I have received my first letter from - The County Court

johnybags

Good afternoon,

I had been going to hospital following a motorbike accident, resulting in a lacerated quadricep, to attend my followup appointments.
When arriving at the hospital car park in my raised Automatic Nissan Navara pickup with roof lights measuring:
- Crew Cab: 70.1 in (1,781 mm)
- Lift Kit: 5 in (127 mm)
- Spot Lights: 9 in (228.6 mm)
* Total Height: 84.1 in (2136.14 mm) *

Would not fit into the 82.6772 in (2100mm) height limited multi story car park and the only other parking i could use due to not having use of my leg was external parking designated as disabled parking. (fitting considering my condition at the time)
upon parking I located and explained my situation to the parking warden paroling the car park to witch he said he couldn't see a problem (I know I cant produce evidence of this so not sure if i can do anything) after going for my appointment i made it to my car and found a PCN attached to the windscreen.
After dealing with a couple of these in the past i proceed with the 'IGNORE THE DEBT COLLECTORS' hoping that it would just be dropped.

However I have just received a letter from County court business centre saying that Gladstones on behalf of Gemini wish to make a claim for £149.47 and £25 court fee, £50 legal costs totalling £224.74

I have followed stage 1 and acknowledged service allowing me an extra bit of time and now I would welcome and appreciate any advice on how to fight this case.

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

nosferatu1001

What is the DATE OF ISSUE of your claim form?
That plus 33 days is your deadline

SImple, you will fight on two sections:
1) You were perfectly entitleed to use the space as you had a long term disabilty meeting the protections under Equality Act 2010. The space was reaosnable for you to use
2) Promissory Estoppel. The parking attendnet (not a warden, they dont have stat powers) authorised you to park there. The company cannot then later claim otherwise.
YOu will require attendence on the day of their employee, as a witness, and you require them to dislose their records of who was working that day

I presume at no point you eve rcontacted them? The advice was NOT to totally ignore everything, jsut ignore *debt collectors* - not the PPC or the inevitable LBA you also ignored.
That counts against you
As deos not complaining to PALS at the time

The_Deep

£225 is more than the Law allows for this sort of claim. The down market solicitors whom the PPCs engage know this, but, because they are solicitors, know that a lot of people will pay up.

It is in fact double charging and non claimable debt collectors' add ons. Imo, this is fraud, or, at the very least, improper conduct.

Were this to get to court and they won, the judge would be unlikely to award the claimant more than £175 - £200.

I urge you to report this grubby law firm to their regulatory body, the SRA.

https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/content.page

as I am sure they do not condone this conduct. Also, please complain to your MP

It is the will of Parliament that these scammers be put out of business. Hopefully that will take place in the near future. The Bill has passed through the HOC without hitch, and goes to the Lords soon. In the meantime involve your MP, the poor dears are buckling under the weight of complaints about these scammers. Read this one which I wrote earlier

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 Third Reading in late November, and, with a fair wind, will become Law next year.

All three readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 6-7 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.

johnybags

The issue date is 10/12/2018

My leg was usable after about 3 months does this count as long term disability?

Yes I totally ignored all letters and didn't read most of them at least I know for next time.

KeithP

johnybags wrote: »

The issue date is 10/12/2018.

With a Claim Issue Date of 10th December, and the Acknowledgement of Service done in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 14th January 2019 to file your Defence.

That's 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 [URL="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread[/URL] to find out exactly what to do with it.