Hospital Parking - 3x County Court Claim Forms from Both SCS Law and BW Legal on Behalf of Britannia

radiash

Hello,
In February I received a County Court claim form, along with a particulars of claim, from SCS Law acting on behalf of Britannia Parking for 6 outstanding PCNs. The Issue date was 11th February and the Acknowledgement of Service was submitted on time on 26th February.

I had every intention of spending the 14 days preparing my defence but a close friend passed away and it slipped down my list of priorities. Due to the limited time left to submit a defence I’d accepted that I was going to have to just pay it. Unfortunately, when I went to my parent’s house to check my post today, I found that I’ve received 2 additional County Court claim forms. The Claimant for these two are also Britannia Parking but this time BW Legal are the law firm acting on their behalf. Each of these additional two claim forms are for a single unpaid PCN.

I was planning to chalk up paying the initial claim as an expensive lesson but after receiving the additional two claims today I really don’t want to give these bottom feeders a penny more than I need to.

All of the PCNs were issued while I was a resident of the hospital accommodation and I was wrongly advised by other residents that that the tickets were unenforceable and the best approach was to ignore them and they’d give up. I feel really stupid for letting it get to this point, and I'm not even sure if I have a defence. I’m about to go back to the car park to look for any obvious issues with their signs or anything else that I can use. I’ll be spending the rest of this evening trying to formulate my defence and I’ll post it when it’s completed.

I’d really appreciate some advice on the best way to approach the situation, especially due to there being two separate law firms involved. The two main questions that I have are:

1. If the court rules against me will there be additional court and legal costs added to the amount that I’ll be required to pay?
2. Are they actually doing anything wrong by them breaking it down into three separate claim forms using two different law firms? It certainly makes it feel really overwhelming and it means I’d incur multiple court and legal costs.

I’ve attached labelled photos of the documents below. If any aren’t clear enough to read I’m happy to type them out.

SCS Law Claim Form:
i.ibb.co/XZwNky4/SCS-Law.jpg

SCS Law Particulars of Claim:
Page 1: i.ibb.co/w0TWdf8/page-1.jpg
Page 2: i.ibb.co/sqjj5vP/page-2.jpg
Page 3: i.ibb.co/SBhJ5sr/page-3.jpg

BW Legal Claim Form #1:
i.ibb.co/mBZTpdj/BW-7-3-18.jpg

BW Legal Claim Form #2:
i.ibb.co/7GbDQMM/bw-6-4-18.jpg

Thank you!

KeithP

I'm just going to give you some dates and guidance on how to file your Defences.

Firstly the SCS Law claim -

With a Claim Issue Date of 11th February, and having done the Acknowledgement of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 18th March 2019 to file your Defence.

That's over a week away. Loads of time to produce a Defence, but don't leave it to the very last minute.


Now the BW Legal claims -

With a Claim Issue Date of 20th February, you have until Monday 11th March to do the Acknowledgement of Service. To do the AoS, follow the guidance offered in a Dropbox link from post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread. About ten minutes work - no thinking required.


URGENT - You have one day to do the Acknowledgement of Service for the BWL claims. Do the AoS today - NOW!!


Having done the AoS, you have until 4pm on Monday 25th March 2019 to file your Defence.

That's over 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 Defences should each be filed separately 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.

radiash

Thank you, Keith, that actually gives me a lot more time to prepare my defence than I thought I had. I'd calculated that my defence for the SCS Law claims would be due on Saturday 16th March, but are you saying it's Monday 18th due to the court being closed over the weekend? Again a big thank you and I've acknowledged both BW claims.

Umkomaas

http://i.ibb.co/XZwNky4/SCS-Law.jpg

SCS Law Particulars of Claim:
Page 1: http://i.ibb.co/w0TWdf8/page-1.jpg
Page 2: http://i.ibb.co/sqjj5vP/page-2.jpg
Page 3: http://i.ibb.co/SBhJ5sr/page-3.jpg

BW Legal Claim Form #1:
http://i.ibb.co/mBZTpdj/BW-7-3-18.jpg

BW Legal Claim Form #2:
http://i.ibb.co/7GbDQMM/bw-6-4-18.jpg

Are there actually two parking companies managing the same site simultaneously?

Presumably you had legitimate reason to be parking there so many times? Are you a member of staff? If so, have you contacted the Estates management and facility team to ask them to intervene and try to sort this out?

KeithP

radiash wrote: »

Thank you, Keith, that actually gives me a lot more time to prepare my defence than I thought I had. I'd calculated that my defence for the SCS Law claims would be due on Saturday 16th March, but are you saying it's Monday 18th due to the court being closed over the weekend? Again a big thank you and I've acknowledged both BW claims.

Yes, if the calculated due date falls on a non-working day, one is allowed until 4pm on the next working day to file a Defence.

radiash

Umkomaas wrote: »

Are there actually two parking companies managing the same site simultaneously?

Presumably you had legitimate reason to be parking there so many times? Are you a member of staff? If so, have you contacted the Estates management and facility team to ask them to intervene and try to sort this out?

I don't believe there's more than one parking company managing the site, the claimant for all three claims is Britannia parking. It appears to me, based on the dates of the PCNs, that Britannia probably switched over to using BW Legal instead of SCS Law because the two BW Legal PCNs are the latest.

Yeah I'm a member of staff and I lived in the on site hospital staff accommodation. I did email estates last week, but I hadn't heard back by Friday, so I'm going to follow that up tomorrow and hope it goes somewhere.

Umkomaas

radiash wrote: »

I don't believe there's more than one parking company managing the site, the claimant for all three claims is Britannia parking. It appears to me, based on the dates of the PCNs, that Britannia probably switched over to using BW Legal instead of SCS Law because the two BW Legal PCNs are the latest.

Yeah I'm a member of staff and I lived in the on site hospital staff accommodation. I did email estates last week, but I hadn't heard back by Friday, so I'm going to follow that up tomorrow and hope it goes somewhere.

Thanks for confirming that it's just Britannia. I'm reading so many threads every day (up to 100 per day, many with multiple inputs), it's quite easy to have befuddlement get in the way.

You're not a doctor by any chance ..... ? Any tablets?

Sorry for any confusion on my part.

[Deleted User]

Jesus. Even the long form particulars of claim are b*LL*cks. Nowhere in that document does it actually set out the material terms of the contract that it says are breached.

According to that you: admitted to being the driver, or if you didn't they don't need to prove you're the driver under PoFA, or if they do, you were the driver (but state no evidence in that regard). What a farrago.

Coupon-mad

To clarify, is the SCS Law claim about different PCNs than the BW Legal claims?