Looks like I'm going to court :(

JayEdgerHoover

UK Car Park Management/Gladstones have gone thru with it and I'm due to appear 21/Apr.

I'm !!!!ed off to be fair, I thought they backed down/didn't bother showing up (lets hope for the latter)

What do I do now? Submit my defence to the court? Says there's a hearing fee of £25 unless I make an application for free concession.. How do I do that?

Got another small claims letter as well from Parking Eye (this is a continuation of the first fiasco I think - I've had about 10 letters from them for the same Private Land next to a station)

Loadsofchildren123

The hearing fee is for the Claimant to pay
You need to find out the time limits for serving your defence and do everything else (eg witness statement) within the time limits set out in the order.

Fruitcake

Read the step by step guide by bargepole that you will find linked from the NEWBIES thread.

You will get lots of help here but you need to give us more information about the alleged event. If this is a continuation of your other thread you should stick to that one, not start another one. People won't want to flit between two threads to help you.

Loadsofchildren123

You are not the only one wondering why they aren't backing down.
This is the point: the solicitors provide a cheap roboclaims service, doing no due diligence, they simply receive the data from the client and repeat it in unintelligible Particulars which they issue. 9/10 keepers/drivers will pay out of panic. For the 1/10 who doesn't panic and defends, they will not settle but will treat it as a loss leader. This is the big mystery, why the PPCs are paying the solicitors to do a rubbish job and line their own pockets. During the proceedings they do nothing other than produce a short proforma witness statement. They will ignore all correspondence and all invitations to withdraw.
They sometimes withdraw a day or two before the hearing, or they attend the hearing and lose there.
The one in ten who defends is a loss leader - it costs a couple of hundred quid for them to pursue the claim and lose it. According to these forums if you follow the advice you are extremely likely to succeed in your defence. But the solicitors will pursue you to the brink in the hope that you will cave in at the last minute.


So inform yourself by reading everything here, do a good defence and witness statement, prepare yourself by reading these threads and learning from others, and it will be OK. But it will take time and effort on your part, there is no easy fix.

Redx

your defence should already be with the court if you have a court date

so its the evidence , witness statement and other paperwork that you file by the date given on your paperwork (possibly 2 weeks before ?)

this is all explained in the bargepole thread and by CM in her various replies here etc

you are not the first, so follow existing court case threads or recent ones that are concluded, like the lamilad thread

plenty of research required , and court deadlines too

start with the NEWBIES sticky thread, court section

JayEdgerHoover

Thanks everyone and apologies for starting a new thread