found the letter they sent to be insufficient. I requested a new Letter before Claim that was complaint with the Practice Direction and offered to settle the claim using Alternative Dispute Resolution.


8. A compliant Letter before Claim was not sent to me and my request for Alternative Dispute resolution was rejected for unsatisfactory reasons.


9. The claimant subsequently sent me a pack of documents that it says it will rely on as evidence. One of the documents is a picture of the sign that it says forms the contract. The sign is mostly a wall of small font text, from which a driver in a vehicle cannot understand and therefore cannot accept the terms of.


10. The sign submitted by the claimant does not set out the additional costs and fees that have been claimed in this case. The sign submitted also claims that the charge is £90 and yet the claimant has claimed the sign creates a charge for £100. There is no evidence of any contract creating a charge of £100. Regardless, this part of the sign is in very small text and is therefore illegible.


11. Many of the documents submitted were photos of the vehicle in the car park. They show the poor lighting in the area and high placement of the signs. It cannot be expected that a driver can be able to read and accept any terms on the signage.


12. Many of the photos are also of questionable accuracy. Many of the timestamps are illegible and so it cannot be confirmed what time or day they were taken. I am also of the opinion that some of the photos have very similar surroundings despite being claimed to have been taken at different times. Given the history of the claimant for falsifying photo evidence, I do not believe these photos can be relied upon for accuracy.


I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.


Signed……………………..



Dated………………………

DiegoFuego

I have also read about "submitting evidence".


How do I submit this evidence? Would it be along with my witness statement?


I only have a few ideas of what to include as evidence. That is:


1. a copy of the Beavis case sign as a comparison
2. photos proving the scarce and illegible small print signs in your case, a view showing the lack of entrance signs, etc.
3. a copy of Schedule 4 of the POFA
4. a copy of Henry Greenslade's wording from the POPLA Annual Report 2015 'Understanding Keeper Liability'

What else could/should i include?

To remind everyone, my case involves multiple historical overtstays in a free retail car park.


Thank you.

DiegoFuego

Hi. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I do need to submit this as soon as possible and I don't want to do anything majorly wrong at this late stage.

Thank you.