Court Claim Received - PLEASE HELP

RT1975

Hello all,
I really hope someone can help me with my situation.

In August 2018, my vehicle was at a garage for a few days being services and tyers changed. During this time, one of the garage employees parked my car in a retail park.

In October i received a "FINAL DEMAND" letter from ES Parking Enforcement. I was ofcourse shocked to see this as i had never received a first letter initially! So i wrote to them explaining that i was not in possession of the vehicle on the incident date and that my garage had my vehicle who were willing to pay off the charge if the sent me a copy of their first letter.
I did not get a response from them. The additional PCN details on this letter state "Leaving a site whilst in a 'Free Parking Whilst in Premises only Car park' ".
The next thing i know is that i have received a Letter before claim from Gladstones! So i got onto their website and completed a reply form and again explained the whole situation and informed them that the garage has already agreed to pay the initial charge but ES parking has not sent me the copy of letter that i had requested and they have not responded to me.
Again, i did not get a response to this from gladstones, and so i called them and and i emailed them as well advising that i had filled up their reply form and that i still hadnt had a response from them. i have the copy of my email to them.
Still no response from them! Instead i have now received a Court Claim form and i have no idea what to do!
The particulars of the claim are as follows:
"The driver of vehicle registration XXXX incurred the parking charge on 25/08/18 for breaching the terms of parking on the land at XXX retail park. The defendant was driving the vehicle and/or is the keeper of the vehicle and the claimant claims £160 for parking charges / Damages and Indemnity costs if applicable together with interest of £2.42 pursuant to s69 of the County Courts act 1984 at a 8% pa, continuing to Judgement at £0.40 per day.

I will be so very grateful if somebody could help me with my defence; i do not have a clue where to begin and how to word it.

I really appreciate your time and effort on reading this thread.

many thanks

Fruitcake

You need to follow the guide to court from post 2 of the NEWBIES that has a step by step guide from LBC to the court appearance itself.

In your response to the LBC, you tell the scammers solicitor's the information about you not being the keeper at the time of the alleged incident, and since the scammers know who it is, they should cease and desist immediately.
Include any written proof from the garage (who should be defending this as day to day keeper, not paying the scammers, but that is their decision).

Complain to the SRA if they don't.

Complain to the DVLA about the scammers misuse of your personal data.

Complain to your MP about this unregulated scam.

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Redx

as well as the DATE OF ISSUE, post the full breakdown of charges they are claiming, plus the total claimed , because the initial charge was NOT £160 , it was £100 or less

have you done the AOS online yet, on the government portal ?

and send a SAR by email asap to the DPO at E S PARKING, to get all their data and docs they hold on you and your vehicle

check your V5C has the correct address and name on it, and check that it did before this incident took place (in case you moved in the meantime or whatever ?)

there must be some reason why you never received the NTK about it

RT1975

Issue date on court claim is 10th Dec 2018 but i have called them and asked for more allowance to prepare claim which they have granted.

Redx

log in online to MCOL and ensure the AOS has been done, as they dont normally do it over the phone

send the SAR I mentioned in my previous reply asap as well, by email
also check all the other advice in my last reply as well


the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread will help you with all of this, so study it

KeithP

RT1975 wrote: »

Issue date on court claim is 10th Dec 2018 but i have called them and asked for more allowance to prepare claim which they have granted.

I wonder what that means?

Does it mean that you have done the Acknowledgement of Service before 31st December 2018, or does it mean something else?


With a Claim Issue Date of 10th December, you had until Monday 31st December to do the Acknowledgement of Service.

Hopefully having done the AoS in time, you now have until 4pm on Monday 14th January 2019 to file your Defence.

That's less than two weeks away. Loads of time to produce a good 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.

RT1975

Breakdown of charges on the claim form is as follows:
- Amount claimed £162.42
- Court Fee - £25
- Legal representatives costs - £50
- Total amount - £237.42

Redx

so the first figure has been artificially inflated as the charge on the sign would have been £100 at most , so inflated with debt colelctor fees that are not recoverable

RT1975

Thank you KeithP and RedX for your responses.
Yes I have done the AOS and the deadline for defence is 14th January.
I am currently reading through the Newbies posts, I haven’t found anything that particularly applies to my case I.e not being the keeper of the vehicle at the time of incident as well as not getting any responses from the company or Gladstone’s.

I was wondering since Gladstone’s has claimed they have not received my appeal (even though I have an email confirmation of this as well as a separate email to inform them that I haven’t received a response from them); should I try to maybe write to them in the lines of informing them they have not followed “protocol” of responding to my claim and that I am preparing a defence against them for the court proceedings which they will lose; therefore to advise their client to cancel all charges ... etc something along those lines and email it to them and send with registered post? Is there a chance at all they will cancel court?

I will not pay them a penny however I work as a locum pharmacist therefore taking a day to go to court will be equal to me losing that days full wage; shall I mention anything about a counter claim should it come to going to court?

I appreciate your responses.
Many thanks

Redx

it will cost you for a counter claim and must be done when the defence is submitted, with the fee up front

I doubt you will be going down that road, unless you have deep pockets and are prepared to do so if you have a legal case against them, which usually nobody does

you need to start with the BARGEPOLE concise defence and add extras into it that make your own case bespoke, dont just expect to find a ready made case that you can copy and paste in 5 minutes

you arer wasting your time contacting or threatening GLADRAGS , they are following their clients instructions and will conitnue to do so, you may as well be CANUTE commanding the tide to stay out at the WASH

GLADRAGS dont accept appeals, they are a solicitors who deal with legal documents for their clients

concentrate on your defence, not retribution, as your judgment is being clouded by your outrage and your last post proves to me that you do not understand this game you are playing, not yet anyway