Another win against Excel and Bwlegal - Chorlton Car Park

bargepole

Martledge wrote: »

... If the courts were "educated" and did enforce RoA consistently, would it force companies like BwLegal to send their own lawyers or engage properly with legal firms representing them, would this make them better equipped for the cases? Or would this business model be completely unaffordable for them? I suspect the latter.

It wouldn't make them any better or worse equipped. If their legal arguments are fundamentally flawed, and the Judge is capable of seeing that, then it doesn't matter who the advocate is. I had one case where they sent a (registered) barrister from a leading London chambers, and they still lost: http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/pcm-uk-signage-does-not-create-contract.html

Using the low level solicitor agents / unregistered barristers, costs the PPCs about £100 - £125 per case. Properly qualified advocates will typically charge £250-£300. So it would make their business model less affordable.

System

So it would make their business model less affordable.

And make judges' lives more bearable. Do they really want to spend an hour over £100 plus costs.

beamerguy

Martledge wrote: »

.
If the courts were "educated" and did enforce RoA consistently, would it force companies like BwLegal to send their own lawyers or engage properly with legal firms representing them, would this make them better equipped for the cases? Or would this business model be completely unaffordable for them? I suspect the latter.

BWLegal like Gladstones and Wright Hassall work on the
SW-SW-SW system

SOME WILL - SOME WON'T - SO WHAT.

BWLegal have a core business of chasing debts which is their
business model.

They decided to embark on the private parking industry ??
BIG MISTAKE

You will always have problems when you go to bed with scammers

The BWLegal failures are all shown on google and will destroy their credibility as winners ... as in the parking industry they are losers

Very bad for the BWLegal reputation one might think but the more
they lose, and they will lose, as the courts are now seeing through
their incompetence, they drag themselves into the sewers

Best for BWLegal to dump the likes of Excel/VCS as the scams are
not accepted in the courts

Martledge

Apologies for the delay but hopefully this court report from my wife will help calm people's nerves and encourage them to stand up to the scammers.

A bit of background because there was no thread previous to the court win.
The original PCN in 2011 was ignored, which was the correct thing to do at the time. Last August the usual sequence of letters started from BwLegal.

We ignored them because we couldn't believe they would go to court. In hindsight we should have responded then as they might have realised they had no case, but who knows they don't appear to follow any logic.

Bwlegal issued a small claim in February.

We followed the FAQ's on this board through all the stages, initial MCOL response, Defence, and Witness Statement. We used also used and tweaked forum templates where appropriate.
We met all the deadlines in good time but spent the minimum time possible (probably more than bwlegal) around two hours an evening at each stage.

We would like to pay for the transcript and send to the Prankster, could someone advise how we can get it?

Report

---

I got to the court in Manchester half an hour early which I needed to as the parking was a bit difficult and then there was a queue to get through security. I showed my letter to the reception and was directed to the 4th floor. Here, there is another reception and in front of me I realised was the BWLegal solicitor as she reeled off a few cases she was representing that morning.

I sat relatively closely to her and she was reading the notes and on the phone checking things out most of the time. She possibly had only had sight of my defence on that morning.

By 11am I was still waiting and had asked reception a few times what the hold-up was. Unfortunately for me one of the judges hadn’t turned up so there was a backlog. This meant that I had a few trips to the loo with the BWLegal rep, unbeknown to her!

At about 1145 I went again to reception and asked for the name of the BWLegal rep and she told me she was [FONT=&quot]Miss [FONT=&quot]Devans[/FONT]-Tamakloe, a quick phone call to my husband and he had found out that she was a barrister needing pupillage.

By this time, as I had been waiting so long the nerves had dissipated somewhat. Miss Devans-Tamakloe approached me and introduced herself and said that there was a judge stepping in for the one who hadn’t turned up and that he was reading the papers now and that it should be about 20 minutes.

She was very pleasant and told me that she had read my statement and that it was quite straightforward, I agreed saying that it was very clear, she also said that she wanted me to feel like I really had had my say. This didn’t feel like she was trying to put me on the back foot but in hindsight, maybe she was. However, she was very nice and respectful to me throughout the period.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
Once we were called into the courtroom District Judge Iyers introduced himself and I got all my papers and evidence out and ordered them on the table in front of them. Little did I know that I wouldn’t even be asked to refer to them. District Judge Iyers then began by saying that he had never so far had a case which was 2011, a year before POFA.

He then asked Miss [FONT=&quot]Devans[/FONT]-Tamakloe whether or not there was anything in my defence where I had put ‘I’ when referring to driving or anything to do with the car park, she said there wasn’t.

He asked did Excel have any evidence that I was the driver, she said they didn’t. He didn’t ask me to refer to any of my notes and said that the case was dismissed.

He then asked me did I have anything to add, I asked was it too late to ask for costs, as I hadn’t put them in earlier. He said no and I started to try and find the costs that we had prepared but was in shock at the speed of the dismissal and was all fingers and thumbs.

He asked me how I got to the court and worked out petrol costs and parking costs and then asked me what I did for a living and awarded the £95 for missing a days work. The final amount was £109, I could have got more if I’d found my costs as I could have charged for admin etc but I was delighted with getting costs at all and for winning the case to be honest.

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]So, although it was stressful at times trawling the forums and writing the defence and witness statements and collating the paperwork, it was well worth it. It is appalling what these firms are doing and we have to stand up to the bullying behavior. The forums are invaluable and everything is on there that you need so don’t give in, push on through and the likelihood is that you will win the case. [/FONT]

Coupon-mad

We would like to pay for the transcript and send to the Prankster, could someone advise how we can get it?

You can apply to a court-approved transcript service.

The regular posters called 'bargepole' or 'Loadsofchildren123' may be able to suggest one, or ask 'lamilad', who obtained his transcript for the greater good of the community of victims of parking firms.

Well done!

I love your comments here, about why all this is worth the fight:

...it was well worth it. It is appalling what these firms are doing and we have to stand up to the bullying behavior. The forums are invaluable and everything is on there that you need so don’t give in, push on through and the likelihood is that you will win the case.

As well as getting a transcript (if you do, just email it to the Prankster) you could also send a copy of the letters and your court outcome to your MP, and ask for his/her support for aspects of the proposed Govt Bill - when we get there - which restrain the worst parking scams. Hopefully your MP will take an interest in the subject; you could ask that he/she specifically votes to veto any proposal in the Bill that actually tries to legitimise this nasty, pointless, money-grabbing industry which has nothing whatsoever to do with parking 'management'.

Lamilad

Great result, and an excellent report.

Fantastic that you're getting the transcript, it will add more weight to any similar defences in the future.

I used Apple Transcription, they were very efficient, but I didn't exactly shop around - as you can imagine from where they would appear in an alphabetically ordered list.

Anyway, here's a list of all court approved transcription services, for you to choose from. I look forward to reading it

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.moneyclaimsuk.co.uk/PDFForms/EX107-Info.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwiAl87J783VAhVKJ8AKHc0sClcQFghvMAQ&usg=AFQjCNEll8pEl2dXiAV-pJkR4D38oEyqBQ