Gladstones letter before claim - On the verge of giving in

The_Deep

Umkomaas wrote: »

Between 60-80 cases every single day, ad nauseam. Endless!

And probably over 90% could have been avoided by using google and reading the stickies.

The_Deep

Get your MP on board as well.

The whole industry is a scam, relying on threats of court, and the public's ignorance of the Law, A bill is currently before parliament which will regulate the scammers, many of whom are ex-clampers.

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers.

Sir Greg Knight's Private Members Bill to curb the excesses, and perhaps close down, some of these companies passed its Second Reading in the Lords this month, and, with a fair wind, will l become Law later this year..

All five readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 7-8 hours), and published in Hansard. MPs have an extremely low opinion of the industry. Many are complaining that they are becoming overwhelmed by complaints from members of the public. Add to their burden, complain in the most robust terms about the scammers.

Motocross446

Thanks all

Coupon mad -
I have just checked the claim form and it lists the same address, a completely different property management company that is not somewhere I, nor my car have ever been. Am I right in assuming that the claim particulars should list the actual location where the ticket was put on my car?

I will have a look at the other defences.


KeithP -
Issue date is 21st Feb 19 and yes from the County court business office in Northampton

KeithP

Motocross446 wrote: »

Issue date is 21st Feb 19 and yes from the County court business office in Northampton

With a Claim Issue Date of 21st February, you have until Tuesday 12th March 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 link from post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread.

Having done the AoS, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 26th March 2019 to file your Defence.

That's over a month away. Loads of time to produce a perfect Defence, but don't leave it to the very 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 "defended". If not chase the CCBC until it is.
   
6. Do not be surprised to receive a copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire, they are just trying to put 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.

Coupon-mad

I have just checked the claim form and it lists the same address, a completely different property management company that is not somewhere I, nor my car have ever been. Am I right in assuming that the claim particulars should list the actual location where the ticket was put on my car?

Yes.

So you can include a point that the Defendant has never visited the location of xxxxxx xxxxxx stated in the Particulars.

Motocross446

Hi all

I know I have left it slightly last minute but I am now putting the last parts of my defence together. Just a quick question, do I make the arguments that I have for the actual PCN that was issued in my girlfriends parking space, fobbed entry etc, or do I just purely focus on the fact that I have never been to the location that is in the claim particulars and was on the letter I got from BW? (They got the address completely wrong) And therefore avoid any references to my girlfriends space?

Thanks

D_P_Dance

I would throw the kitchen sink at them.l

KeithP

You've been researching/writing it for over three weeks now. Show us your draft Defence when you are ready.

Motocross446

With work/study/exams I admit I haven't put as much time and effort in to this as I would have liked, but here's what I have so far:

Defence:
My Name
My Address
21/03/2019
IN THE COUNTY COURT
Claim number: XXXXXXXX

Between:
Claimant: Parking and Property Management Ltd
-and-
Defendant: My name

Preliminary
1. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.
2. The Particulars of Claim lack specificity. The Defendant reserves the right to seek from the Court permission to serve an Amended Defence should the Claimant amend their Particulars in any way at a later stage of these proceedings and/or to limit the Claimant only to the allegations in the Particulars.

Part A – Double recovery
1. 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 that figure is £100. The claim includes an additional £60 as ‘contractual costs’ which is clearly explained as the cost of passing the case to their legal department (debt collectors) on the letters I have received. They have then added a further £50 as legal representative’s costs.
2. According to Ladak v DRC Locums UKEAT/0488/13/LA the claimant can only recover the direct and provable costs of the time spent on preparing the claim in a legal capacity, not any administration costs allegedly incurred by already remunerated clerical staff working for a firm of solicitors in issuing robo-claims.
3. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4, 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 includes an additional £60 fee, which has been described as “contractual costs”, “legal costs” and a “debt recovery instruction fee” on separate occasions. The claim also includes a separate £50 “legal representative’s cost”. This appears to be an attempt at double recovery. Not only are such costs not permitted by CPR 27.14, but the Defendant believes that the Claimant has not incurred legal costs. Given the fact that BW Legal boasted in Bagri v BW Legal Ltd of processing ‘millions’ of claims with an admin team and only a handful of solicitors, the Defendant avers that no solicitor is likely to have supervised this current batch of cut and paste robo-claims at all, on the balance of probabilities.
4. It was held in the Supreme Court in Beavis (where £85 was claimed, and no more) that a private parking charge already includes a very significant and high percentage in profit and more than covers the costs of running an automated regime of template letters. It is also a fact that debt collection agencies act on a no-win-no-fee basis for parking operators, so no such costs have been incurred in truth. Thus, there can be no 'damages' to pile on top of any parking charge claim, nor 'indemnity costs if applicable', whatever that vague phrase may mean. The Claimant knows this, as do their solicitors who charge little or no fee to many parking regulation companies. The Defendant asks that the Court takes judicial notice of this repeated abuse of consumers rights and remedies, caused by parking regulation companies and solicitors artificially inflating their robo-claims.


Part B – Reasons behind disputing the charges
1. The contravention location listed in the claim ‘Address of random property management company that is not even in the same county as where I was parked’ is not an address I have ever visited and I have a signed witness statement from my girlfriend stating I was in (town my girlfriend lives in) all day on the date of (issue date). When I received the first letter from BW Legal I contacted them to question this address (date of my email) and to try and discuss the charge. All I received was a standard copy/paste letter from them, which in no way addressed the issue, and even includes pictures of my car parked in a different location at the date of issue to the contravention location stated in the claim particulars. Very shortly after that (date of claim issue, 9 days after my email) I was surprised to receive the county court claim.
2. The particulars of the ticket that I was hoping to discuss with BW Legal before they hastily filed the court claim are as follows:
- I was parked in my girlfriends allocated space, which only she is allowed to park in
- To even enter the car park you need a fob, which only the residents possess
- My car has been parked in the same spot every weekend for months
- I merely forgot to display the parking permit for a couple of hours, it was still in my car just not on my dashboard
- Due to unfortunate previous health problems I sometimes struggle with my short term memory (happy to provide more details)
Given all of the above and the very fact the parking enforcement company are in place to ensure the happiness and quality of living of the residents, not to severely punish them for making very minor mistakes, the ticket that was issued and the resulting court claim are incredibly unfair.

STATEMENT OF TRUTH
I confirm that the contents of this defence are true.


Let me know what you think

Thanks

Le_Kirk

If that is a defence, it should be written in the Third Person. The most important points of your defence go first. Did you check out any of the concisely written defences by Bargepole and/or Coupon-mad in the NEWBIE section post # 2? If not, I would and then compare what you have written to those and then adapt one to suit, making sure you cover/refute all the claims made by the claimant.