Do all ZZPS /Solicitor /CEL end up at Court?

Murphy9243

I am new to this but understand loads of basics are on the newbie threads. However, I just want to know if I’m at the ZZPS stage now will it automatically end up with solicitors letter followed by CEL at some point catching up with me and I’ll have to prepare for court? Has CEL ever backed down before court? I feel that the ignore route is helpful in terms of managing the stress side of it and not to panic with any debt collector/solicitor correspondence but feel like it’s a horrible waiting game as it will never go away. Has anyone been left alone by CEL at this stage?
Brief background is I stupidly and naively acknowledged it last year (April) but appealed via POPLA with what I believe was a good appeal (inadequate signage/font) I kept to a legal argument and backed it up with pictures of trees hanging over loads of the signs! To my utter disbelief and anger, POPLA never received my appeal (pdf) despite receiving a response saying thanks for successfully uploading your appeal! I tried to engage POPLA several times but it got to a stage where they said to me “don’t contact us again- decision is final ) it makes me wonder about helpful POPLA actually are!
Since then I’ve ignored everything and cannot get over how unfair it has been that my appeal was just simply not read or submitted to CEL. :mad: this is why I am now in this situation and feel that my appeal would have been successful a long time ago.

Can this be part of my argument ? Just wanted to know if CEL categorically pursue all the way -although I’ve read they often don’t appear on the day?

The_Deep

I suspect that CEL back down more times than they go to court. I know that sometimes they do not contest in court, cancel the claim before it gets to court, and I believe that, once or twice, they have paid off the the motorist when he/she has counter claimed and they have behaved unreasonably. You would be well advised to complain to your MP as, 99 out of 100 PCNs are a scam.

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem become so widespread that MPs agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. It has cleared Parliament and hopefully, this will become law shortly.0 i

ShakeItOff

CEL are litigious, so yes, you may well find yourself the recipient of a Letter Before Claim. But in light of a robust defence, they may well back down.

However, be prepared for them not to back down. If you use the advanced search function, searching this forum only, search for the terms "another one bites the dust". This is the tagline assigned to every case which is successfully defended with the help of this forum.

The NEWBIES post #2 is also a mine of information, and walks you through the process. It's a lot of information, but read slowly and carefully, you won't go far wrong!