VCS: Incorrect PCN Number issued

Curzoner

Update: I emailed with my new details on 8th January and heard nothing back so emailed today asking for acknowledgement of receipt. Also today checked my old address - I received a Claim Form on 4th January, meaning that I have until 23rd January to respond. Options are;
- admission form
- admission form and defence form
- defence form
- acknowledgement of service

As a reminder, it was a disabled bay with markings. I tried to pay within 14 days but the handwritten PCN number was missing a digit.

Any advice appreciated! Many thanks in advance.

Coupon-mad

Email now, and ask them 'Have you sent a claim to my old address'?*

It would be interesting if they fail to answer and hope you won't acknowledge it in time. You could then produce the email trail at the hearing as proof of wholly unreasonable conduct, contrary to the PAP and Practice Direction...


* even though you know they have.


You know what to do, the NEWBIES thread tells you!

- acknowledgement of service

BUT NOT before you email them tonight. Do the AOS on Monday...

Curzoner

Roger that - thanks. Have a good evening

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Curzoner

Hi KeithP - the issue date is 4th Jan, making the 'day of service' 9th Jan. So my 14 day deadline is 23rd Jan I reckon

KeithP

Curzoner wrote: »

Hi KeithP - the issue date is 4th Jan, making the 'day of service' 9th Jan. So my 14 day deadline is 23rd Jan I reckon

Yes, your calculation is good.


With a Claim Issue Date of 4th January, you have until Wednesday 23rd January to do the Acknowledgement of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. To do the AoS, follow the guidance offered in a Dropbox link from post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread.

Having done the AoS, you then have until 4pm on Wednesday 6th February 2019 to file your Defence.

That's nearly three weeks 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 the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread to find out exactly what to do with it.

Curzoner

V kind. The AOS process all makes sense. I guess what I stumble is on the actual defence. There are disabled bay markings - I can’t find anything specific to that under NEWBIES. Thanks

Coupon-mad

You don't have a great defence on paper...

But if you can show unreasonable conduct then the Judge might be prepared to listen, and these cases are always worth defending, not least because they cannot add the pretend £60+ costs they slap on top.

So even if someone like yourself loses, you'd pay less than if you gave up now!

It would help if you can show that they knowingly issued the claim to an old address and failed to reply to your frantic emails asking them to confirm they had updated your address for service, and specifically, when you asked (today) whether they had sent the claim to your old address.

And maybe they will also drop the ball on other Practice Direction matters, like not serving the WS in time.

I am not completely hopeful of you winning this one (NEVER stop in a disabled bay!) but I am hopeful that BW Legal will muck it up along the way and that you will be able to expose the added costs as wholly unfair.

As you won't be acknowledging the claim till Monday (as per my advice to do the email first to set a trail...) think about possibly ADMITTING part of the claim, £60?

Very rare to say that but maybe you admit £60 as you were happy to pay £60 and realise that you were parked inadvertently in a disabled bay, you believe, but were prevented from being able to pay that sum. And now the parking operator has added made-up out of thin air, unrecoverable sums on top, and in addition, served the claim to an old address, and failed to admit to that, or put it right and alert the D to the claim when asked by the D whether a claim had been served.

This conduct is wholly unreasonable, especially given the C uses a firm of solicitors who have a duty of care and duty for fairness/open dealing to a litigant in person, and whose first duty is to the court, but seemed quite content not to reply to the D's frantic emails in January and to remain silent, clearly in the hope that the D would not find and defend the claim in time.

I expect there is also an argument that the £100 parking charge was not advertised at those bays anyway. So you could have another point:

The partial admission of £60 of the claim is because evidence has shown there were some faded marks on the road but the D now realises that there appear to be no contractual signs. So at no point could it be said, in contract law, that the driver entered into a contract to pay a known sum. The C is put to strict proof of the positioning of full terms at the disabled bays, given the importance of clear contractual information at that place (perhaps more than other corners of the car park) and that is why the D did not notice that this was a disabled bay, or agree to any contract at all.

That gives you a possible case, where a Judge might agree there were no contractual terms nearby, so even if you were in a disabled bay you were not alerted to any contract or penalty. And whilst the parking was not to be condoned, there was no contract - and you would win.

And if the DJ is not with you on that, you can point to your repeated attempts to pay £60, thwarted by the Claimant at every turn, and that you admitted to £60 so that is all the C should be awarded, especially given their conduct re the service of the claim and not alerting you to it, when you asked. That in itself warrants sanctions against the Claimant...

Curzoner

Thanks v much for the above. So I issued a part admission offering to pay 60 plus half the court fees (not proud of that) stating that I had tried to pay the ticket but their failure to write the PCN number properly has prevented that. And that they were slow to respond to my change of address. Anyway they were awarded the CCJ. What parasites. So there it is...

Astounded at the lack of backbone of our legal system, and their clear collusion with the operators. Sad.

KeithP

There seems to be something missing here?

Did you file a Defence?
I guess not as the timescale seems too compact.

A Judgment by Default I guess, as no Defence offered?