County Court Claim Form

Jules86

Hi all, I,ve just received a county court claim form following some ignored letters from Vehicle Control Services.

I have not replied to any letters previous to this one. Obviously this one does require my attention.

I had parked briefly one evening, for around 15-20 mins in a permit holders only carpark (which was empty)

Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks.

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Did it come from the County Court Business Centre in Northampton or from somewhere else?

Jules86

The date on the form is the 9th Jan 2019.
It looks like its from Northampton.
The court address is:
County Court Business Centre
St Kathrine's House
21-27 St Kathrine's street
NN1 2LH

KeithP

Jules86 wrote: »

The date on the form is the 9th Jan 2019.

With a Claim Issue Date of 9th January, you have until Monday 28th 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 have until 4pm on Monday 11th February 2019 to file your Defence.

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

Jules86

Ok, fantastic, thanks for that. That sounds easy enough to do.
Do you have any advice on preparing a defence? Or any links to good advice.

I'm a complete novice when it comes to this sort of thing, and after googling, and reading through several forums etc I'm more confused than when I started.

A couple of points I've picked up on is that their issuing this to me as the registered keeper, not the driver (they have no indication as to the driver)
And that being a permit holders car park, not a payment car park this would come under a 'tresspass' and would only be able to be pursued by the land owner, or occupier.

I'm not sure if this is correct, or relevant. I'm also not sure how I would present this as a defence.

KeithP

I won't get into the details of whether or not trespass is applicable, but just point you generally towards post #2 of the NEWBIES thread.

There's a link to that thread in my earlier post - twice, in fact.

In there you will find answers to most of the questions you are likely to ask about the process from where you are now right through to any court hearing.

There are several examples of Defences linked from that post, any one of which can be adapted to your situation.

onlyfoolsandparking

The experienced regulars will help you with defence etc but you will have to put the work in, nobody will write the defence for you but they will help you fine tune it BEFORE you need to send it


Your best option now is to learn a lot more about the game you are now involved in to give you the best chance of beating these parking scammers in Court so go to NEWBIES section and read read read.


Good luck with it, you can beat this scamvoice if you are willing to get stuck in.