Preparing defence for County Court

safarmuk

MA61's court write up and other thoughts are on this thread for future reference of other users of this site:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5657908

RedFive

HI,

Following what I consider a very minor infringement of 28mins parked on a CE car park I have largely (and most likely incorrectly) ignored the letters until it has got to the stage where we meet in court.

Court Date 10am 22nd October

Infringement details


Parked: Ibis Hotel, Bath road, Heathrow UN3 5AL
Time: 28mins
Date: xx/xx/2017
Reason: I was finishing off a conversation with a supplier and dropped him at the hotel. Made my way out of the car park and thought nothing of it.

Background: signage is pretty good at the car park, I have to say I did see it and thought that I would get 30mins at least as a grace before having to pay. Signage has been heavily updated since the event although I cannot prove when this was. I didn’t park in a parking bay or leave my car. The colleague I was dropping off has since moved on from the company I was dealing with at the time and despite efforts to find him through Linkedin I haven’t. ( he is a swiss national and lives in Switzerland)

Northampton County Court letters received/processed with the above statement as my comments. Asked for a transfer to my local court, which has been granted.

What are the next steps?

Do I have a leg to stand on?

Le_Kirk

Your next steps are to read the NEWBIE thread third post down on the front page of the parking forum and, if that doesn't give your the answers you want, start your own thread rather than hi-jacking one from 2017.

Umkomaas

Do I have a leg to stand on?

Possibly, but few toes left after blowing most of them off with what you've written. Did you write that in the Defence box of your Acknowledgment of Service?

The NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #2 tells you how to handle court cases, a lot of it written by regular posters with legal qualifications.

You might need major help (a miracle!) with this, so please start a new thread of your own.

Coupon-mad

RedFive wrote: »

HI,

Following what I consider a very minor infringement of 28mins parked on a CE car park I have largely (and most likely incorrectly) ignored the letters until it has got to the stage where we meet in court.

Court Date 10am 22nd October

Infringement details


Parked: Ibis Hotel, Bath road, Heathrow UN3 5AL
Time: 28mins
Date: xx/xx/2017
Reason: I was finishing off a conversation with a supplier and dropped him at the hotel. Made my way out of the car park and thought nothing of it.

Background: signage is pretty good at the car park, I have to say I did see it and thought that I would get 30mins at least as a grace before having to pay. Signage has been heavily updated since the event although I cannot prove when this was. I didn’t park in a parking bay or leave my car. The colleague I was dropping off has since moved on from the company I was dealing with at the time and despite efforts to find him through Linkedin I haven’t. ( he is a swiss national and lives in Switzerland)

Northampton County Court letters received/processed with the above statement as my comments. Asked for a transfer to my local court, which has been granted.

What are the next steps?

Do I have a leg to stand on?

No chance IMHO, unless the Judge is fed up with PPCs.

You have grabbed defeat out of the Jaws of victory. Very sad, very winnable before you wrote what appears to be the worst defence I've ever seen for a CEL case (sorry).

Have a look at example defences in the NEWBIES thread for what you should have said. Maybe you can shoe-horn something decent into your next stage submissions, due this week I bet. Have a look at the examples of Witness Statements (yes, your WS) and evidence - the next step that you are almost overdue to file & serve, as per the info in your local court's letter that set the court date.

Hope I am wrong and you get that miracle, but you came here far too late.

At least you can argue against the added costs...to try to peg it to £100 plus court fee if you lose.

System

How did this one turn out?

Thutmose

I have received a claim from Civil Enforcement Limited and their PoC is;

Claim for monies relating to a Parking charge for parking in a private car park managed by the claimant in breach of the terms + conditions ( T+Cs ). Drivers are allowed to park in accordance with T+Sc of use. ANPR cameras and/or manual patrols are used to monitor vehicles entering + existing the site. Debt + damages claimed the sum of 182.00
Violation date : 15/06/2018
Time
PCN
Car Reg
X Rd
Total due-£182.00

The Claimant claims the sum of 196.76 for monies relating to a parking charge per above including 14.76 interest pursuant to S.69 of the Country Court Act 1984 Rate 8.00% pa from dates above to 20-06-2019 Same rate to Judgement or (sooner) payment Daily rate to Judgement-0.04
Total debt and interest due 196.76
Court Fee: 25.00
Legal representative's costs : 50.00
Total amount: 271.76

They hired two debt collection agencies and I disputed the debt. I sent them a cheque for 25.00 based on my local council parking charges but they refused and returned my cheque. I requested strict proof for the land ownership and the proof of loss for the business they lost during 27 minutes but they ignored my request.

Q1. Can you use the defense which was shared here for my case?
Q2. Is the PoC clear and concise as is required by CPR 16.4 1(a) and CPR 1.4?
Q3. Does the PoC meet the requirements of Practice Direction 16 7.5?

Any advice is appreciated in advance.

Thank you

Redx

Please start your own New thread using the red New thread button top left of this forum and copy and paste your query into it