Parking Ticket Back In June Of Last Year Now Resulting In Court

Le_Kirk

BeadyRoller wrote: »

My defence is basically I was sat in a Starbucks having a couple of coffees and wasting a bit of time before I needed to be at my next destination . ..

Just politely pointing out: -

My defence is basically I [strike]was sat[/strike] was sitting in a Starbucks having a couple of coffees and wasting a bit of time before I needed to be at my next destination . ..

I hate that double past tense and it is grammatically incorrect. If you are sending defences to the court, you should make sure the grammar and spelling are correct.

BeadyRoller

Ralph-y wrote: »

if you are worried then ...




Have a look at this short video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n93eoaxhzpU

Ralph:cool:

Thanks for that, gives me a better understanding of what it will be like on the day.

Le_Kirk wrote: »

If the defence is the one that you showed us in post #35, you now need to write a witness statement (WS) that is a narrative, i.e. a story of what happened on the day that backs up your defence and you also need to submit evidence, photos of signage etc. You may also want to search the forum for the Abuse of Process thread by beamerguy with comment by Coupon-mad at post # 14 of that thread and add that into your WS in support of your points 6 & 7 about trying to claim an extra £xx (if it is on the claim).

I think my problem is I have no understanding of what to add and what not to add, I am looking at my defence now and I don't know where to start with a witness statement. I have just gone to the thread you have pointed me to and I'm unsure on what points from the post I need to add? I'm sorry if it's obvious, I don't mean to be awkward. Thanks for your help.

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Because you haven't read the NEWBIES thread post #2 properly yet.

No that is NOT a defence and is a hopeless thing to say to the Judge.

I thought as much, I'm just having a hard time knowing what to write for a witness statement, I don't even know what some of the stuff means in my defence so feel like I could just get embarrassed on the day if asked about it. The only real evidence I have is a charge on my bank statement for the Starbucks coffee which shows I was using the car park for it's intended purpose.

https://imgur.com/rgte1xe

That is a picture of the car park I found on Google Maps by the way, the signs seem obvious now when looking at it like that but on the day I didn't even notice any, didn't cross my mind there would be a time limit if I was spending money in Starbucks.

Redx

then that is the basis of your witness statement , a patron of the establishment , paying their way and should be unfettered by petty rules etc, de minimis , inadequate and poor signage meant you had no idea about any such rule so didnt agree to any contract because you didnt see the signs that bind you to a contract

add your exhibits , number them with your initials like MJW001 , MJW002 etc

add any case law or transcript info that backs up your case

read recent court case threads on here and see what they put in their WS, there are dozens you can read in the last couple of months alone

read successful court case threads by using the forum search box and adding a hit record title by QUEEN

AOBTD

plenty you can do, if you lose the negativity

Le_Kirk

Thanks Redx, you beat me to it. I was about to post the same advice, along with the fact that a WS is a narrative, story of what happened on the day, FOR EXAMPLE, the car drove into the establishment with all occupants focussed on a cup of coffee, finding a place to park, not knocking over pedestrians etc. Do NOT use that picture of the car park, it does not help your case. Since it is your story, no one else can write it. Just use your defence to help with the narrative, signage for example, how bad was it? Did anybody inside the establishment tell you about the time limit, were there signs inside (not that you could see) and so on. Look again at THIS LINK and use the comment by Coupon-mad at post # 14 to back up the same point in your defence where you mention the claimant trying to claim more than £100. Make sure you number every paragraph!

BeadyRoller

Redx wrote: »

then that is the basis of your witness statement , a patron of the establishment , paying their way and should be unfettered by petty rules etc, de minimis , inadequate and poor signage meant you had no idea about any such rule so didnt agree to any contract because you didnt see the signs that bind you to a contract

add your exhibits , number them with your initials like MJW001 , MJW002 etc

add any case law or transcript info that backs up your case

read recent court case threads on here and see what they put in their WS, there are dozens you can read in the last couple of months alone

read successful court case threads by using the forum search box and adding a hit record title by QUEEN

AOBTD

plenty you can do, if you lose the negativity

Thank you for the help as always. Like I said, the only actual bit of proof I have is the charge on my bank statement from that establishment, if I can't add any photos other than my own (I have none) then that is really the only bit of evidence I can send off right? I will start studying successful court case threads, I believe I have until Monday at the latest to send everything off as my court date is the 15th. I will try to stop being so negative!

Le_Kirk wrote: »

Thanks Redx, you beat me to it. I was about to post the same advice, along with the fact that a WS is a narrative, story of what happened on the day, FOR EXAMPLE, the car drove into the establishment with all occupants focussed on a cup of coffee, finding a place to park, not knocking over pedestrians etc. Do NOT use that picture of the car park, it does not help your case. Since it is your story, no one else can write it. Just use your defence to help with the narrative, signage for example, how bad was it? Did anybody inside the establishment tell you about the time limit, were there signs inside (not that you could see) and so on. Look again at THIS LINK and use the comment by Coupon-mad at post # 14 to back up the same point in your defence where you mention the claimant trying to claim more than £100. Make sure you number every paragraph!

Right, that makes sense now. Does a Witness Statement have to be a certain length? A couple I have seen are incredibly long.

Thanks!

Le_Kirk

It's not the length it's the quality that counts.

BeadyRoller

Right, so I've got this so far..

In the County Court at XXXXX
Claim No. XXXXXXXX
Between
Civil Enforcement Ltd (Claimant)
and
BeadyRoller(Defendant)

---

Witness Statement

---

1. I am BeadyRoller of (ADDRESS), the defendant in this matter. I will say as follows:

2. On (Date) I visited Starbucks on (ADDRESS), and parked my vehicle no.XXXXX in the car park.

3. I drove in to the establishment (Starbucks) car park focused on getting a cup of coffee, finding a space to park my car and making sure I was being a safe driver as car parks can often have pedestrians crossing them to get to their destination.

4. It didn't even cross my mind to check for any parking signs outside as I was using the car park for it's intended purpose and didn't know such petty rules were in place.

5. The signs must have been incredibly inadequate and poor as I never noticed one sign/notice while I was at the establishment (Starbucks). So unless I happened to look in the direction of where a sign was placed, there was no way of me knowing there was a time limit on my stay.

5(i) While inside, again, I never saw one sign which notified me that I could only stay at the establishment (Starbucks) for a certain amount of time.

5(ii) I didn't agree to any contract as I never saw any signage and had no idea there was any such rule which limited my time in the establishment (Starbucks).

6. I spent my money inside the establishment (Starbucks) which I can prove, see attached picture Exhibit A, I also had two further cups of coffee which were paid with cash.

6(i) I was never notified by any staff member inside the establishment (Starbucks) that there was a time limit to my stay and they seemed happy for me to keep spending my money.

---

I am going to read the thread you linked me Le_Kirk about the Abuse Of Process and add some points about the extra charges. Is there anything else I can add to the above about poor signage and my stay at the establishment? Like I said, the only thing I can add as evidence is a charge on my bank statement, I have no pictures of my own of the signs at the car park I visited.

I did ring the owner of Starbucks up a good while a go and they said if I had contacted them earlier they could of got it rescinded, is that worth mentioning? That not even the owner of the establishment minded I was in the car park. Other points include that the car park was nearly empty other than my car and maybe three others so I wasn't depriving any other customers of parking spaces, maybe something else I could add?

Redx

Remove your personal details for starters , never put those details on the net

Object to the added spurious charges , abuse of process , as seen in other threads like the beamerguy one, add the recent Caenarfon and Southampton cases

Yes , mention what the manager told you

Add a statement of truth to the bottom of the WS

BeadyRoller

Good point. I have removed them now.

I am now looking at post #14 on the Abuse Of Process thread made by Coupon-mad, I'm confused on how much of that I am meant to add? Do I add all of it or just parts?

Redx

all of it plus the extras for Caenarfon and also this weeks case in Southampton too