Britannia Parking - BW Legal and letters sent to wrong address

Cemesis

FURTHER UPDATE

I just went home and found a letter from BW to state that its not too late to get in touch and they would like to discuss options available in order to prevent a CCJ against me. How kind.

There is a section on the CCJ form to allow me to enter my costs. That isn't directly part of my defence so how do I go about calculating them in a transparent way and making the submission?

beamerguy

Cemesis wrote: »

FURTHER UPDATE

I just went home and found a letter from BW to state that its not too late to get in touch and they would like to discuss options available in order to prevent a CCJ against me. How kind.

There is a section on the CCJ form to allow me to enter my costs. That isn't directly part of my defence so how do I go about calculating them in a transparent way and making the submission?

OH DEAR, a clear indicator that they are unsure of the claim. Happens a lot.

in order to prevent a CCJ against me
What a load of rubbish, they wrongly assume they will win. Scare tactics ....... more so to push on with ABUSE OF PROCESS and get the court to kick them out.

Your costs are just that, time for you to prepare, travel, loss of wages etc etc. Average awarded is about £95.

Unlike BWL trying to take the pi*s of the courts, be reasonable so the judge is on your side.

I would reply to their scare letter, saying you will be attending court .... over to them, if they want to discontinue they can which would be better than getting another court whooping

Cemesis

I was going to base it on my hourly rate at work. I work full time for a PAYE salary but its easy to calculate my 'hourly' rate. I've spent enough time on this already that its more than £95 but I hear you, I don't want to appear arrogant.

beamerguy

Cemesis wrote: »

I was going to base it on my hourly rate at work. I work full time for a PAYE salary but its easy to calculate my 'hourly' rate. I've spent enough time on this already that its more than £95 but I hear you, I don't want to appear arrogant.

Look, if it's more than £95 and you can prove it, go for it, the worst that can happen is the judge reduces it.

KeithP

Cemesis wrote: »

I have now received court papers dated 5th July and I need to submit a response. I have read some of the other threads so will prepare by defence and place it here before submitting it. I understand I can do that online withing 14 days (ie by 19th July).

It looks like you have received a Claim Form from the County Court Business Centre in Northampton and the Issue Date on that Claim Form is 5th July 2019. Please confirm.

If so, then you have until Wednesday 24th July to do the Acknowledgement of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. To do the AoS, follow the guidance offered in a Dropbox file linked from post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread. About ten minutes work - no thinking required.

Having done the AoS, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 7th August 2019 to file your Defence.

That's four weeks away. Loads of time to produce a perfect Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.


When you are happy with the content, your Defence should be filed via email as suggested here:

Print your Defence.
1. Sign it and date it.
   
2. Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
   
3. Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk
   
4. Just put the claim number and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'Please find my Defence attached'.
   
5. Log into MCOL after a few days to see if the Claim is marked "defence received". If not chase the CCBC until it is.
   
6. Do not be surprised to receive an early copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire, they are just trying to keep you under pressure.
   
7. Wait for your DQ from the CCBC, or download one from the internet, and then re-read post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread to find out exactly what to do with it.

Cemesis

KeithP wrote: »

It looks like you have received a Claim Form from the County Court Business Centre in Northampton and the Issue Date on that Claim Form is 5th July 2019. Please confirm.

Confirmed. That helps as I am going away next week and was rushing a bit to complete it all.

Cemesis

AOS Completed. That dropbox link helped alot although the website has changed a little.

Now on to the defence...

Cemesis

Afternoon all. I am back from leave and have written my defence. I have included a section on reclaiming my costs as I was unsure where that should go and if it forms part of the defence or not. Please critique away as I am interested in feedback. Thanks.

IN THE COUNTY COURT

CLAIM No: xxxxxxxxxx

BETWEEN:

BW Legal (Claimant)

-and-

xxxxxxxxxxxx (Defendant)

________________________________________
DEFENCE
________________________________________

1. The claim being made states the defendant ‘Failed to make a valid payment’ when visiting the Plymouth Harbour MSCP car park on 21st September 2017.
2. The defendant has requested details of payment made in letters sent to the claimant on 17th October 2018 and 14th March 2019. The claimant has failed to provide details.
3. Payment was made when the vehicle entered the car park and the defendant subsequently returned to the vehicle to purchase a second ticket.
4. The Defendant saw no notice that this practice was not permissible and requested copies of the signage from the Claimant which they have provided. The photographs do not show the procurement of a second ticket as against T&C’s and henceforth the parking charge notice is invalid.
5. Parts of the terms on the Claimant's signage are also displayed in a font which is too small to be read easily. It is, therefore, denied that the Claimant's signage is capable of creating a legally binding contract
6. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4, at Section 4(5) states that the maximum sum that may be recovered from the keeper is the charge stated on the Notice to Keeper, in this case £100. The claim is for a total of £208.04 (plus £25 court fee) which appears to be an attempt at double recovery.
7. In summary, it is the Defendant's position that the claim discloses no cause of action, is without merit, and has no real prospect of success. Accordingly, the Court is invited to strike out the claim of its own initiative, using its case management powers pursuant to CPR 3.4.

________________________________________
COSTS
________________________________________

The Defendant submits the following costs to be paid by the claimant. These costs are based on the Defendants hourly rate of £43.30.

1. Letter dated 17th October 2018 – 1 hour
2. Letter dated 14th March 2018 – 1 hour
3. Completion of AOS – 30 minutes
4. Time required to prepare and submit defence – 90 minutes

Total - £173.20

In addition, the Defendant wishes to claim their hourly rate for time spent attending the court, the total of which would be ascertained by the court on the day.

Should the Claimant wish to cancel the Parking Charge Notice and their pursuit of funds from the Defendant, the Defendant is prepared to waive their claim to the costs listed above and will consider the matter settled.

Le_Kirk

Costs are submitted separately further down the line (after defence, DQ, allocation to your local court and submission of witness statement and evidence. For guidance on defences, read the NEBWIE sticky post # 2 and you will find 17 prewritten defence examples. Use the one nearest to your situation and add/delete as appropriate.

Cemesis

I used a few of those examples to create the above. Do you think its insufficient?