Defence of Parking Fines

WillMD2501

Dear Forum
I found I had 2 CCJs After completing a credit check in October 2017. After inquiring to the courts that supplied them they appear to be linked to Civil Enforcement Limited. I had received no notification that i had a parking fine at the time (no tickets on my car) and have had no written correspondence.
It appears they are linked to an old address of mine from 3 years ago. On checking at that time it appears that my car was still registered to the old address even though i did send an application to DVLA when moving. After checking DVLA records it appears they did not receive the change of address (i have no proof of sending this). At that time I resent my change of address form.

I recently have challenged the CCJs and managed to get them set aside. The judge has now given me 21 days to formulate my defense against the fines. I served the claimant with a request for further details in November last year. This was done by email and post. I have evidence of this via screen shot. I am yet to receive any information regarding where the parking fine is linked too. I want to know does this help or hinder my cause. How could I mount a defense against this?


Regards

Quentin

Everyone is politely asked not to start a new thread before reading up on this in the newbies faq thread near the top of the forum


#2 covers court claims from receipt right through to a court hearing.


You should keep everything in the one thread


If you have further questions post them in your original thread

Loadsofchildren123

Do you have a copy of the original claim forms? If not, and you can't get these out of CEL, ask the court to send them to you urgently.


It seems to me, assuming the particulars in the claim forms will be the usual brief and incomprehensible rubbish, that all you can do is a basic denial/putting the Claimant to full proof. Something like this:






The Defendant is unable to defend the claim in any detail at this stage due to the paucity of the Particulars of Claim, which are in clear breach of CPR Part 16.4. In particular, the Defendant is unable to tell whether the claim is for a breach of contract, or something else.


If the claim is for a breach of contract, the Defendant does not know what the terms of the alleged contract were, or how it is claimed they were breached, because the Particulars of Claim fail to plead this information. The Defendant likewise does not know if it is claimed that he was the driver on the relevant date, or whether he is being sued as the vehicle's registered keeper.


The Defendant believes that the Claimant should be ordered to file and serve more detailed Particulars of Claim, and that it should provide a copy of any contract upon which it relies, and that he should then be given the opportunity to amend this Defence.


In the meantime, the Defendant can do nothing more than deny the claim in its entirety and puts the Claimant to full proof of every aspect of the claim, including the identity of the driver on the relevant date.


I'd write a covering letter reiterating that you cannot defend a claim which is not made out in the Particulars and asking the court to order the Claimant to file and serve proper detailed Particulars and to give you leave to amend your Defence.


MCOL is staffed by admin staff, not lawyers. I'd expect them to ignore that request. The next thing you'll receive is an order provisionally allocating your case to the Small Claims Track and telling you to complete the Directions Questionnaire by a set date. When you do this, send another covering letter stapled to it, with a copy of your original letter above, reiterating the point that you have been denied the opportunity to defend the claim properly because you can't actually understand what it's for, and asking the court to stay the proceedings and to order the Claimant to file and serve proper Particulars of Claim and to provide you with a copy of the contract it is alleged you or the driver have breached, and to give you time to file and serve an amended Defence. Otherwise, how are you to defend the claim?

The_Deep

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and another company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

Hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned.

The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the HofC recently.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind they will be out of business by Christmas.

Coupon-mad

The judge has now given me 21 days to formulate my defense against the fines.

Defence against scam parking charges.

This defence goes to your local court, not MCOL, doesn't it. Show us your first draft after reading lots of other set aside threads, FULL of defences just like your own. Also see LOC123's post above, as she is a solicitor when not posting on this forum.

Loadsofchildren123

Yes, doh, sorry, of course it's already been transferred and it's already been small track assigned. Having a senior moment since I had a significant birthday earlier this month.... So ignore my last para.


So, do your defence along the lines of the above and send a covering letter pointing out the truly rubbish PoC, rule 16.4 and asking the court to make an order that the C files and serves full particulars and allowing you to then amend your defence accordingly.


I would have said write now to ask for this, but it's what should have happened at the set aside hearing so it seems to me that it's too late for that now, you just have to defend as best you can and ask for an opportunity to amend (and shove it all in your WS as well).


I had to deal with a stupid one-line "I wasn't driving" defence on the case I did for a family member (my Millennium thread). What I did was draft a lengthy amended defence, sent it to the court asking them to accept it and to the solicitors saying that leave would be applied for at the hearing, to save the costs of a separate application about the issue. At the hearing, the first thing I would have done was sought leave to rely on the amended defence - given the rubbish PoC I think I would have won, but I never needed to as they caved in.

WillMD2501

Thankyou everyone for your help. I have been scouring the forums for a while and i had earmarked the following as my defence.

1. Default Judgement
1.1. I understand that the Claimant obtained a Default Judgement against me as the Defendant. However, this claim form has not been served at my current address and I thus was not aware of the Default Judgement. When I was doing a routine check on my credit file I became aware of the judgement on 27/4/2018. I understand that this Claim was served at an old address xxxxxxxxxxxxxx. However, I moved to a new address on 17/08/2016. In support of this I can provide confirmation from County Council showing my updated details for the purposes of paying Council tax.

1.2. I have also never received any previous documentation from the Claimant in this matter and I thus was never able to properly challenge the Claimant!!!8217;s claim.

1.3. The court papers contain no details of the alleged incident and I do not know what the Default Judgement relates to.

1.4. On 27/04/2018 I attempted to contact the Claimant using information given to me by Northampton County Court. Having issued the claimant both postal and email requests for further details regarding the alleged incident. I do not have any details of the incident the Claimant alleges has taken place, other than the summary of charges now owed, which is shown on my credit score.

1.5. I believe the Claimant has behaved unreasonably in pursuing a claim against me without ensuring they held the Defendant!!!8217;s current and correct contact details. According to publicly available information my circumstances are far from being unique. The Claimant!!!8217;s persistent failure to use correct and current addresses results is an unnecessary burden for individuals and the justice system across the country.

1.6. On the basis provided above I would suggest that the Claimant did not fulfil their duty to use the Defendant!!!8217;s current address when bringing the claim.

1.7. Considering the above I was unable to defend this claim properly. I thus believe that the Default Judgement against me was issued incorrectly and thus should be set aside.



2. Order dismissing the Claim

2.1. I further believe that the original Claim by the Claimant has no merit and should thus be dismissed. I understand that the Claimant is a Parking Company which seeks to claim for !!!8220;Parking Charge Notices!!!8221; which the Claimant believes are due as a result of an alleged breach of contract for parking by a motorist.

2.2. If the Claimant has obtained details of the vehicle for which the Defendant is the Registered Keeper, and used those details to make a claim for a !!!8220;Parking Charge Notice!!!8217;!!!8217;, I thus dispute the claim in its entirety as I do not know the wording of the contract nor do I know the means by which the contract was alleged to come into force.

2.3. If the Claimant can evidence that the alleged incident relates to a vehicle for which the Defendant is the Registered Keeper, any Notice to Keeper served by the Claimant would have needed to comply with the requirements of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. Otherwise, the Claimant is required to prove the driver of the vehicle they claim was involved in the alleged incident. I submit that the Claimant cannot provide such evidence and further submit that the Claimant does not include !!!8216;Protection of Freedoms Act 2012!!!8217; wording on the Parking Charge Notices they issue and therefore cannot hold the Defendant automatically liable for the alleged incident merely for being the Registered Keeper of a vehicle.

2.4. A requirement of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 is that this any Notice to Keeper served by the Claimant must be served within 14 days of the date of the alleged incident. Since I have not received any documentation from the Claimant prior to finding out about the Default Judgement, I submit the Claimant will not have complied with the requirements of the Act and thus cannot claim this charge against me as the Registered Keeper in any case.

2.5. I further submit that the Claimant!!!8217;s claim is without merit due to substantial issues in law. This is for the following main reasons:
2.5.1. Lack of Standing by Claimant: The Claimant is unlikely to be the landowner of the car park in question, and will have no proprietary interest in it. This means that the Claimant, as a matter of law, will have no locus standi to litigate in their own name. Any consideration will have been provided by the landholder, and only they would have been able sue for any damages or trespass.
2.5.2. No Loss Suffered by Claimant: Their claim is presumably based on damages for alleged breach of contract. It is a fundamental principle of English Law that a party who suffers damages through breach of contract can only seek through court action to be put back in the same position as they would have been if the breach had not occurred. In order to do so, they must demonstrate their actual, or genuine, pre-estimate of loss. I submit that no loss has been suffered by the Claimant as a result of any alleged breaches of contract on the part of any motorist of the vehicle of which I am the Registered Keeper. I further submit that any loss to the landholder (which would be the only party able to claim such losses) would be at most a few pounds.
2.5.3. Claimed charge is an Unenforceable Penalty: I further submit that the Parking Charge that the Claimant claimed, given it is not based on any loss suffered due to the alleged breach, is nothing but an unenforceable penalty.
2.5.4. No contract with the claimant: Any contract must have offer, acceptance and consideration both ways. There would not have been consideration from the Claimant to the motorist; the fee for parking benefits the landowners, not the Claimant. Therefore, there is no consideration from the motorist to Civil Enforcement Limited.

2.6. On this basis I believe that the Claimant has not provided any reasonable cause of action and thus the claim should be dismissed in its entirety.
2.7. In order to make informed decisions and statements in my defence as keeper of the a vehicle, I will require copies of all paperwork and pictures of all signs from the Claimant.




Statement of Truth:
I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.
Full name:

Dated: 27/04/2018

Signed: ________________________________


Now i know this has been used before. Does this hold ground still?

My action plan is as follows;

1. Recontact CEL and ask for the particulars of their claim
2. Immediately contact the courts to request the particulars (set aside was on the 26/4/18) + covering letter
3. When I have time I will be writing to my MP

Coupon-mad

If the CCJ was from the Autumn (Sept/Oct 2017), I suspect CEL will have failed to file any Particulars of Claim at all, so put them to strict proof of that.

Also end the defence by asking the Judge to order your £255 fee and costs schedule (attach it) to be paid by the Claimant, should CEL now do their usual, well-trodden unfair tactic of discontinuing the entire claim after the consumer Defendant has has to waste time and money over it.

Make sure you quote para 9 of the POFA Sch4, and state that this Claimant is known not to use a POFA compliant Notice to Keeper (NTK), so although you have never seen this document for this case, you contend the Claimant could never have held you liable in the first place even if they had served their usual NTK.

Which is your local court and (assuming there was an actual hearing to get this set aside so far) did the Judge say the costs were 'reserved'?

Quentin

In section 1.1 you refer to discovering the ccj today??

Is that a typo or is this another ccj,??

WillMD2501

My court is Manchester County Court. The judge did not mention anything regarding the costs. Although I did ask when I should claim the £255 and he said I should do that for the next hearing. Is there grounds to claim for my time?

Coupon-mad

Yes you must claim for your time. Do a costs schedule and submit it with the defence, stating that you ask for an order for costs in your favour even if the Claimant now unreasonably wastes your time by discontinuing. State that as an eventuality, to try to get that foot in the door now.

Examples of costs schedules are in the NEWBIES thread.

I am glad you got Manchester (a very clued up court about the PPC scam). Hope you get DJ Iyer!