Court case pending

Vinnyalder

Can someone pls help. I have a court date in place for coming 20th june for parking in disabled bay on private land. I have a young disabled boy who was with me whilst out to eat at pizza hut. Thought i had a good chance to defened myself with the blue badge scheme not recognised on private land and i took pictures of us outside car so evidence is date stamped but now unsure. The parking is free in all bays and we where parked outside the the establishment. I fear i may have let this slip on too far now. Court fees and costs are now up to £550 so would prefer to avoid if possible. Thanks in advance for any help given.

Vinnyalder

Legal specialists are bw legal. And parking firm is excel parking services ltd.

System

Court fees and costs are now up to £550

Why £550 - that suggests 3 or 4 tickets while eating pizza.

In addition you should have done a Witness Statement by now so when the day arrives, the judge will revert to any defence you put in. Did you do a Witness Statement?

The_Deep

Court fees and costs are now up to £550

Can you please give a breakdown, for a single breach of contract they should not exceed £170 - £200. Read the Equality Act, search the forum for BB cases and above all, read this.

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

You are probably too late to add to your defence, but you should be familiar with the rules of the game which you have been dragged into.

Vinnyalder

Unfortunately this is my 1st court case so when submitted my defence I did not realise I could not add to this later in court. I have not even mentioned the disability rights act or the blue badge parking stipulations on private land. So so stupid I know, and really should have sought advice earlier. Fees are £240 solicitor fees letters and emails ect, £100 court fees, £140 for hearing. £556 total cost inclusive.

[Deleted User]

Personally, i'd spend my Sunday doing a witness statement if you've not lodged one. It can be emailed to the solicitors for the PPC and posted first class to your local county court first thing on Monday. Even better if its close enough to drop off by hand.

You want an account that sets out the story and any mitigating factors. Yes, it's late. Yes, the Court could disregard it, but the point is that it will assist the Court to understand the position in advance of the hearing and may save Court time (see the overriding objectives at CPR Part 1 - appropriate use of court resources). **nothing to lose from doing so, after all**

Regard should also be had to the Court's general case management powers to "cut you some slack" (note these are wholly discretionary) when you get to Court, such that the Court may wish to consider the statement and hear you on the matters arising therefrom.

Case management; unrepresented parties 3.1A
(1) This rule applies in any proceedings where at least one party is unrepresented.
(2) When the court is exercising any powers of case management, it must have regard to the fact that at least one party is unrepresented.
(3) Both the parties and the court must, when drafting case management directions in the multi-track and fast track, take as their starting point any relevant standard directions which can be found online at https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil and adapt them as appropriate to the circumstances of the case.
(4) The court must adopt such procedure at any hearing as it considers appropriate to further the overriding objective.
(5) At any hearing where the court is taking evidence this may include;
(a) ascertaining from an unrepresented party the matters about which the witness may be able to give evidence or on which the witness ought to be cross-examined; and
(b) putting, or causing to be put, to the witness such questions as may appear to the court to be proper.

The_Deep

Jonersh is a solicitor so that free advice is worth a lot of money.

You would be wise to raise this matter with the SRA, these are low rent solicitors with scammers as clients, and they appear to be claiming for costs to which they know they are not entitled.

http://www.sra.org.uk/contact-us/

Also read the Code of Conduct and this one I made earlier, (watch the video).

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.

[Deleted User]

Oh and even if you did go down on this, remember to argue about the sums in dispute:

1. you'll want to drill down into those costs to work out how the charges have been applied. Don't let them get away with claiming generic fees that that are not referred to on signs, were never agreed and which bear no relationship to the actual costs of using a mail merge function to send a template letter.

2. Also note that most debt collectors are on no win/no fee relationships so that the PPC may have incurred no costs at all for those.

3. Also note that where charges have accrued over time it is wholly incorrect to charge interest on the entire larger sum from the date of issue of the ticket as that would not be when liability for the larger sum arose.

4. If there is an intention to claim legal costs, there shouldn't be. Court fees are fair game.

Umkomaas

Those costs look suspicious.

Almost all single tickets going to court typically are costed at:

£100 parking charge
£25 court filing fee
£25 court hearing fee
£50 capped legal costs (but BW Legal chance adding £54)
*Plus a bit of interest if the ticket was issued some years previously.

Max that lot comes to is £254 (plus *), so you need to be assertively questioning how they've managed to jack it all up to £550.

Vinnyalder

Thanks to all who have helped me with this matter, really appreciated. I have re written my witness statement and printed off all my pics as evidence, so all ready to serve up to court and email off to bw legal. Fingers crossed it will get put forward before the case. God knows how the cost has risen but i have been listed from bw legal as hearing fee £140 and court fees £100. I take it these costs are incorrect? Thanks again.

System

I take it these costs are incorrect?

Yes and you might ask the judge at court if BW have misled the court deliberately. They know what the court will allow and they know they are not entitled to them.

Follow JohnErsh's advice.