CEL court claim issued - do I pay??

Lozza63

The letters were all written to him as he is the keeper of the car but wasn't necessarily the driver. I'm his wife and think I was driving at the time. I didn't think it made a difference, can I not change the case to make myself the defendant?

The formal letter of Claim was sent by Wright Hassall the Solicitors on May 9th 2017 and signed by Tim Hawker head of Debt Recovery. It contained a sentence at the end of the letter saying This letter is a Letter before Claim.

I understand I need to get my defence in 28 days after the date of service which was 16/10/17. I acknowledge the service on 20/11 online. Therefore I understand I only have a couple of days left to send in my defence.

Can I send my defence in online or do I need to post this?
Do I need to send anything to CEL to say I am defending the Claim or will they see this online?

I can't attach a draft defence here for people to view as I am a new member. What is the best way to do this?

Thanks

Loadsofchildren123

They have to comply with reasonable requests for info/documents - see para 5.2 of the new Protocol. Send a chaser letter and point out that paragraph to them.

Your defence can now factor in what you know the PoC will say. The fact that you have a heads up advantages you, not the other way round. You can leave out points you know to be irrelevant.

Coupon-mad

can I not change the case to make myself the defendant?

Of course not. And why on earth would you throw away the fact he cannot be held liable?

Loadsofchildren123

You can at any stage prior to proceedings out the driver. They can choose who to sue, but to successfully sue a RK who they cannot prove was driving then they have to have complied with POFA.
Normally it's best to let them sue the RK if you have a good POFA defence and can prove (on balance of probabilities) that RK was not driving.

Lozza63

Thanks for heads up on PPC's reading this. I have edited my posts But I see one of your replies to me also mentions my H's name. Could you also edit this? Thanks

Lozza63

My main defence in non legal terms is:
1)Car park signs not clearly visible in dark - We didn't see the signs as it was dark and it was an office car park and didn't make an effort to look around for them as we assumed it would not have any detrimental effect on the efficient use of the parking space in the interest of the retial/office outlets and their users as it was out of office hours and the car park was mainly empty.
2) No evidence of Landowner authority - We asked for a copy of the contract with the landowner in our first appeal letter to CEL as we wanted to make sure that parking at this time was not affecting the management of this space. However, we did not receive this.
If CEL can prove the car park signs were visible and well lit and can also provide a contact and written authority from the landowner to operate the car park - I do not know what other defence I have.
If I go to court and lose - and have to pay CEL's court costs and legal fees - what might this cost be?

KeithP

Lozza63 wrote: »

If I go to court and lose - and have to pay CEL's court costs and legal fees - what might this cost be?

Usually less than £200 all in.

So win or lose, you will be better off than paying their inflated figure now.

Lozza63

I mentioned earlier that the court claim is in my husbands name as he is the registered keeper although he was not the driver. He has not seen the fine and would probably have made me pay it as he doesn't want his name on any register. If we end up going to court and lose - will his name go on any register?

Thanks

AndySab

No. If you go to court and lose, as long as you pay the amount ordered within the specified time (one calendar month, I think) then there's no CCJ on his credit file. Nothing in terms of registers/credit rating etc is different to the way things are now.

Loadsofchildren123

You can’t defend it without him knowing though. He has to be at the court hearing.