VCS issued PCN after 25 days, I told them where to stick it, now DCB Legal have sent me an LBC

Coupon-mad

Can you search your emails for car insurance certificate and find it that way?

I can't recall who my policies were with but could find them all by searching my email account.

Garyswork2

Unfortunately they don't go back far enough, neither online nor in my laptop as I searched by date around the policy start date of Jan 2016, .
I'll phone around tomorrow, but I'm sure i'll be ok, even if I take our current docs in addition to prove that we use each others vehicles.

Coupon-mad

I agree, that will be enough to at least show that the BOP has not been tipped to balance against you. The BOP works on tipping the scales just 51%/49% against you, and they can't.

If pushed you can even say it was ''more likely not'' you because...blah blah (come up with some memory of who borrowed which car most!)...but you would never have named your wife as driver even if you'd been certain because no-one in their right mind would throw a loved one towards the lair of the wolves that are parking firms.

However you do then have to know inside out, how to argue that the POFA is not complied with in the case.

Garyswork2

Just received more made up fees on their Costs Schedule.
DCBL just CC'd me in on some dubious costs. If this is in addition to the original claim https://i.ibb.co/qW4VqWM/P1020761.jpg then I question why they are twice claiming court costs and legal rep costs for issuing the claim!

Also, there is a new £150 + vat added for hearing fees - Elms Legal, who I have no idea what their involvement is, unless they are attending in the absence of DCBL.



So it appears that they are raising the claim from £273.65 by another £280.

Redx

Some legals regularly turn up on behalf of claimants including Elms, they ask for those costs but are often refused by judges due to the CPR , so you definitely would object to all spurious charges , especially Elms legal costs

Dcbl won't be turning up , neither do Gladstone's or b w legal etc , they always employ jobbing legal reps

Coupon-mad

The £50 court fee is already within the £273.65 claim, and it is payable by you, if you lose.

Elms Legal supply the legal reps who turn up for these cases. They only get their costs in exceptional cases, such as if you do not attend or can be deemed in some way to have acted 'wholly unreasonably'.

Defending a claim and turning up to argue they are a bunch of scammers (without using that word) is not unreasonable conduct, and is your right!

I hate DCBLegal, they absolutely need shutting down.

That schedule is so damn misleading, as it adds some costs that are already in the claim to some random costs they know they cannot claim, and then they send it to consumers to frighten them into giving up and paying to avoid the 'hearing costs' of £150 plus VAT that will almost certainly never be allowed by any Judge.

You should show that misleading letter to the Judge when talking about THEIR unreasonable conduct, when claiming YOUR costs on the indemnity basis, when you win. Ask the Judge at the end, how is a consumer supposed to know what this means, except to conclude that the hearing is likely to cost them over £500, and frighten and mislead them.

Push for your full costs when you win (25 hours at £19 per hr LiP rate, plus your full loss of leave/salary, if higher than the cap of £95).

Garyswork2

I couldn't agree more. Every time they send me a letter I have to research what it means and how I am going to put a case against what they are claiming. In this case with the costs I've just spent the best part of 2 hours on a Saturday researching and printing stuff out so I can defend against the costs. Furthermore, the more drivel they come up with the more time I have to spend on the case! This is exactly what I want the judge to understand to further justify my costs.

My Costs Schedule, already submitted to both parties, totals £773.29, which includes a full days pay of £139.43 and I will be taking payslips to prove it. I think this may be what triggered their Costs Schedule as it came 2 days after they received mine, but 3 days after they sent their WS. Like you say, another scare tactic.

Coupon-mad

Lovely, but the difference is, your high costs schedule is genuine.

beamerguy

I fail to see why DCBL has sent you this Elms costs invoice

They cannot double claim against you, that really would be abuse of process.

DCBL may well have instructed Elms but that is to represent them in court and ELMs costs are down to DCBL

Garyswork2

Just returned home from court, chalk yourselves up another win you helpful lot. :T

Im just going to type out a report, but a big thanks to Redx, MonkeyRum, beamerguy, KeithP, The Deep, Guys Dad, Coupon-mad, Umkomaas, Fruitcake, Waamo, Le-Kirk and anyone who's information in the linked posts that I may have used. Without your help I wouldn't have had such a strong case.