Notice of Discontinuance - Claiming Costs

chad888

I read the main sticky and the 2 notices for costs as examples. It talks about no costs claimed through small claims unless the other side acted inappropriately etc. I don't know if that counts in this case...

Initially the court didn't receive my defence so a judgement was made against me. I paid £255 for it to be set aside which was a day from work.to attend court, the other party didn't attend.

It went back through the small claims track where and the date was set, we had the 14 days before trial to serve the witness statements. The claimant posted theirs on the 14th day so that i recieved it 12 days before trial. Because of that i had to write a poor coverall witness statement and so then I had another day visiting the court, wages lost. Because the witness statement didnt cover the points i argued on the day (because i didnt know what they were claiming initially) the judge adjoruned the case so i could write a new witness statement.

Ive done that and posted them. I then got a letter 10 days prior to the new hearing saying that it is discontinued.

I'm not good at writing things, especially in convincing legal terms (except my witness statement that was absolutely amazing if i do say so :rotfl:) can anybody with practice give some pointers

My costs so far:

£255 set aside initial fee
£246.56 lost wages during set aside for an 8 hour day at 30.82 per hour with wage slips included
£12.60 the mileage to attend set aside 0.45 per mile
£5.80 parking for the set aside
£10 for the cost of printing off and 1st class recorded delivery posting 2 witness statements for the initial hearing
£246.56 lost wages during hearing that was adjourned for an 8 hour day at 30.82 per hour with wage slips included
£12.60 the mileage to attend the adjourned hearing 0.45 per mile
£5.80 parking for the adjourned hearing
£10 for the cost of printing off the reproduced witness statement and 1st class recorded delivery posting 2 witness statements for the second hearing

Total so far that I am out of pocket: £804.92

How much of that am I allowed to claim back?

onlyfoolsandparking

Think it would help the regulars if you say who the PPC is, nice to get notice of discontinuance though well done

chad888

It was Gladstones as an agent, using Elm Legal in court and Horizon the PPC. From what i've experienced and seen, not 3 companies that you would expect to cancel and would chase any sort of lost cause.

onlyfoolsandparking

chad888 wrote: »

It was Gladstones as an agent, using Elm Legal in court and Horizon the PPC. From what i've experienced and seen, not 3 companies that you would expect to cancel and would chase any sort of lost cause.

Maybe Gladrags are finally getting the message(I highly doubt it) that they are as thick as stumps but nothing surprises me with so called "Legal" companies that are involved with PPC,s


I suppose you could issue a claim against them, others on here would be able to advise more suitably than me but hey why not it would cost you £60 (if done online) to issue a claim up to a £1000.

KeithP

onlyfoolsandparking wrote: »

Think it would help the regulars if you say who the PPC is...

That information is available in one of the other many threads the OP has started about this saga.

It has been suggested many times that the OP should continue to progress the issue in one thread, but even right to the very end we see yet another thread started.

:wall: :wall: :wall: :wall:

Coupon-mad

Put in a letter with that costs schedule attached and write to the Judge reminding him/her that you attended two hearings and paid for a set aside to get this far, then the Claimant just walked away, discontinued a week before the final hearing.

Use words like this after your introduction para as shown above:

A regular litigant such as this parking firm Claimant, using their Trade Body connected Solicitor, should not be able to walk away the week before trial, having cost a consumer some 10x the unfair parking charge that was the subject of the case.

If they intended to discontinue they should have been open about it at the adjourned hearing, where costs could have been dealt with on the day.

This fundamental injustice and the vexatious nature of this typical cut & paste 'one size fits all' parking charge robo-claim, with no checks being made at any stage about the facts, and using a template copy Witness Statement that failed to show that the Claimant had any claim in law, cannot be described as 'trivial' conduct and that the Claimant cannot just run away the week before the final hearing and expect relief from sanctions.

The Defendant avers that this poorly pleaded claim with no detail in the Particulars, and no 'legitimate interest' shown at any point that could have saved this charge from the penalty rule, when considered alongside the context of the late service of their Witness Statement, and then the extremely late discontinuance (after I had already booked my third day off work to fight this matter) amounts to an attempt to ambush a litigant in person with allegations never pleaded in the Particulars, then abandon that Defendant with the burden of costs.

This is a gross abuse of process, and that sanctions should be imposed. The Defendant relies upon para 41 of Mitchell v. News Group Newspapers Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 1537, [2014] 1 WLR 795 which is re-iterated in para 24 of Denton v T H White Ltd [2014] EWCA Civ 906, and asks for costs on the indemnity basis.

Costs Schedule attached which includes the reserved costs from the set aside application.

waamo

OP what's the background to all this?

Coupon-mad

Threads need merging, as this new thread isn't helping us to help you best.

OP please ask Crabman or soolin to do that.

KeithP

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Threads need merging, as this new thread isn't helping us to help you best.

OP please ask Crabman or soolin to do that.

That suggestion has been made many times before.

See here:

waamo wrote: »

Cut and paste this into your existing thread. Nobody wants to go searching through multiple threads to read the background.

and here:

Redx wrote: »

pm soolin or crabman and ask them to merge this thread into your previous ongoing thread

and here:

Quentin wrote: »

If this is related to your other thread then you don't need a new thread!

Copy and paste your post into your original thread and let this one die

and here:

Quentin wrote: »

Please get this thread merged and don't keep posting here as requested

Mr Cottom has ignored every single time.

onlyfoolsandparking

KeithP wrote: »

That suggestion has been made many times before.

See here:

and here:

and here:

and here:


Mr Cottom has ignored every single time.

And I can definitely see how and why you regulars get frustrated, come on NEW POSTERS, USE YOUR EYES AND HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

waamo

onlyfoolsandparking wrote: »

And I can definitely see how and why you regulars get frustrated, come on NEW POSTERS, USE YOUR EYES AND HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup, people will ignore the advice we give then come back weeks later saying they can't ignore bog paper sent in the post and need to pay.