URGENT: County Court Claim

GolfR12

Hi guys,

I’m back again, or should I say Euro Parking/Gladstone’s are back again!

So literally a day after the hearing I received a letter from Gladstone’s stating the have submitted an amended witness statement for one of the claims in readiness for a proposed reallocation of the hearing date. Two of the three claims were dismissed due to court costs not being paid with the final one dismissed due to the claimant not submitting any evidence. I am guessing this is for the one they did not submit evidence for.

My question is, is this allowed? Once a claim has been dismissed, can they request another hearing for the claim?

Furthermore, I have received a new claim form for another 3 tickets! 2 of the claims mentioned on the claim form are for the same date, which is impossible!

DoaM

Are you sure it's not for a different claim? Have they specified the claim number? Unless they've appealed one of the claims (and have been granted the appeal) then once a claim is dismissed then that's it.

You'll now know how to prepare for the new claims.

GolfR12

It’s definitely for one of the claims that was dismissed as it has the claim number on the letter. The letter was dated the day after my hearing date.

Do I call Gladstone’s and let them know or?

And yes definitely more confident in dealing with the new claims, even better that I’ve already got the defence and witness statements done so can just amend them

Coupon-mad

No you don't phone Gladstones.

How about a counter claim? You have grounds to allege harassment here, and if the facts of all these PCNS are essentially the same (same car park, same allegations) they are being 'wholly unreasonable and vexatious' to keep drip-feeding claims at you.

There was no reason why all of the PCNs could not have been one claim, was there, no factual differences that make the decision for the court, any different?

GolfR12

The Euro Parking Services representative emailed me stating there were 8 PCN’s in total for the vehicle in question. So they’ve only decided to claim for the 3 the day after my hearing after they discontinued 2 claims and 3 were dismissed by the judge.

Yes all PCN’s are for the same vehicle at the same car park. So I’m guessing their defence and witness statement will contain the same allegations.

A counter claim sounds like a good idea. How would I go about this?

GolfR12

Also, I am a self-employed contractor. I am a Director of a limited company which receives a day rate. I then pay myself through my company.

What is the ruling on claiming back my day rate? The judge stated I was not allowed to claim my day rate as I’m self-employed. Is this correct?

Umkomaas

What is the ruling on claiming back my day rate? The judge stated I was not allowed to claim my day rate as I’m self-employed. Is this correct?

Seems to be a fairly standard response with a case of a self employed defendant.

I'm not sure a parking forum is the best place to give a definitive contra argument to a Judge's determination of what is allowed or not in terms of costs. That's his/her day job, not ours.

GolfR12

So I have received another letter from Gladstone’s today submitting a witness statement for another one of the claims that was dismissed in the original hearing.

Really starting to p*ss me off now! Just when I thought it was all done with.

KeithP

GolfR12 wrote: »

So I have received another letter from Gladstone’s today submitting a witness statement for another one of the claims that was dismissed in the original hearing.

Really starting to p*ss me off now! Just when I thought it was all done with.

Again, this is nothing to do with parking.

Please re-read Umkomaas' post from yesterday.

Maybe try LegalBeagles.

Coupon-mad

Yes but the OP has said there are more claims now being drip-fed, too:

So they’ve only decided to claim for the 3 the day after my hearing after they discontinued 2 claims and 3 were dismissed by the judge.

I was remembering bargepole said this about another PPC whose conduct was vexatious:

What needs to happen, is that a Defendant who was a party to one of these cases, needs to make an application to the court for an Extended Civil Restraint Order against the PPC.

This can cover a group of courts and it will go to the Circuit Judge to make the decision.

There is a £255 fee payable for this, and if granted, the PPC would be unable to bring any claims in the specified courts without first getting judicial permission.

So how about thinking about doing that, and sending your application directly to the Judge who just heard your last case, along with your evidence of what they are now doing, i.e.:

- sending you witness statements dated after the lost/struck out hearing,

- filing a new claim for 3 more PCNs where the case will turn on the exact same facts as the ones struck out already (same vehicle, same car park and same details/contravention alleged, same meritless case) and expecting you and the court to go through all this yet again,

- you know they are likely to then field the same boilerplate Witness Statement (if they bother) and have surely wasted more than enough of your time and the court's, hence your application for an Extended Civil Restraint Order against the parking firm Claimant (NB: not their solicitors...)

- all this on top of their vexatious and wholly unreasonable conduct in ticketing the car in the first place in a predatory way with no 'legitimate interest' justification, and their conduct throughout the recent claim no xxxxxxxx where they paid no regard to the interests of you as a consumer and paid no regard to Court Directions, despite using a solicitor and having no excuse (cite DENTON and why there is no excuse for such conduct and there should be no relief from sanctions...).

Maybe it will work, and if so you could then in 2019 file a claim against the Claimant for your £255, and maybe the cost of an injunction if you want to stop them ticketing again (if you still live there) and all your costs and hourly rate, and other costs not covered in the small claims case thus far, and, say £750 for harassment under the PFHA and data misuse and a gross abuse of process and lack of good faith and open dealing, which has caused you not only a quantifiable loss, but also significant distress and alarm.

Set the scene by emailing or posting to friends/family on your messenger, or by text, how distressed and angry this has made you feel and how much sleep you've lost over it, and how it has affected your work and taken your mind away from your job/family just before Christmas...

Not a rant saying to family/friends that you are planning revenge, but a ''look how awful this has been and I am very distressed now by all of this'' series of posts and texts that you can then in 2019, use as evidence for your claim against them for your losses and compensation for acute distress (a la Vidal Hall and a la Ferguson v British Gas).

I do agree that Legal Beagles would be a good place to build that case.