Gladstones LBC for 10-min private residential stay

nosferatu1001

Well, yes, but not because they said they werent going to turn up!

Even IF they sya theyre not turning up, a claimant company officer can rock up and owul dhave right of audience

If they say they are turning up, but rock up with someone who is not legally qualified and is not a claimant company officer, then they NEVER have a right of audience (however a court can decide to allow them anyway, at their discretion)

Umkomaas

petallica wrote: »

So if someone does turn up, surely I can question their right of audience?

RoA is a technical/legal term and unless you understand all of its nuances and ramifications and can argue them convincingly in front of the Judge, I'd suggest it might cause more problems than solutions for you.

Some Judges have shown irritation when RoA has been argued.

petallica

A very big thanks to you all for your help! I'd like to report I won my case last week - the claim was dismissed almost as I entered the court room (the claimant didn't turn up, although they had given prior notice to decide the claim based on their submitted evidence).

Ralph-y

well done .... did you get costs ...



what did the judge say ?


Ralph:cool:

Coupon-mad

Ooooh brilliant!

Another one bites the dust.

Can we have a full 'court report' as you recall it, please, and what the Judge said? Did you get your costs for attending, order to be paid by the scammers who were attempting to ruin your credit rating on a meritless claim?

Which court?

petallica

I did get some costs with the order, yes (loss of earnings + travel including parking fee!)

Sure, I'll upload a court report in the next day or two (it was Guildford) - to summarise, the judge dismissed the claim mainly based on my recollection of the verbal agreement with the operative, and the fact that I was parked for just 10 minutes before moving swiftly off, with no PCN delivered to myself or attached to the car.

Thanks again, it was a great to nip that in the bud finally, and the court experience was much less daunting that I had prepared for in the end.

Coupon-mad

Guildford YET AGAIN!! :T

They join the Hall of Fame along with Skipton and Manchester Courts, the PPCs' graveyards!

VERY clued up Judges at all three; we've had loads of reports like yours.

And do tell us more, we love to read experiences when people (as usual) win.

petallica

That’s great to hear C-M! Here is the court report from the win a couple of weeks ago, a bit late.

Summary of incident:
Parked in a private residential visitor’s bay while visiting a tenant. Poor/misleading/inadequate signage of parking terms. Noticed parking operative by car after a few minutes in tenant’s flat, went to inquire – said we required a visitor parking permit. Tenant with his own car permit was not aware of need for one or how to obtain one, so we moved car off premises within 10 minutes of arriving, before PCN could be stuck to windscreen, having verbally agreed with operative that no charges would be brought as such. A few weeks later, received a postal NTD. Revisited the same tenant after to find that a new sign had been installed near to the visitor bays.

Court details:
Before the court hearing, I received the claimant’s WS stating that the company or Gladstones never received a defence (lie) and an inaccurate plan of signage at the time of the incident. A week before the hearing, Gladstones declared that the claimant wouldn’t be attending the hearing, and asked for the judge to consider their submitted paperwork in their absence. I would still attend for the court to hear my side. The hearing was a couple of weeks ago at Guildford County Court.

I arrived in the small claims waiting room (felt more like a GP/dentist’s waiting room) about half an hour early after going through security and navigating the maze of the court building, making sure to give my details to the usher. There were several other parking cases being heard that same morning, with one claimant/defendant pair actually having a reasonably civil conversation for a while, and I ended up joining in, so not a particularly tense atmosphere.

I was eventually called in by the usher (as anticipated, no rep from the claimant turned up), but the judge actually sent us away for a few more minutes as she wasn’t quite ready. Once I entered the court room, the judge apologised for sending me away earlier saying she just needed a bit more time to go through the paperwork. She effectively dismissed the claim there and then as I entered, explaining the reasons why the claim was dismissed. This was primarily due to the claimant not giving any evidence to counter my allegation of the verbal agreement to not charge if I immediately moved the car, which was discussed in my WS. Also, the fact that I was there for just 10 minutes by the claimant’s own evidence was seized upon, which the court accepted as a reasonable grace period, and also there was no evidence that a PCN was served at that time.

I was awarded costs for loss of earnings/leave, and of course parking near the court (although sadly this was just written as “travel” on the judgment form). I wasn’t able to claim costs for the hours spent defending the case before the hearing, although at this point I was pretty ecstatic to have won whilst not really having to defend myself in court, and getting some costs back. It was definitely worth the fight in the end.

I only spent around 5-10 minutes or so in the court room, and it turned out to be a rather pleasant experience, thanks mainly to the no-show from the claimant.

Thanks again to all the valuable help I’ve received from various forum members, either directly or indirectly via the fantastic Newbies and other threads!

Redx

well done, a pleasure to see that this turned out the way it should have done and common sense prevailed


fatcs over fiction, every time

Coupon-mad

Great to read that, thanks for coming back! It helps others to gain confidence to defend.