County Court Claim Form

avocalady

Hi,
Please can you help? I received a County Court claim Form issued on 10th Jan for an unpaid parking ticket. The claim is from Britannia Parking and the legal firm BW legal. The amount they are asking is £200 from an original fine of £70. I have read the newbie thread and tried to follow it. I have asked for a SAR and have registered intent to defend the claim.

Please help as I am a single Mum and trying to deal with this on my own.
Thanks.

nosferatu1001

No, you have not done the wrong thing. You did exactly as the thread told you, so why do you think it is now wrong??

You know you have 33 days from 10th jan to get your defence in
This gives you around 2 weeks. LOTS of time, as there are LOTS of Britannia Parking defences being constructed on here.

If it was from >2 years ago, pretty safe bet Britannia do NOT have POFA2012 compliance right, meaning YOU as KEEPER do not have any liabilty 0- only the driver on the day, and given it was TWO YEARS ago, i imagine you cannot be sure who that was - it could have been a few drivers, i imagine!

KeithP

Hi and welcome.

Did the Claim Form come from the County Court Business Centre in Northampton, or from somewhere else?

Assuming it's from the CCBC...

With a Claim Issue Date of 10th January, you had until Tuesday 29th January to do the Acknowledgement of Service.

Did you do the AoS by that date?
By saying "Have I done the wrong thing saying I'll defend this?" it looks like you may well have done the AoS in time, but...

If not, you MUST DO IT NOW - IMMEDIATELY.

It is possible that you are already to late to do the AoS.

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 Tuesday 12th February 2019 to file your Defence.

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

Le_Kirk

Only you know if it is right to defend as you know the circumstances of the parking incident. Did you park correctly and pay and display or show a permit? If you want to defend (and everyone on this forum will advise that you do) then you are in the right place to get help. Having read the NEWBIE sticky you will know by having read post # 2 you know how to do the AOS online using MCOL. Before you do that, read the walkthrough to make sure you don't make silly mistakes. You then spend time reading defences provided by Bargepole and, when you have composed your defence, post it on here for critique and you send it as per the instructions which will be provided by KeithP in due course.

ETA - I see he beat me to it!

avocalady

Thanks Keith,

Yes i did the AoS within the time but I have no idea how to go about a defence. I have read numerous threads but feel lost still - and I have a degree!
As it was so long ago I don't know what happened. A letter from BW legal says the keeper failed to display a valid P&D ticket.
Can you point me in the direction of what to read or do?
Thanks.

nosferatu1001

I already told you in post 2!
You MUST NOT tell the whlle world who drove, because it being two years ago youre not even that sure who drove that day, I woudlf guess!

So go back and edit your posts

You absolutely HAVE to go find post 2 of the nebwies thread, and read it. I mean READ. IT. No skimming. Understand the process.

KeithP

Start by looking at the concise Defences by bargepole linked from post #2 of the NEWBIES thread.

There's a link to the NEWBIES thread in my earlier post, twice in fact.

avocalady

Thank you. Will try reading it all again and see if things become clearer.

avocalady

Hi,
I posted asking for help a couple of weeks ago & have now drafted a defence. I cannot find my previous thread so don't know if this will link to the old one or if it creates a completely new one (sorry, I'm still new to this). The claim form is dated 10th January and I submitted the AoS on the 17th Jan.

I would really appreciate any comments and help..... do I need to include something about ignoring letters assuming they were spam or is that not necessary?
Thanks.

IN THE COUNTY COURT

CLAIM No: xxxxxxxxxx

BETWEEN:

Britannia Parking Ltd (Claimant)

-and-

ME (Defendant)

________________________________________
DEFENCE
________________________________________

1. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.

2. It is admitted that the Defendant is the registered keeper of the vehicle mentioned in the particulars but it is not known who was driving. The Claimant has provided no evidence in this regard.

Particulars of Claim

3.1 The Particulars of Claim fail to identify a Cause of Action, stating simply that ‘[….monies are due from the Defendant to the Claimant in respect of a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) issued….] As such, the Claim fails to comply with Civil Procedure Rule 16.4, or with Civil Practice Direction 16, paras. 7.3 to 7.5. Further, the particulars of the claim do not meet the requirements of Practice Direction 16 7.5 as there is nothing which specifies why the PCN was issued.
3.2 Any breach is denied, and it is further denied that there was any agreement to pay the Claimant's X'Parking Charge Notice ('PCN')'.

3.3. Due to the sparseness of the particulars, it is unclear as to what legal basis the claim is brought, whether for breach of contract, contractual liability, or trespass. However, it is denied that the Defendant entered into any contractual agreement with the Claimant, whether express, implied, or by conduct.
3.4 In order to issue and to pursue unpaid charges via litigation, the Claimant is required to have the written authority of the landowner, on whose behalf they are acting as an agent. The Claimant has taken no steps to provide evidence that such authority has been supplied by the Claimant or their legal representatives, and the Claimant is put to strict proof.

4.Unconscionable and unreasonable inflation of costs

4.1 In addition to the 'parking charge', the Claimant's legal representatives, BWLegal, have artificially inflated the value of the Claim by adding costs of £60 which has not actually been incurred by the Claimant, and which are artificially invented figures in an attempt to circumvent the Small Claims costs rules using double recovery.

4.2 The Defendant trusts that the presiding Judge will recognise this wholly unreasonable conduct as a gross abuse of process and may consider using the court's case management powers to strike the claim out of the court's own volition.

4.3 In the alternative, it was held in the Supreme Court in Beavis (where £85 was claimed, and no more) that a private parking charge already includes a very significant and high percentage in profit and more than covers the costs of running an automated regime of template letters.

4.4 If the ‘sum of £70 being monies due’ listed in the Particulars of Claim is to be considered a written agreement between Defendant and Claimant then under 7.3, the particulars fail to include “a copy of the contract or documents constituting the agreement”. The Claimant has at no time provided an explanation how the £70 sum has been calculated, nor the conduct that gave rise to it.


For the reasons stated above, the Court is invited to dismiss this Claim in its entirety, and to award the Defendant such witness costs for attendance at trial as are permissible pursuant to CPR 27.14.

Statement of Truth

I believe that the facts stated in this Defence are true.

Le_Kirk

Unconscionable and unreasonable inflation of costs

This seems to have come "loose" from somewhere. Should it be part of 3.4 or 4.1?

avocalady

Hi,

It was the heading for section 4......