GLADSTONES - Letter before claim advice

Bionik

Hello all,

Last year i made a thread on here in regards to a fine i received. I was recommended on that thread to wait it out and see if they ever wanted to take it to court as it was too late to appeal.

18 months after the fine, they are threatening court proceedings. I actually couldn't believe that they wanted to proceed after all this time - It's laughable!!

I have read through a few different threads and the Newbie thread - It seems so confusing and sounds like every case is different! I don't want to come across lazy as i definitely will always work hard to battle something like this and usually find the info myself! But i am worried about this and don't want to make a mistake

Please can anyone advise me on what i should do? I'm aware that i should create a letter of defence and send it to Gladstones (If i'm correct) and go from there.

Any help would be appreciated so much!! Having a bit of a hard time at the moment and this is just worrying me a lot.

Umkomaas

I'm aware that i should create a letter of defence and send it to Gladstones (If i'm correct) and go from there.

You only do this if and when you get real court papers.

To whom does your Gladstones letter tell you to pay?

Does its reference number commence 1xxx or 3xxx?

Bionik

It is instructing to pay UK Car park management limited. The reference number begins with a 1.

It was so long ago i have totally forgotten what happened. It was at a local hotel that offers a gym, costa and a bar - i was using the facility of costa when i received this ticket.

I just always ignored it thinking it was not worth the time. I wish i appealed it - I am an idiot!

Redx

even if you had appealed it at that time the PPC would have refused the appeal , no matter what was said , so it would still be at this LBC point right now

so dont beat yourself up about it

you should treat the letter as an LBC and read and use the LBC rebuttals in post #2 of the NEWBIES sticky thread

2 points of order

1) its not a "fine" , its an INVOICE , a Parking Charge Notice , or PCN for short

PCN is shorter using less letters than the F word !!

2) they had 72 months to issue court proceedings , so 18 of those 72 is neither here nor there

beamerguy

Bionik wrote: »

Please can anyone advise me on what i should do? I'm aware that i should create a letter of defence and send it to Gladstones (If i'm correct) and go from there.

Any help would be appreciated so much!! Having a bit of a hard time at the moment and this is just worrying me a lot.

Don't worry, half the time it seems Gladstones don't even
know the time of day.

What's to worry about after you read this Gladstones thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5727993

Write back saying you deny any debt and request proof of
their claim which they will rely on.

They must do this and if they fail and ignore you and it's goes
to court, a judge would give them yet another whooping

Bionik

Thank you both for your swift replies!

I have taken a response from the newbie post and modified it to associate with my circumstances - But i may be wrong! I will post it here just in case someone can advise me if it's okay.



Date: 29/10/2017


Dear Gladstones Solicitors,

Re - your Letter before Claim re PCN

This is a formal response to your 'Letter before Court Action'. I remind you of the overriding objective and - if your company really has a 'Legal Department' - then the qualified staff member will recognise that Gladstones solicitors LTD has no cause of action in law, but that I do.

When your company issues a 'parking charge' you do not use Schedule 4 of the POFA 2012, therefore you have no basis whatsoever to write to a registered keeper, except for the single purpose allowed under the DVLA KADOE rules, namely to 'enquire who was driving'. You must not use the data for any other purpose whatsoever, and certainly not to pursue a registered keeper as if the alleged 'debt' was their liability in law.

You have failed to supply any photographs or evidence of the driver, nor even the 'contract' (in this case presumably a sign), nor have you set out clearly, the basis upon which you are attempting to hold me liable. The charge is disingenuously described in your letter as 'your debt' and you have drawn up a draft claim form in my name, whilst failing to point out that this is/was a matter for a driver alone.

The driver's identity will not be supplied to a company like yours. There is no dispute that the driver was entitled to drive the car and I can confirm that they were. As the keeper of the vehicle, it is my right to choose not to name the driver, yet still not be lawfully held liable if an operator is not using or complying with Schedule 4.

Should you seek to proceed with a claim I will apply for it to be struck out, due to CPR Part 3.4:

(a) that Gladstones Solicitors statement of case will disclose no reasonable grounds for bringing the claim;
(b) that the statement of case will be an abuse of the court’s process or is otherwise likely to obstruct the just disposal of the proceedings; and
(c) that there has been a failure to comply with a rule, practice direction or court order.

Breaches of the Pre-action Practice Direction (“the PD”):

Paras 3, 8 and 12 of the PD set out its purpose, which is to primarily to avoid litigation (para 8) by laying down a procedure which allows the parties to:
- understand each other’s positions (para 3)
- make decisions about how to proceed (para 3)
- explore settlement/consider ADR (para 3)
- support the “efficient management” of any proceedings and reduce costs (para 3)
- “stocktake” and review their respective positions after following the PD by exchanging information, to see if proceedings can be avoided and to “at least” narrow the issues (para 12).

Paras 6(a) & (c) oblige a Claimant to enter into a meaningful dialogue with a Defendant at an early stage by imposing specific obligations to:
- explain the claim in a Letter before Claim, and
- provide relevant core documents.


The only 'core document' you have enclosed is a mock-up of a claim form in the name of myself, the registered keeper. This will be drawn to the attention of the presiding Judge at the County Court Business Centre and then at my local Court, should a spurious claim of yours manage to get that far.

Since you have no cause of action against me as registered keeper, should you proceed with a claim I will file a counter-claim for not less than £500 in compensation for distress caused by your unwarranted demands arising from misuse of the data you obtained from the DVLA for one purpose, yet are now processing it for another purpose not covered by the KADOE regulations.

Further, I would like to draw your Legal Department's attention to a landmark 2017 judgment at the Leeds County Court, 3SP00071 - Blamires v LGO. This was a claim for damages including a matter of a breach of the DPA, for which an award of £2,500 was granted as compensation for distress. As is now relatively well known, the DPA’s original drafting appeared to preclude compensation for distress alone, but the Court of Appeal, in Vidal Hall & ors v Google [2015] EWCA Civ 311, it was held that this was contrary to the provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and that, accordingly, there was a right under the DPA to claim compensation for “pure” distress.

The award in Blamires was of “Vidal Hall” compensation, with the judge saying there was ''no doubt in my mind that the data breaches have caused distress to the claimant in their own rights as well as as a result of the consequences that flowed.'' The judge awarded a further £2,500 aggravated damages because of the manner in which the Defendant conducted its case, including the fact that, notwithstanding being told by the Claimant that its conduct/data was wrong, it took nearly two years for the Defendant to admit the mistake.

I expect Gladstones Solicitors LTD to now cancel this 'parking charge' and admit its mistake in attempting to misuse my data, and in trying to mislead me by suggesting that a registered keeper is liable for a non-POFA parking charge 'debt', and that I could be liable for escalated costs/legal fees. As you will be aware (or Wright Hassall can explain to you), the general costs rule in Small Claims is that there is no costs order.

However, in support of my own counter-claim, I must remind you that under CPR Rule 27.14(2)(g):

''costs can be awarded where a party behaves unreasonably''.

I refer Gladstones Solicitors to paragraph 16 of the Practice Direction – Pre-Action Conduct:
''a party who has not complied with its pre-action obligations can be ordered to pay costs (even if the party has succeeded in its claim/defence) and there is also a power to remit/increase interest.''

I expect to hear from you within 14 days to confirm that the charge is cancelled. Should you fail to cancel this PCN and/or pursue a baseless claim without supplying any evidence of any breach of a relevant contract or relevant obligation, or photographs, or the contract, or your basis for pursuing a registered keeper out with the POFA 2012, you may consider this adequate notice of my intention to sue Gladstones Solicitors, for the significant distress your actions have caused to a vulnerable Person.

All letters exchanged will be used in evidence in court.



I reserve the right to include your client (landowner/agent) in any claim made, since that party remains jointly and severally liable for the conduct of its agents on their land.

yours faithfully,



your name (same person as the letter is addressed to)

your address

Bionik

Any advice guys before i send off?

Or should i write a formal email/letter regarding what happened?

Bionik

Hello everyone,

I received this weekend a county court claim form for the sum of £255. This has been ongoing for nearly two years to get to this stage. I have discussed this issue on the forum before and had to sit on it till this form came through.

At the point of 'letter before claim' i responded with a well structured letter requiring more information from Gladstones & UKCPM. I sent the letter recorded and signed for which i have proof of. They did not respond and have progressed it to this point. Will this help with my defense?

Now i am stressed and feel sick as i don't know what to do and how difficult this is going to be. I am really not in a position to afford the amount or get a CCJ

I would really appreciate any advice and support on the matter so i can fight this! Where do i start with creating a defense? The form seems so in depth and intimidating.

Thank you in advance

beamerguy

Firstly, stop getting stressed, you are dealing with probably
the most incompetent solicitor in the UK.

So they ignored your request, since Oct 1st 2017, a new
government procedure means they have to follow the law
and that means that they must warn you of intended action,
provide full information of their claim and give you
30 days to respond

DID THEY DO THIS ??

Coupon-mad

Now i am stressed and feel sick as i don't know what to do and how difficult this is going to be. I am really not in a position to afford the amount or get a CCJ

Lucky you found us then, because this forum has a win rate no other forum/purported service/individual can get within touching distance of - a 99% win rate (counting Defendants who stick around and follow all advice and are coached up to the hearing).

nochargenotice

Hi Bionik,

Please find my thread as I am going through similar. The guys on here are very helpful, as you have seen.

If you can work out how to follow me on here please do so, I will try same for you.

Thanks.