Gladstone Court Claim - Visitors Bay - Help

TRNC

Just received the attached. From reading about this looks like a pretty standard response and reaction from Gladstones:

http://tinypic.com/r/m8l3sm/9

I will wait for the Directions Questionnaire to arrive and complete it as suggested by Bargepole in the newbies thread and make sure to include the bit about refusing the special request.

Just wondering whether it would be worth having the resident write a statement about how they gave permission for the vehicle owner to park and had ran out of scratch cards at the time?

System

You might want to reply to that letter as follows

1. The Claimant is concerned about the cost of litigation and claims they are "disproportionate"

2. The Claimant could have helped their case and saved the court's time by supplying further and better particulars - but chose not. This puts a disproportionate burden on the Defendant in terms of time spent and other court users in terms of time wasted at court dealing with vague allegations.

3. The Defendant is entitled to know what he needs to defend. The Court is entitled not to have to tease out a cause of action.

4. The Defendant is concerned that vague automatically generated claims are disproportionate to the time the court needs to spend on such matters and requests the Claimant supply further and better particulars

5. In the alternative, the court may use its management powers under CPR 3.3 so as to remove the burden of such template time-consuming claims from the court systems.

TRNC

Thank you IamEmanresu. Apologies for my ignorance here but would I be aiming that response to Gladstones? I am just a little confused, would going back and forth with them at this stage achieve much?

System

The letter is to the court with a copy to Gladstones.

What happens at the DQ stage is that a judge has a quick look at the papers to see if there is

a) a cause of action. What are they actually claiming and
b) If there is a cause, does the defence answer it, in the broadest of terms.

What you are doing is trying to show that as (a) is not clear, then your (b) cannot adequately answer it as the Claimant has failed to make their case clear. It becomes time consuming and is a burden to the judge hearing it (the allocating judge's colleague / 'mate'). Gladstones have simply opened the door for you to raise it by that letter.

TRNC

Thank you so much for the explanation. So should I send this along with my DQ (which has just arrived)?

Would it be worth having the resident write a statement about how they gave permission for the vehicle owner to park and had ran out of scratch cards at the time?

TRNC

Sorry to bump. Would anyone be able to help with the questions above? DQ is due on 10th August.

Redx

although you could get the WS written and signed , its not needed until closer to the court date

BARGEPOLE explains this process in the post he made almost 2 years ago , linked in the NEWBIES FAQ thread in post #2

I have no idea why you are concerning yourself with a WS when its not even got a court, a court date or a judge allocated because the claimant has not paid any court filing fee yet , plus even then it could be months later , with any WS and evidence due a few weeks before said date

just do the DQ and the addtional response letter as mentioned earlier, then start gathering evidence and WS docs , like the BARGEPOLE timeline and LOC123 thread explain

keep studying that NEWBIES FAQ stread post #2 , and the links as welll, get up to speed , once the DQ has been done

TRNC

Thanks for the reply Redx, only reason I was concerning myself is because I wasn't sure whether it is a worthwhile statement and in the DQ I have to say whether there will be any witnesses. Just didn't want to say yes it it wasn't worth it or vice versa.

I will write up the additional response letter and have completed the DQ as shown in the NEWBIES thread.

KeithP

The question about number of witnesses on the DQ is just to ensure they have a big enough court room for your coach load of witnesses.

Have as many witness statements as you like - you still only put one, that's you, in the 'number of witnesses' box.

bargepole

KeithP wrote: »

The question about number of witnesses on the DQ is just to ensure they have a big enough court room for your coach load of witnesses.

Have as many witness statements as you like - you still only put one, that's you, in the 'number of witnesses' box.

The question about number of witnesses is also so that the court can allocate an appropriate length of time for the hearing.

It's actually asking how many will be turning up to court, so unless any of your witnesses are going to present on the day, the number is just one - that's you.

Those who are making statements in support of your case must give their full name and address at the beginning of the statement, and sign it with a Statement of Truth at the end. If they are not in court to be cross-examined, the other side may object, and ask the Judge to make a finding that the statements are just hearsay evidence, and should be given less weight.