Gladstone ‘Letter Before Claim’

The_Deep

I am now extremely worried again that I am going to lose this case.

Why? They would have difficulty winning against a man with one leg in an @rse kicking competition, read some of these

https://www.bing.com/search?q=youve+been+gladstoned&form=EDGEAR&qs=AS&cvid=cb0debc4f9b34454af0befe0964e1bcf&cc=GB&setlang=en-GB&PC=ACTS

noobie247

Thanks for showing me that, i'll have a proper read later on.

Calms the nerves for now anyway, again, thanks.

nosferatu1001

The fact theyre not showing up means they are NOT confident of winning!

So you have a job now!
1) Go through their "witness statement" which will be a poorly copy and pasted document, to work out the TERRIBLE assumptions they have made, which lack any proof. They WILL have made these assumptions!
Summarise them e.g. para 1, 3, 7, 11 the claimants WItness, who has never visited the site, assumed that... when in fact they have never provided proof of their claim. This indicates this is not a true "Witness Stateemnt" at all. You ask the court to strike out the WS.
2) Go therough and find the blatant lies - such as the one above. Refer to it in your WS as a response, or your skeleton argument (done later, few days before the hearing) if your WS was filed already. Point out either the CLaimant is attempting to deliberately mislead the court, or they are so incompetent their "witness" canot be trusted. You ask they strike out the WS.
3) Point out all the areas you wish to question them - usually the items in two above- and point out that, as the claimant isnt here to answer these reasonable questions about the flaws in THEIR evidence, you ask the claim is struck out.
4) Find al the times the Claimant advances a NEW argument not contained within their original pleadings.

noobie247

They haven't actually included a copy of a witness statement from themselves, only those bullet points in the pictures I provided. The 28 page document includes photos of my vehicle, the copy of the original parking ticket issued back in 2016, copies of the letters I have sent them (dates obviously correspond with the certificate of posting that I have, yet they say they haven't received them which is rather amusing)

In the photos they have attached you can see a sign behind the vehicle, but I really don't remember this sign being there, the only sign I remember was seeing a "Fire Exit" sign. Although they also include an image of where the signs are apparently placed and I can see from the photos of my vehicle that these do not match up either!

http://i66.tinypic.com/2eyz436.jpg

nosferatu1001

Well thats another obvious point to make! Their own photos show that this image cannot be true. Theyre again lying to the court, an offence, or are so severely incompetent that their "evidence" is worthless.

You have to realise - they spend as little time as possible on these claims, and so they hope to worry you by sendnig out reams of worthless info in teh hopes you will scare yourself into paying.

Coupon-mad

noobie247 wrote: »

Originally Posted by KeithP View Post
Remind us, when is the set aside hearing date?

The hearing has been scheduled for 12th November, quite a while away!

Is there anything else anyone would recommend me doing between now and then?

Same as this thread (ALWAYS read other threads like yours):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/74989746#Comment_74989746

How to win a set aside hearing, what to have with you, and what to say.

HTH

noobie247

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Same as this thread (ALWAYS read other threads like yours):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/74989746#Comment_74989746

How to win a set aside hearing, what to have with you, and what to say.

HTH

That's a great thread, haven't stumbled across that one.

What is the wage slip for, the proof of earnings? I am self-employed but paid via an hourly rate so I will have to take a copy of what I invoice etc I assume?

Thanks

nosferatu1001

Yes, it proves loss of earnings OR loss of leave, both of which can be used to claim up to £95 for a half days loss. Yes, take proof you have lost income.

noobie247

Had the set aside hearing this morning and I can confirm that nobody from Gladstones/UKCPM turned up, and it was set aside successfully. The hearing took all of 10 minutes.

Costs reserved for now as the judge said as there was nobody from the other side to comment, she couldn't award me any costs. How that is a fault of mine I do not know, so it now looks like I have stumped up the £255 fee instead of Gladstones and they can now still serve me with the original claim, which i'll obviously have to pay also, so they win, massively.

Relatively happy with the outcome as the judgement will now be off my record, but its come at an expense!

Thanks for your help with this one all, I need to now file and serve a defence as I have already done (so basically resubmit) and then in a fair few months it *may* get taken a small courts claim where I can contest the costs.

nosferatu1001

Thats entirely usual. They gain nothing from turning up
Why will you HAVE to pay it? Are you sure you dont have a suitable defence?
If you win then your set aside fee should be included as part of your costs.