Gladstone & UKCPM county court claim

Lauz44

Today's the morning of my hearing (I said it was yesterday so that it wasn't obvious to the claimant who I was). Very nervous. Any advice prior to going in? Is it more beneficial to go first or second, given the choice.

Quentin

You won't get that choice! (You go in together,)

beamerguy

Lauz44 wrote: »

Today's the morning of my hearing (I said it was yesterday so that it wasn't obvious to the claimant who I was). Very nervous. Any advice prior to going in? Is it more beneficial to go first or second, given the choice.

GOOD LUCK, you wait until you are called.

If the claimant asks for a chat, decline as they could try to scare you.
A polite NO THANKS is all that is needed

Lauz44

I lost. It was DJ Taylor in Swansea and Gladstones didn't attend. They'd informed the court it was going to be heard on paper. I previously decline to have it heard on paper so I don't know how that was allowed. I told her I rejected that in the letter I recieved and I asked if they could still do this and she said they could because they'd sent a letter (with their WS) to say they'd asked for it to be heard on papers. I presumed because I'd declined they would have to be there so didn't take notice of that letter.

A short summary because I'm not in the best mood. It may be slightly jumbled in the order things were mentioned and her response but I'm recallign this from when it happened and I was extremely nervous. I felt like her mind was made up before I went into the room. I was not asked if I wanted go through my WS or offered, she had read both.

She said I 'allegedly' purchased a permit. I showed her the emails I had as they were better quality than the ones she had and that the payment from the land owner left my account for the permit the day before. She said though she agreed with me morally that I applied for a permit and believed it to be 'immediate', I relied on an email forwarded to me by a friend and she had to go by the law (had to display a permit). I said it didn't state what form the permit was in or how to display it but she didn't address that.

I explained this was directly with the landowner and that's who my contract is with. She said they have a contract with the landowner (which she had seen) and were within their rights to pursue this as I hadn't displayed a valid permit. She said I had agreed that it was a pay and display car park - thinking back now, I'm not sure I had actually agreed anywhere but I was pretty flustered in there.

She believed the signage was clear and as there was a sign directly in front of my car, though there weren't any on the entrance to the carpark, and didn't respond to my comment that this is against IPC guidelines. I commented that there would have been no daylight at 6:30pm in January and that I hadn't seen the signs, especially as the signs aren't illuminated and there isn't adequate lighting in the car park and it was the sign of an A4 sheet. She read out what the sign said and I think she commented it was clear.

She didn't critique any of their WS and I was kind of wondering when that bit would come. Guess my lack of understanding of how it works let me down. She awarded them £100 but rejected the £60 add-ons. With fees etc it came to £211.
Totally deflated. Feel like it was a waste of all those days and days researching and prepping for nothing.

Le_Kirk

Oh, bad luck, it always hurts to lose especially after all the prep work. At least (small comfort) she removed the ridiculous and illegal add-ons.