UK Parking Limited - County Court claim against me - Castle Car Park

marvalus

Hi there,
thanks for replying.
I was going to send email anyway, but doesn't this letter now mean that my reply would be invalid?

my original email would have been the following -
'The Defendant opposes the Claimant's request for special directions, and requests that the case be listed for an oral hearing at the defendant's home court, pursuant to CPR 26.2A(3)'

but now the case has been allocated to the court of my choice, I could change it to the following -

'The Defendant opposes the Claimant's request for special directions, and requests that the case be listed for an oral hearing at [Name of my Court], pursuant to CPR 26.2A(3)'.

But when I looked up CPR 26.2A(3) it does not state anything about opposing a non oral hearing or special requests, only transferring a case to a home court -

Automatic transfer in the High Court
26.2 This rule applies where rule 26.2A does not apply.
(1) This rule applies to proceedings in the High Court where –
(a) the claim is for a specified amount of money;
(b) the claim was commenced in a court which is not the defendant’s home court;
(c) the claim has not been transferred to another defendant’s home court; and
(d) the defendant is an individual.
(2) This rule does not apply where the claim was commenced in a specialist list(GL).
(3) Where this rule applies, the court will transfer the proceedings to the defendant’s home court when a defence is filed, unless paragraph (4) applies.
(Rule 2.3 defines ‘defendant’s home court’)
(4) Where the claimant notifies the court under rule 15.10 or rule 14.5 that he wishes the proceedings to continue, the court will transfer the proceedings to the defendant’s home court when it receives that notification from the claimant.

So I guess I cannot use 'pursuant to CPR 26.2A(3)'
also would I just email my local court now? I guess I cannot send to CCBC now?
many thanks

nosferatu1001

No, again, I KNOW what you were going to send, because its the usual template
Nothing in what YOU have been given says it is an oral or papers hearing, so your request is entirely alid.

marvalus

I have emailed them, I will keep you all updated, many thanks

marvalus

Hello all,
I actually thought this was all over, as I had not heard from the Court or Claimant's solicitor and it has been 9 months now, I actually put it to the back of my mind and forgot about it all...
I received a card through my post informing me that I had a package to pick up from the post office,
this was received the last week in March, I have been working a lot of Night shifts recently, so I wasn't available to go and pick it up, as I wasn't expecting anything important so I was in no rush to pick it up,
I made a big mistake there...
So a couple of days ago I went to pick up the package, I have received a folder of documents from the Claimants Solicitor named 'Claiment's Evidence bundle' with a court date for me to attend 09/04/19.
Is this even allowed? I checked the post mark on the package, It is dated 19/03/19, and of course would have taken a few days to get to me.
So they have given me around 18 days to prepare for a court date, and of course because I had no prior correspondence or warning I was in no rush to go to the post office.
The last I heard from the Claimants Solicitor, was June 2018 When I opposed the Claimant's request for special directions, and requested that the case be listed for an oral hearing, since then I have heard nothing from anyone.
Should I not have been contacted by the Court or Claimants Solicitor to inform me of a Court date? Are they allowed to just send a package through the post to me? It wasn't even recorded or Signed for delivery, how can they be sure I have received it?
So I have spent the last few days going through it all and uploading the documents, So I am now preparing a Witness statement for myself.
I know it's not much time until the hearing, But would anyone be able to tell me if I have any chances at winning this case? Is there anything I can add to my witness statement, or any extra info I can bring to the court in my defence that will help me?

I have uploaded everything from the Claiment's Evidence bundle, so I can provide anything that is asked for.

Covering letter for - Claiment's Evidence bundle
https://ibb.co/p0Ftzj6

1st page of Claiment's Evidence bundle - Index
https://ibb.co/LSMVwsX

Claimant's Witness statement
Page 1 - https://ibb.co/QCd7fVv
Page 2 - https://ibb.co/DYRLwy1
Page 3 - https://ibb.co/FYT64Qp
Page 4 - https://ibb.co/t8vMG3P

The First error I noticed in Witness statement, was that it was Signed and dated 20/03/19, does that not make it forged and invalid? if the post mark is 19/03/19 how could it have been signed 20/03/19?
He has also mentioned that my defence is copy and pasted from an internet forum, and has no relevance to the case??

Here is a letter from the bundle,
stating that the Car park management company are authorised to undertake parking management.
https://ibb.co/pnfpbP9

also here is my original appeal from the bundle
https://ibb.co/BqPXjBz

I noticed I made an error here in original appeal, I said that the ticket fell down from the screen,
It wasn't actually fixed to the screen with anything, and the photos taken prove that.
So it must of been a gust of wind that flipped it over, is there a good way of explaining this?

I also have photos of when I returned to the car park, this is of all the signage.
https://ibb.co/Db91Fnq
https://ibb.co/rHg6Xz7
https://ibb.co/Jd94SqQ
https://ibb.co/Ntktbm9
https://ibb.co/xj99Rm4
https://ibb.co/CVJ5GPD

I will also need to compile a list of costs to claim against the Claimant,
this has taken a great amount of time to get to this stage, and I will need to take the day off work to attend the case.

Here are the Claimants costs against me from the bundle.
https://ibb.co/vYJqyGP

Please can someone look through this and let me know if I stand a chance at fighting this?
many thanks for your help.

D_P_Dance

Many judges regard these "fluttering tickets" claims for breach of contract as trifling, and the Law does not concern itself with trifles, therefore, imo, they may struggle in court.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_minimis

Especially as, on 18th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these private parking companies. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, and persistent offenders denied access. Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers.

Until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.

marvalus

Thank you for that, would they not argue I said the ticket fell down? I think I may of used the wrong words there.
So they may think it was stuck to the glass and not resting on dash board.
Should I also mention anything about the signage?
Thank you for your input.

KeithP

You must mention signs.

They form the basis of any alleged contract between the driver and the parking company.

Le_Kirk

If you have filed your defence, you cannot add anything to it, your Witness Statement (WS) is the story of what happened on the day and can refer to and expand upon, your defence. If your defence mentioned signage and landowner authority (as it should have done) then of course expand on that, with evidence, in your WS. It is for the claimant to prove their case, not for you to disprove it, so don't help them by referring to "it may have fallen off windscreen"

marvalus

Hello all,
this is the Witness statement I sent into the Court for my case.

IN THE xxxxxxx COUNTY COURT

Claim Number: xxxxxxx
BETWEEN:
xxxxxxx (Claimant)
-and-
xxxxxxx (Defendant)


Witness statement of xxxxxxx (Defendant)

I am xxxxxxxs of xxxxxxxxxxx,
defendant in this matter, I am unrepresented, with no experience of Court procedures. If I do not set out documents in the way that the Claimant may do, I trust the Court will excuse my inexperience.

In this Witness statement, the facts and matters stated are true and within my own knowledge, except where indicated otherwise.


1. The claim is denied in its entirety except where explicitly admitted here.
I assert that I am not liable to the claimant for the sum claimed, or any amount at all, for the following reasons, any one of which is fatal to the claimants case.

2. A ticket was paid for and displayed so all details could be seen on the windscreen, until it was dislodged by a gust of wind and/or heat from the sun.
The Defendant has no knowledge of the point at which the ticket flipped over or why.

3. The ticket gave the Defendant a licence to park from xx:xx to xx:xx on xx/xx/xx, covering the time and date relating to the disputed charge.

4. The ticket states the following in small text (Display clearly on Dashboard) This ticket was being displayed clearly on the dashboard, it does not state which way the ticket should be facing.

5. The ticket was being displayed on the dashboard, This will be demonstrated by the Claimant’s own evidence, also the evidence shows that serial number xxxxxx for the ticket, was still clearly being displayed on the ticket, when it had become dislodged.

6. The ticket has serial number xxxxx on both sides of the ticket; I would argue that this is to verify whether the ticket is valid on the parking ticket system, no matter which way it is facing.

7. The defendant appealed to the claimant end of xxxx xxxx, showing evidence that the parking charge had been paid and covered for the parking period in question.
A photo of the ticket clearly displaying serial number xxxxxx was also provided.

8. The claimant admitted that the Parking ticket was valid, but had not been displayed correctly, The Claimant received the parking charge for the period that the vehicle was parked, so they have suffered no financial loss.
I would argue that the Claimant has pursued the defendant through the small claims track, for no other reason than, the Claimant’s business model is solely driven by the recovery of penalty fees.

9. The facts of this case are simple, The Defendant paid to park the vehicle for the period in question, the parking ticket that was purchased was valid, this could have easily been verified by the claimant by checking the serial number at any time.

The defendant proved the ticket was valid during the appeals process.
The defendant is no more liable now than he was then, The Defendant has had to cover all possible defences, which has required a great deal of time.
This unwarranted harassment and baseless litigation has caused significant alarm and distress.
On the basis of the above, the Defendant requests the court strike out the claim.
I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.

Signed - xxxxx


Dated - xxxxx

marvalus

This is the Schedule of costs I sent into the court

In the xxxxx County Court

Claim No: xxxxx
Between:

xxxxxx (Claimant)


-And-


xxxxxxxx (Defendant)



DEFENDANT'S SCHEDULE OF COSTS


Ordinary Costs


Loss of earnings/leave, incurred through attendance at Court xxxxxxx - £267.00

Public Transport from home address to Court and Return £4.00

Sub-total £271.00 ======


Further costs for Claimant's unreasonable behavior, pursuant to Civil Procedure Rule 27.14(2)(g)

Research, preparation and drafting of documents (4 hours at Litigant in Person rate of £19 per hour) £76.00

Stationery, printing, photocopying and postage: £15.00

Sub-total £91.00 ======



£ 362.00 TOTAL COSTS CLAIMED