Euro Parking Services Ltd-Gladstone Solicitors County Court Claim. HELP NEEDED PLEASE!

Twins123

I will try to write down everything this weekend. Thank you again!
Now I am going to get some cookie dough ice cream to celebrate.

Le_Kirk

Ice Cream - Mmmmmmm!

Twins123

So after my treat I've decided to write my recounting.



We arrived at the Court at around 10 am so just an hour before the hearing was due. I forgot to bring my copy of an important letter. I did send the original one to the Judge along with my WS and the claimant had a copy of it too. I wanted to have my own copy just in case. The Usher was extremely helpful and helped me print out a copy for myself. It was about 11:10 am when the Usher informed us at which room the hearing will take place, but it wasn't time to go in. I asked her if she knew if there was anybody coming to represent the claimant. She said no one is here and she mentioned this is very common with parking cases. At around 11:15 am( 15 minutes late) somebody turned up. I saw the Usher pointing to our direction and to two other people so he must have had at least three cases. He came to introduce himself and said he only saw the paperwork that day and if it's alright with us he wants to ask the Judge to dismiss the case as it shouldn't have been brought to the Court at all and he also has another hearing exactly at the same time. I saw the Usher going in to the Judge's room so I assumed the case will be dismissed and we can go home. After about 5 minutes we were called in,the case wasn't dismissed after all. The Judge explained the procedure and what usually happens. She than asked a few questions from the claimant. I can't recall the exact questions, I was so very nervous. The questions were related to the claimant authority to issue license and whether the company my husband (the driver) visited at the time had a contract with them. He couldn't answer any of the Judge's question so it pretty much went like, I don't know ma'am, I don't have an idea... he was squirming in his seat and the Judge was clearly not impressed with his incompetence. I think after that it was the claimant's turn to ask questions. He was all about why I haven't responded to the letters they have sent. He asked why my husband hadn't used the front car park that is for visitors instead of the back which is for the tenants only. I don't think he asked anything else at this point. It was my turn to answer. I said we didn't open any letter, I can't remember ever receiving them and I must have just threw them unopened. The judge then asked if I would say I ignored those letters. I said yes, you could consider it that way. I also said I assumed when my husband talked to the receptionist and was told they would cancel the PCN the matter was closed and I wasn't expecting any letters from them. As to why my husband haven't used the front car park we answered because his contact told him to come to the back and get a parking pass and from the direction my husband drove to the car park you couldn't see the visitor area. The judge checked the Google images to confirm this.Than it was my turn to ask questions. I asked why there wasn't any sign at the entrance and why did they attach the site plan to their WS dated to 2018 when my PCN was issued in 2017. I've also mentioned the pictures he attached to his WS clearly shows the sign is not adjacent to where my vehicle was parked. They also pictured a completely different parking bay from where my vehicle was parked and you can tell that by looking at the brick wall. The claimant said the sign was on the same side where my vehicle was parked even if it wasn't directly in front of my vehicle(which they claimed it was in their WS)the driver should have seen it. The Judge then asked if he than admits there was no sign adjacent to my parking bay, to that he said that might have been the case. At some point the judge asked my witness(the driver) to recount the happenings from the beginning. When did he realise he needed a day pass or permit, has he seen any signs and so on. I also mentioned the parking is a gated area and you can only access it if somebody actually opens the gate. The claiment said it is always open,luckily I had a picture which shows the gate is indeed closed. The judge than asked how would he know whether the gate is open or closed. He then said he lives in the area and passes the gate quiet often.
We had a letter that confirmed my husband had a meeting and there was nobody at reception to issue a day pass so that was an added bonus. Than I was told to explain why I think my case should be dismissed. I have prepared a skeleton defence which was pretty much a counter attack to every paragraph to the claimant WS. I read that to the judge (2pages). I did mention case number F2QZ4W28(Vehicle Control Servises Ltd v Davies). The Judge said I can not use this case as it's at the same "Court level" and it's not binding. She did have a look at case Pace v Lengyel. I used Coupon-mad's court hearing recounting. I said the claiment knew or should have known that the £160 charge against a registered keeper who was not driving,was in breach of POFA due to paras 4(5) and 4(6). Continued with the Beavis Case paras 98,193,198 and 287. I than mentioned the Consumer Rights Act 2015 Schedule 2(the grey list of terms) They both had a copy underlined with paragraphs 6,10,14. The Judge dismissed the case due to not being satisfied with the signs presented. She said they were very small and very easily hidden by other vehicles. She didn't really talk about anything else other than the signage. The Claiment took a deep breath, stood up,left the room without a word.

The hearing lasted about an hour. I can't recall the Judge's name but she was very kind and reassuring.
I have the Notice of Allocation to the Small Claims letter and the Judge's name mentioned there is Deputy District Judge Walsh, not sure if we ended up having another Judge dealing with our case or if it was indeed Judge Walsh.

The hearing was in the County Court at Birmingham.
The representative turned out to be the person who wrote the WS, Mr Aggarwal.
I am still very confused about that. He claimed that he hasn't seen the case until today but how can that be when he is the one who wrote and signed their WS?

Coupon-mad

The representative turned out to be the person who wrote the WS, Mr Aggarwal.
I am still very confused about that. He claimed that he hasn't seen the case until today but how can that be when he is the one who wrote and signed their WS?

Weird; are you are sure it was him?

Well done, congrats! You can now tell all your family & friends about your victory!