County Court Claim - Gladstones

Umkomaas

beanparking wrote: »

Incident Date is 26/11/17, the issued date is 8/12/17. So I'm guessing that's a no go?

To the contrary. You have to receive the NtK by day 14 after the parking event, with that day being day 0.

So you start the count from Monday 27/11/7 as day 1.

8/12/17 = day12 (Friday)

The NtK is presumed delivered 2 working days later (Sat 9/12 and Sun 10/12 are days 13 and 14 respectively), so the date the NtK is presumed delivered is Tuesday 12/12/17 which just happens to be 16 days after the parking event - and cannot therefore hold the keeper liable.

These are the bald facts. I haven't read through your defence or WS, but at any point did you dispute Keeper Liability?

beanparking

Umkomaas wrote: »

These are the bald facts. I haven't read through your defence or WS, but at any point did you dispute Keeper Liability?

I haven't submitted my WS yet, but my defence stated as its first point:

1. The Defendant never received any Notice to Keeper from the Claimant. The first communication the Defendant received was a letter dated 15/02/2018 (through DRP debt management). The Defendant puts the Claimant to strict proof that it issued a compliant notice to keeper under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. Absent such a notice served within 14 days of the parking event and with fully compliant statutory wording, this Claimant is unable to hold the Defendant liable under the strict ‘keeper liability’ provisions of Schedule 4 of POFA.


What does this mean for my approach here? I'm guessing I amend my WS to point this out?

Umkomaas

Yes, go to town on this. You'll need to understand the point (which I've tried to help explain) so you can lead the Judge through it if he/she is not too clued up on the technicality.

It's a similar technicality (albeit yours is a private parking civil case, not a Police prosecution for a speeding charge) to that which saw [STRIKE]Sir[/STRIKE] (oops) David Beckham escape a fine and driving licence points.

beanparking

Umkomaas wrote: »

Yes, go to town on this. You'll need to understand the point (which I've tried to help explain) so you can lead the Judge through it if he/she is not too clued up on the technicality.

It's a similar technicality (albeit yours is a private parking civil case, not a Police prosecution for a speeding charge) to that which saw [STRIKE]Sir[/STRIKE] (oops) David Beckham escape a fine and driving licence points.

Amazing. Is the 2 days delivery time an assumption based on precedent, or is this something they could potentially dispute (saying it was sent first class/next-day delivery)?

Also, how does this relate to whether I defend myself as the driver or not (as per Coupon-mad's replies)?

Umkomaas

Amazing. Is the 2 days delivery time an assumption based on precedent, or is this something they could potentially dispute (saying it was sent first class/next-day delivery)?

No, it's specifically from the Law of this country - enshrined in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Schedule 4), para 9. You really need to be all over this stuff now. We won't be there in the courtroom with you! Have you read PoFA (Schedule 4)?

(6)A notice sent by post is to be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, to have been delivered (and so “given” for the purposes of sub-paragraph (4)) on the second working day after the day on which it is posted; and for this purpose “working day” means any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday in England and Wales.

Also, how does this relate to whether I defend myself as the driver or not (as per Coupon-mad's replies)?

This is what CM said (note the emboldened sentence).

Now, it might be easier to defend as driver, but wait to see their evidence first to see if they include a NTK copy.

CM was hoping the NtK might not be PoFA compliant, and as I've found that chink in the armour (as above), I'm sure CM will be encouraging you to defend as the keeper.

Hopefully she will be along later and comment.

Coupon-mad

You should continue to defend as KEEPER then, so quickly adjust that WS.

Points 1, 2 and 5 talk about ''I'' and ''my'' and will need editing.

You need to take a nicely organised file to the court, with a contents page and the date of the hearing clearly marked on the front of the file.

Not some paper held together with paperclips or loose in an envelope.

beanparking

Coupon-mad wrote: »

You should continue to defend as KEEPER then, so quickly adjust that WS.

Points 1, 2 and 5 talk about ''I'' and ''my'' and will need editing.

You need to take a nicely organised file to the court, with a contents page and the date of the hearing clearly marked on the front of the file.

Not some paper held together with paperclips or loose in an envelope.

Thank you. Would you explicitly state that I am unable to confirm whether I was the driver at the time, as the period of time between the event and receiving notice was too long, or simply amend the text so that it doesn't say 'I was driving/I parked' etc.?

In terms of delivering the WS, as it is due today, my plan was to post it first class to both parties and email to Gladstones in addition. Alternatively, I could deliver to the court by hand? Any advice here?

Also, I won't have time today to get a file but will do my best to organise properly.

beanparking

Here is a copy of my updated (redacted) Witness Statement. If anyone would be able to review this, it would be greatly appreciated! I need to get this finalised at some point this morning, so if I can get any notes in a timely fashion I will be incredibly grateful.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5j30xbyqq0znv1/Witness%20Statement-Redacted.docx?dl=0

Umkomaas

To my untrained eye it looks ok (but I admit to getting a bit lost on the Beavis stuff in my admitted skim read).

A couple of points.

1. Don't put web links into the WS. So you need to print out and attach as evidence Schedule 4 of PoFA. It's only about 4 pages. I don't mean the whole of PoFA - that runs to 280 pages or thereabouts, the bulk of which has nothing whatsoever to do with parking!

2. Para 12 - 'sites' should read 'cites'

You must deliver by hand the court's copy to ensure you are not in breach of their directions to submit by today.

That's it from me.

beanparking

Thank you! Does anyone know if Gladstones will accept via email?