County Court Claim

Hoggy988

I received an unfair parking fine from excel parking.

On 18/05/2014 I was at my cousins wedding in Darlington when i parked in the excel carpark. I parked at approx 5pm and paid my ticket. I returned the following morning to find not one but TWO tickets on my windscreen. Two tickets in under 12 hours. Upon seeing the tickets I noticed my ticket had gone upside down from perhaps the draft of the door shutting...who knows. I wrote to the company explaining I felt it was unfair as my ticket could be seen but was upside down and that I had it on my person. I also asked them to look at their own cctv which is clearly advertised all over their car park. They replied again saying pay the £100 fine x2 or court proceedings I again said no!!

Now in September of 2016 I have received a letter of BW Legal saying I must pay them £245.62 x2 by 15th September or it will go to county court judgement. I have also recieved two letters of 'Claim Forms' from County Court Business Centre Northampton requesting the two separate fines of £245.62

As I didn't receive anymore letters for 2 years I presumed they had realised what a bunch of inhumane money grabbers they were being and dropped it! Obviously not!!!!!

What do I do? Surely I can't be expected to pay these fines and especially not two?

Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated :-)

Redx

you must acknowledge the claim online and fight it by reading the dozens of similar threads on here

the NEWBIES sticky thread , post #1 , has a court sub-section that will get you started

also consider buying and reading the parking prankster court guide

EXCEL had 6 years to bring a court claim under the MCOL (which has been in force since 1973) - this is what BW LEGAL are doing on their behalf

you wont get a CCJ unless you fail to pay the court judgment (if you lose) normally within 28 days (its ignoring the court judgment that gets you the CCJ)

Mersey_2

Check if the Claim Forms are sealed (stamped by the Court). If not, these are merely drafts and as such are in breach of the Civil Procedure Rules.


If they are sealed Claim Forms, you need to respond within 14 days (or 28 days if you return the Acknowledgment of Service). This will give time to take advice from a CAB or consumer expert or lawyer.


Plus time to carry out a bit of research yourself re BW Legal etc to see if they are lawyers.

Redx

BW LEGAL are definitely a legal firm and are issuing hundreds or thousands of letters , LBC,s and MCOLS for VCS and EXCEL at the moment

the OP could check with the court in Northampton but I would say these are real papers

I saw a thread today on pepipoo for multiple claims with some advice about wanting them as one overall claim , to reduce costs

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=108183

and this one too

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=108216

and this is genuine and partway through the first stages

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5508751

so plenty to look at if required

Coupon-mad

Mersey wrote: »

Check if the Claim Forms are sealed (stamped by the Court). If not, these are merely drafts and as such are in breach of the Civil Procedure Rules.

These ARE claim forms. And they often look a bit amateur but they are real.

Pepipoo forum has shedloads of threads for the OP to read, going back thirty pages, BW Legal threads everywhere there because this is so common right now. The good thing is these are defendable and the defences are shown in most threads, for the OP to crib from.

Hoggy988, tell us when you have 'acknowledged service' of the claim online (leave the defence BLANK), using the password on the front of the claim form, then show us your draft defence based on all the zillions of others, they are all similar. Certainly defendable and even a case lost if unlikely to allow the added-on fees and costs that BW legal are trying to get away with. A sum of £245.62 for a £100 PCN is an attempt at double recovery.

It is also an abuse of the court system for BW Legal to issue two claims with two sets of fees so this must be included in the defence, as Redx says, these should be amalgamated into ONE claim.

We assume in your appeals you have managed to name the driver? Oh dear, that wasn't good. You are in a weaker position because of that but it is still defendable - and the most you might pay out in the end even if you lose at a hearing about BOTH tickets, should not exceed about £300 all told. So don't give up, don't pay - you are far from alone in this scam - and DO NOT phone BW Legal!

The_Deep

£500 for two parking tickets when you have paid, I cannot see zny judge in the land allowing that.

The PPC may be demanding monies to which have they no entitlement, read Gan's letter here

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=calpe&biw=1366&bih=589&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwicm6ykzu7OAhUIJMAKHQQrCl8Q_AUIBygC

and complain to the SRA.

http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page

Did the car park signage actually say that the ticket should be displayed print side up?