Gladstones County Court Claim Defence

Coupon-mad

You just complete the N180 which is then posted back to the court, and a copy to Gladstones.

Post #94 here should help:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5533125

You could also add to the letter a request that the 2 claims (if there are two) are merged to be heard together, to save the court's time and unnecessary expense all round. If they've served two claims, this puts you to more expense and time, as well as possibly two hearings about what is essentially the same matter. So ask in your letter if the Judge will hear the cases together.

HTH

thexyz619

Thanks for the advice. I obviously don't want the case to be dealt with on paper and would prefer a hearing so just wanted to check that if they are submitting the special declaration form that I don't submit one too. I have already asked in my defence for the claims to be merged but do I need to reiterate that? Thanks again for your help and advice. I'm accessing via my phone at the minute but I intend to check more thoroughly through that thread on N180s once I'' home.

The_Slithy_Tove

thexyz619 wrote: »

Breakdown is:

£150.00 "parking charge"
£25.00 Court Fees
£50.00 Solicitor Fees

The claim literally says "NAME - DATE - DESCRIPTION (Reg + what I presume is some sort of reference number) - DUE DATE" and then a breakdown of interest.

How have they broken down the interest? Often they calculate the interest on the whole amount from the date of the ticket, whereas the court fees and solicitors fees are only incurred much later on. Naughty.

Also take a look at this defence that I read on Pepipoo today: http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=109923&view=findpost&p=1237184.
Particularly the first part "1. Incoherent Particulars of Claim". You should weave some of those arguments into your own first point.

Coupon-mad

I have already asked in my defence for the claims to be merged but do I need to reiterate that?

I would, at every opportunity, including when you come to serve your Witness Statement.

No you don't have to serve Special Directions. You just do your N180 with a covering letter and hope a Judge actually looks at it even though it's still at Northampton central court so they probably won't. But try anyway, at least they have to read the bit objecting to the case being heard on the papers so maybe someone will pass it to a Judge to peruse.

thexyz619

So I've got the date for my defence set at the end of March and today received SiP / Gladstone's witness statement in which they've finally supplied all the evidence they have against the driver.

I'm not sure what I need to include in my witness statement - could anyone point me in the right direction? Is it worth me uploading a copy of their witness statement for you guys to look at and see if there are any holes to exploit?

I must admit I'm not very experienced at this thing, I was kind of hoping (naively) this would get thrown out before arriving at court and now I'm getting a little bit worried about having to go.

thexyz619

I've just noticed within the defence that their 'photographic evidence' of the driver exceeding time within the car park is a picture of a CITY COUNCIL parking ticket and not a ticket purchased from their machine. I know for a fact that SiP parking provides an option to use the online 'PayByPhone' app which would not require a ticket within the window and therefore this misleading evidence makes their argument completely invalid? (i would imagine). I'm just wondering how best to word this argument within the witness statement; I didn't include it in my defence because at that stage I had not been supplied with the photos that the claimant had used against the driver.

Coupon-mad

thexyz619 wrote: »

So I've got the date for my defence set at the end of March and today received SiP / Gladstone's witness statement in which they've finally supplied all the evidence they have against the driver.

I'm not sure what I need to include in my witness statement - could anyone point me in the right direction? Is it worth me uploading a copy of their witness statement for you guys to look at and see if there are any holes to exploit?

I must admit I'm not very experienced at this thing, I was kind of hoping (naively) this would get thrown out before arriving at court and now I'm getting a little bit worried about having to go.

Post #2 of the NEWBIES thread shows examples of WS and skeleton arguments. Everyone is a newbie to this and almost all win!

thexyz619

Thanks Coupon! Just wondering will I be able to submit in my witness statement about the false / misleading evidence (the photo of a parking ticket not for that car park) even though it wasn't included in the initial defence? It is new evidence that has come to light since Gladstone's submitted their witness statement and so I couldn't have included it in the defence anyway.

Lamilad

thexyz619 wrote: »

Thanks Coupon! Just wondering will I be able to submit in my witness statement about the false / misleading evidence (the photo of a parking ticket not for that car park) even though it wasn't included in the initial defence? It is new evidence that has come to light since Gladstone's submitted their witness statement and so I couldn't have included it in the defence anyway.

You can't introduce new points that weren't raised in your initial defence but what you're referring to is rebuttal, and yes you can (and should) include this in your WS, assuming your doing a joint WS/skeleton argument (technically not right but will be allowed in small claims).

If you're doing separate WS and skeleton then your rebuttals go in the skeleton.

Coupon-mad

You can't introduce brand new points of defence as such but yes, the WS can state what happened when which would include 'I noticed that the claimant has submitted false / misleading evidence (the photo of a parking ticket not for that car park)...

So yes you can get this into your WS, as lamilad rightly says.