going to court soon, counterclaim?

thegasmon

Firstly i admitt im leaving this late in the day, im juggling work and caring for a terminally ill member of my family so spare time is something i find hard to come across.

I have a court date at the start of march, i have to submit all documents by Jan the 4th. myself vs UK Car Park.

The details of the case are.... i parked on a gravel roadway in a position i had parked on several times before behind a house i was doing a days work on. a number of days later i got a PCN through the post. I did not see any signs on the day, apparenty there was one sign 2m above the ground half way down the roadway. This sign i did not see, there is no lighting on the land, over the sign and i drove onto the land at around 7.15-7.30 in Jan. It is pitch black apart from your cars dipped lights.

I have found out that the person who employed UK Car Park ltd was a private home owner who owns a property to the side of the land. I have found out that they told the parking firm and signed a form that they are the freehold owner of the gravel roadway. The roadway is infact under the control of the Crown Estate after the previous land owner a company was dissolved.

I can prove all of this, i have offical copies of deeds, title plans of the site. I have written evidence from letters between the crown estate and my customer and his solictors which the land is discussed as my customers is currently in the process of trying to buy the land. My customer and many of his neighbours had been parking on the land for many years, 20 in one neighbours case. It seem this person who employed the parking company had decided they were unhappy about the cars parking on the land and wanted to stop it.

the evidence against me is a photo of the back of my vehicle and a photo of the side of my vehicle which shows a small white patch in the background which could have been the sign high up on the post. its just a blurred white patch in the photo. These photos were taken in the daylight a few hours after i had parked and entered the property i was working on. Thew photos have two times stamped on them im guessing to try and suggest i was parked there for some time.

I hope this is enough information. What i want to ask is at this stage before court is how do i issue a counterclaim for my time spent and costs defending this?
Also can i add the person who told the parking firm they were the freehold owner of the land (i have the signed form with the persons name) to the counterclaim as a third party to the case?

I actually spoke to this person when visiting this site a few months ago to take pictures. At the time i did not know it was this person who got the parking company to issue the PCNs on the land. this person told me that the land did indeed belong to the crown and no them or any neighbors. They even went to my customers wedding knowing they had also received PNC's from the parking company.

any help or advise is appreciated greatly.


when i have some time i will upload my defence statement and some of the information i have to show everyone.

waamo

You don't counterclaim your expenses. You prepare an OST's schedule for the judge.

If you win you show your costs schedule to the judge who decides what to allow. Costs in a small claim are strictly limited so you may not actually get much.