Been to court, won, but still more cases!

Umkomaas

I agree with Redx. Not perhaps what you were hoping for @Hasfro, but better you are ready for this than having a major setback in court.

In a number of private parking cases I've read where I'd confidently expected the defendant to be awarded £100 or so, they've come away with just a bit of travel expenses. The small claims court lottery operates in all directions. I've never seen a real lottery type win - they're more for the Crown Court.

yotmon

Is it not possible to obtain an adjournment of the court date until you have returned home from working abroad.

Hasfro

Thanks guys. So I understand that I should try for the best but expect the worst. And I guess also that even if I am awarded the max and I get a judgement for £1.5k, they will probably appeal against it as it's a large amount. And we'll end up with a complex case that goes higher up?

Is it not possible to obtain an adjournment of the court date until you have returned home from working abroad.

How do I do that? I will be away for a couple of months, so I think it will be a long one.

I should probably mention that the claimant did not attend the last case. The court also did not receive their evidence and witness statement. I did receive their pack on-time and prepared a skeleton argument. So when the judge asked, I gave him my copy of their witness pack. He then assessed based on that, and dismissed their claim. So their case was dismissed based on fact, not just that they failed to appear. There's absolutely no reason why this case is different as I had a look at their documents and they are the same from the last case.

Loadsofchildren123

yotmon's idea is probably better than risking £1000.
Write to them now informing them about the travel issue and produce evidence. Tell them what it would cost you to come back.
If they refuse an adjournment you are better placed to recover the costs.
If they refuse write to the court and ask for an adjournment.

Or you could just write direct to the court and cc the other side. Produce all the same info/evidence as above.

safarmuk

I just got a message back from them saying the contract isn't with the MA. The setup here is that a seperate company is created for the leaseholders and 2 directors are representing the leaseholders. These directors are also leaseholders. So I guees I will try to talk to the directors next!

This sounds rather like you may have a "Right to Manage" situation or something whereby the Directors of the RTM company have appointed a Management Agent. However the Directors of the RTM have then directly appointed a PPC to patrol all the parking spaces.

Now this gets interesting. Unless the RTM company own the freehold as well, I cannot see how an earth two directors can enforce parking restrictions on your allocated bay if you do not want it (especially if the bay is demised to you or you have demised rights to use it).

Also why would a RTM company appoint a MA and then enter into contracts directly themselves? Very bizarre.

If what the MA say is true then your issue is with the RTM company and the Directors. The MA should be able to tell you who they are and then you can contact them and explain this situation. However be prepared, I doubt they have any control whatsoever over the PPC, but they need to and quick.

Loadsofchildren123

Even if it's a couple of months it's better to adjourn now. Either invite them to agree or ask the court. You'd need to explain in full why the adjournment is necessary and how your job and the travel requirement works and show how much it would cost in lost earnings and travel costs to return for the hearing.

If no adjournment and you win the costs, it doesn't follow that they get to appeal. Decisions have to be appealable - i.e. The judge errs at law or wrongly exercises his/her discretion. The bottom line is even if they are unreasonable you may well not get £1k even if you can demonstrate this is what it cost you.

The bar is set high for R27.14(2)(g) costs - earlier this week a judge dismissed a case and said it had no merit but when the D tried to argue for costs she said he'd have to show more than a hopeless case to prove unreasonable conduct. A bit of perverse thinking there (and probably appealable but not worth the bother). The trouble is that there is no on-point case law.

Bigjon1001

Hi Hasfro,

Might be worth getting in touch with DVLA. PPC's have a KADOE contract with DVLA.
The KADOE contract specifies that a parking company must re-request your data for each parking event (in the case of multiple breaches). You can ask the DVLA to provide details of when your records were accessed. If they have not re-requested your data, they would be breaching the KADOE contract, and therefore not have reasonable cause.

As you say they have issued 3 tickets, it is possible they may have re used your details, in which case you could issue a claim of your own for breach of the DPA

JimmyChan

PPC's have a KADOE contract with DVLA

This is not always true, some PPC are requesting keeper details manually using V888/2 forms which gives them the current keepers details rather than the keeper at the date of event.

DoaM

True ... but there would still need to be individual requests for each PCN, whether electronically via KADOE or manually.

nigelbb

JimmyChan wrote: »

This is not always true, some PPC are requesting keeper details manually using V888/2 forms which gives them the current keepers details rather than the keeper at the date of event.

This is not true. The V888 forms have a section for "Date of incident" & state that "You can only use the information you have requested in relation to the incident on the date you have given above."

It would be nonsensical to request keeper details other than for the date of any incident (accident, parking event etc).