Unaware of County Court Case... Help!!

Mr_Picklehead

This is an odd case! My daughter was issued with a PCN by the local County Council last February - but just before payday, so she was waiting a few days before payment. She then suffered a traumatic injury (bad dog bite) which meant she was admitted to hospital for over two weeks, had six operations, and skin grafting. Due to reasons of personal safety she did not return to her Mum's house (her main residency) for quite some time after the hospitalisation. As you can imagine she had forgotten about the parking fine due to the trauma of the serious injury.... Fast forward to October 2016 and her Mum told her that bailiffs had been calling (from Task Enforcement Limited) and had left a "Notice of Attendance" and a demand for £422 for "outstanding PCN and costs". My daughter (in hospital and then not going back to her Mum's house where the car is registered) was unaware of any Reminders, NTOs, County Court summons, court judgements etc. The first she rememered about the ticket was the letter from the bailiffs. She has written to the County Council to explain but they just refer her back to Mr Liptrott the bailiff for Task Enforcement. She will not contact him on the mobile phone and they will not supply an e-mail address. Is there anything she can do about this? I thought an appeal to Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) but how does she appeal the original fine? It's what happened afterwards that has caused the problem. Thanks in advance for any help!!

Carthesis

Is this a legit Penalty Charge Notice from the council, or a jumped-up invoice from a PPC?

If the former, and if bailiffs have actually turned up with the proper paperwork, then it sounds like she's had a default judgment against her, and that following non-payment, the court has ordered follow-up action.

This isn't really the forum for it was we only help with appeals to private firms here - you'll be better off on Pepipoo.

But by the sounds of it, your only choice would be to apply to the court to set aside the judgment - which will cost you £255 - at which point you'll be back to the point immediately before the original judgment. At this point, with no bailiffs involved, you may be able to simply offer to pay the original penalty charge to the council and be done with it.

I'm no expert on this though, so try Pepipoo.

Mr_Picklehead

Thank you - I'll give that a go! :-)