Gladstones letter before claim - On the verge of giving in

The_Deep

I am struggling to understand why your G/F's lease is unhelpful.
What precisely does it say about visitors requiring a permit? How would it support the scammer? Have to read this

https://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2016/11/residential-parking.html

You say that she owns the space. If so how can she be contractually bound to a third party contractor?

beamerguy

Motocross446 wrote: »

Hi all

Very quick question as I am preparing my defence for my 2nd claim. (Have a court date early Sep for the first one)

This one I was parked in my friends space that she owns, she was out and I didn't have access to her permit for a couple of hours so I put a notice in my windscreen explaining this and asking them not to give me a ticket, low and behold a couple of hours late I came down with the permit to find a ticket on my car.

Obviously I should have known better with these people and I have learnt my lesson to not expect them to have a shred of common sense and decency!

Anyway, does this change my defence in any way? Does this work against me or in my favour and should I make a big deal about it in my defence or keep it minimal?

Thanks!

And what about the fake £60 Gladstones has added ??
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6014081/abuse-of-process-district-judge-tells-bwlegal

Motocross446

Thanks, waiting for my friend to send me her leasehold documentation.

I am ready and excited to include the abuse of process! Was too late to get it in my first defence but made sure to get it in my court docs and witness statement when I do it

Motocross446

Hi all

Got my court date very soon. Just to confirm do I need to send my expenses in case I win before hand or do I just take to the court with me as I have seen conflicting posts on here?

Feeling very unprepared as I had an exam this week and they always take precedent over these a holes but got the weekend for last minute prep.

Thanks

Le_Kirk

You should submit a costs schedule to the court and claimant a few days beforehand. Take a copy with you and proof of earnings if you are claiming for loss of salary.

Redx

submit the costs scedule with your WS + Exhibits , so a couple of weeks before


take a copy with you and also proof of any costs , such as wage slips , parking receipt on the day etc

Motocross446

Here we go:

I arrived 30 minutes early and sat in the very uncomfortable seats for 15 minutes silently hoping their rep wouldn’t turn up. A middle aged lady then arrived and was initially directed her to another case which got my hopes up but they then soon pointed her in my direction. She shook my hand and sat down and started asking me questions. I was very wary, her second question was so you admit you were parked in the space? To which I asked if we needed to discuss the matter here and can we just wait for the judge to which she shouted at the guy behind the desk that we were ready to go in.

A few minutes of waiting in which she spoke to the attendant and name dropped pretty much every judge that she knew at the courts, including how her son was an MP for one of the local constituents.
In the brief conversation we had she scoffed about most people’s copy and paste defences and that usually the judge will say ‘let’s forget the defence and just focus on the facts’ to which I replied about how BW legal do exactly the same thing and I find it hilarious that they include the paragraph about copying and pasting defences in their reply to every defence in their roboclaims which she didn’t seem to like.
She then went on to rubbish online info and how most people that provide advice online don’t actually know what they’re talking about and provide out of date advice. (Didn’t shake me at all. However I did later think that it was nothing like I had expected from what I had read and seen of other peoples cases)

We were shortly called in to the judge’s chambers where he proceeded to question me. (Luckily it was a judge she had never been before) First thing I brought up was the rep’s right to audience to which the judge said ‘so what’s your problem with her?’ and was not impressed, she stated that she was the rep and he was happy. (Did I ask that wrong because they made me feel pretty stupid?)
But cracked on with my defence, the judge basically then broke it down:
You admit you were parked in your girlfriends space? Yes
You were provided with a permit to use? Yes
Were you displaying the permit? No
This is when I started to realise it was not going to go in my favour haha.

I felt like the judge was taking pity on me slightly and he had mentioned the original charges of £60 and £100 of the original tickets so I was hoping he would only find me liable for the £100. (I mentioned the falsely inflated £60 charge and he said we’ll come to that later)

I actually struggled to get any words in! He then let me bring up the whole wrong address on the letter before claim and gave me a really hard time about not having appealed when I first got the ticket. I tried the whole ‘I was told years ago that you can ignore private parking tickets’ to which he laughed at me and went on to bring that up about 20 times throughout the proceedings. I then argued that the appeals process is totally pointless and that there is no way they would reverse the charge, to which he made the fair point that it would be better if I was stood there with evidence that I had even tried their appeals process.

After what felt like a good 30 minutes grilling me he moved on to the rep. One of the first things out of her mouth was ‘unfortunately there was an administrative error and the address is partially wrong’ to which he realised the address was wrong in the claim particulars (a large part of my defence) and practically laughed at her. She said she had advised her clients to apply to have them changed but they were happy with them as they were as a judge had already seen this at the allocation stage and had not mentioned anything.
Big mistake. The judge lost it and asked if she thought that should be the judges job to make sure they can get their claim forms right? I was trying not to laugh at this point.
He quite aggressively asked if she wanted to make an oral application to amend the particulars to which she sheepishly replied ‘it’s not what my clients asked for’ and he asked her about 4 times. Eventually she said yes of her own back she would like to apply to amend them to which he said a few legal terms and declined her request.
I was feeling much better at this point!
As she read through more of her directions she realised that they had tasked her with changing the particulars and you could see the ‘oh sh*t moment on her face as she knew it was her mess up.
The judge then said as the particulars are wrong and he had denied her oral request and she hadn’t even made the request at the start of the hearing he had no choice but to throw the claim out!!

I put forward my cost schedule totalling over £200. He only awarded me half a day of lost earnings as it was a morning hearing and I could have gone back to work. I argued that I was unsure how long it would take and I had heard there could be a long waiting time, the rep argued that it was listed as an hour on the court docs. He allowed my mileage and parking claim (pointed out the irony of them paying for my parking). Didn’t allow any of my research hours (I had claimed what I thought was a reasonable 5 hours) or admin/ stationary costs. So awarded me well under half of my original costs put forward.

He did however to go on and say that there probably is the basis of a valid claim in here somewhere and if they had managed to get their claim together it might have been very different and they may wish to re-file.

Overall I definitely wouldn’t go as far to say it was an experience I enjoyed, but an experience none the less and I tried not to grin from ear to ear as I said goodbye to the rep and asked her how they wanted to settle my costs.

Le_Kirk

Good report and a good win. Well done.

beamerguy

Motocross446 great result :j

What is the matter with BWLegal sending a wannabee Perry Mason on heat to court.

Loved this bit ...
She then went on to rubbish online info and how most people that provide advice online don’t actually know what they’re talking about and provide out of date advice

Is that right, it is this forum that gets BWLegal spanked so all praise to copy and paste. At least our copy and paste is better than BWLegal:rotfl:

He did not get around to the fake £60 that BWLegal apply.
No worries, if he did it would be the same result

Who was the Judge, which court and case number please

WELL DONE:beer::beer:

Motocross446

Thanks Beamerguy!

Perry Mason on heat :rotfl:

No, I meant to ask him at the end about the £60 but forgot and ended up only discussing the expenses. I was too keen to get out of there haha. What do you think he would have said about the £60? Refused to award that part of the claim or thrown it out?

I'm apprehensive to post the details because I have potentially 2 more of these tickets to defend! I've probably already posted enough for them to find it but I don't want to make it too easy for them. Plus I can't remember the judges name so will have to wait for the paperwork.