Please help confirming my witness statement is sufficient

Coupon-mad

Yes, take it with you as some Judges will want more 'chapter & verse' than others about your actual defence.

The hearing is mainly to satisfy the DJ that you didn't receive the claim, for genuine reasons, and thus had no opportunity to defend it yet, and should be allowed that.

Make sure you ask for the £255 to be refunded by the Claimant due to them using an old address - or at least 'reserved' so that costs can be discussed at the actual claim hearing later and the £255 is not forgotten.

zap99

Update: I'm still waiting for a court date. What is the typical wait time for this? I submited the N244 in late March, and all I've received is two "we've forwarded this to X court" letters.

Additionally, I submitted a SAR to the parking company in question, and the 30 days has since elapsed. Do they often just ignore these SARs? Without this, I have very few details, and beyond the standard templated defences, I can't really offer much else.

I'm hoping I get a judge who agrees just how ludicrous this situation is!

Coupon-mad

A PPC cannot ignore a SAR. Hope you emailed it to the contact on their PRIVACY page?

And why not ring your local court? Find out what stage it's at. I assume the original claim never arrived to you because the PPC used an old address your car was registered to at the time of the PCN?

Check the local court haven't looked at your old address on the claim form and sent some Directions/a hearing date there by mistake!

No idea why people submit N244s to the CCBC, why not just to your local court in March, they'd have had it straight away then. There was never any need to send it to the CCBC.

zap99

I think it just boils down to a lack of knowledge. I never thought I'd ever need to know the process of how to attend court. As with most people caught up in this mess, we are just normal people going about our normal lives, and only find out about this stuff when a mortgage gets denied. It gets even trickier for me, as the CCJ does not show up on my credit report at all. My rating remains 'excellent' on all agencies, and only by searching trust online did I find it. It's absolutely wrecked my life, as my partner and young child now have to put up with a tiny flat as we are unable to buy a new house.

All correspondence was sent to a previous address, and I knew nothing about the claim at all.

I will call the local court today and ask for an update - hopefully it's weeks rather than months away.

Regarding the SAR, I have resent my request to the email address provided. I have attached the original request, as well as additional information to ensure that there is literally no way they can claim they didn't receive it / understand it / etc.

I also issued a SAR to the car hire company, and they had no problem understanding my request. It's pretty evident these parking cowboys intentionally obfuscate things to make it more difficult.

Thanks for the help!

zap99

And just like that, the SAR request was fulfilled and I received all info from the parking company. What's very clear is that they never made any effort to track my new address, which should've been very easy to do considering I was loading to move to a new address on the date of the PCN! Any attempt at tracing this would've shown that I had moved.

I'm hoping this means it's an easy case for a set aside, and that the skeleton arguments work as a defence.

Coupon-mad

Hope so.

We almost never see set asides of parking scams refused.

It's absolutely wrecked my life, as my partner and young child now have to put up with a tiny flat as we are unable to buy a new house.

I am so sorry to read this.

Have you told your MP about this or are they useless?

MPs need to know how parking SCAMMERS are affecting their constituents, so they are ready to take an interest as the new 'regulated' appeals to stamp out the worst offenders operating scams on private land is set up, as per the new Parking (Code of Practice) Act.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

zap99

I've mailed my MP, and got a standard templated response saying they don't reply to all mails. So yeah, pretty much useless.

It's really highlighted how broken the entire system is - how it's possible to have a judgment against someone without them ever knowing about it is utterly mindblowing. A simple identity search would've located me and I could've been given the opportunity to pay. I absolutely would not have paid them initially, but a notice from a court would've scared the bejesus out of me and I would've paid that immediately.

In terms of evidence - I have kept a bill from my energy provider from the address in question. There was a miscalculation with my final bill upon moving out, and they managed to trace me to my new address to let me know. I'm hoping the judge will acknowledge that this suggests I would've responded had I known about it. I'm obviously still just a bit wary of having my ducks in a row should they ask for a defence.

As soon as I have a court date, I'll update this thread with my proposed defence.

@Coupon-Mad - thanks again for your help. I am beyond grateful!

zap99

After 2 months of waiting, I've finally received a letter from the courts asking to provide the witness statement and a copy of the judgment by no later than [10 days from now].

The issue is - I don't have a copy of the judgment. I've obviously never seen this as it was sent to the wrong address. How do I go about getting this?

Coupon-mad

Don't try. Explain why you've never seen it, in a covering letter, and give them the claim number and Claimant's name and date of judgment if you know all that.

And provide the rest of what they are asking for, but it makes NO SENSE as you've presumably already followed our advice and submitted a WS with the N244 application?

Are you sure the Judge is not asking for your defence, or skeleton argument, or evidence upon which you wish to rely?

What does the directions order actually say, word for word?

zap99

I have indeed followed the advice and included both a witness statement (the one checked above) and a 6 point order along with the N244 application. I was rather perplexed that they asked for it again! I'm guessing it was somehow lost in between being transferred from Northampton -> London -> County Court.

I will resubmit it, along with your advice of a cover letter explaining why I've never seen the judgment.

The directions, word for word:

"Can defendant please produce the witness statement and a copy of judgment by no later than the Xth June 2019"