Screwed by BW Legal....

Umkomaas

jkracing wrote: »

Umkomass, I will get the full break down this evening and post it here, but it was around £300 for the initial expenses of the ticket including their ridiculous fees and then a further £400 or so for their "legal costs". Another point of complaint as I fail to see how it can possibly cots them this amount of money.

Legal fees are capped at £50 in the Small Claims Court, unless the Defendant has acted 'unreasonably'. So you need to check whether 'unreasonable' has been alluded to in the judgment.

jkracing

I will be writing a complaint to the SRA this evening as soon as I'm done at work - Is there any format or specific wording that should be included?

Thanks The Deep, I have briefly read through that now but will properly digest it later. With the regards to the charges for "solicitors", all they actually had was a paralegal in the court room for 12 minutes and a copy paste claim.

At this point I will happily spend more money just to bury these b******s.

Umkomass - What would constitute unreasonable behaviour? I didn't read anything about this in their claim.

The_Deep

Read some of these

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Reasonability&form=EDNTHT&mkt=en-gb&httpsmsn=1&plvar=0&refig=331a28855e5247aed532e32722204343&PC=ACTS&sp=-1&pq=reasonability&sc=8-13&qs=n&sk=&cvid=331a28855e5247aed532e32722204343

but bear in mind that most judges seem very reluctant to award these in PPC claims.

Even though I won a claim last year, (not parking related), I was refused these costs, despite the fact that the other party submitted his papers late, made a false declaration on a property disclosure form, and counter claimed for amounts that he did not incur.

I was legally represented and my chap advised me not to appeal as the costs might exceed the amount claimed.

Coupon-mad

Shouldn't you be asking the Court for an appeal of that decision? Sounds like a flawed interpretation of the situation by the Judge.

jkracing

Judging by the definitions given, I certainly wouldn't suggest we were anything but reasonable throughout. Too reasonable, in fact.

Looking at the court of appeal now, it is as simple as following the steps on the .Gov website? Of course, a case for your appeal would have to be absolutely water tight as I certainly don't want to be wasting a further £1200!

Coupon-mad

Court of appeal doesn't come into it.

You would be filing an application to appeal against the Judge's decision because he erred in law, and that costs £110 court fee. You'd need to word it carefully but surely he erred in law, as it was found as fact that the court claim was NOT served.

If he was satisfied that the claim was not served, then he should have set the CCJ aside, IMHO. Phone calls/texts are not good service of a claim and could have easily been dismissed as a phishing scam, as you would.

jkracing

Just got off the phone to BW Legal - Cost breakdown is as follows (I have asked for this to be sent by mail also)

£160 - Fine + "costs" (she couldn't tell me what these costs were
£25 - Claim form fees
£50 - fixed costs for claim?
£7.88 - Interest
£22 - Fixed costs for judgement acknowledgement
£447.88 - Pre-Bankruptcy Order - what on Earth is this and why has she paid it?!

Clearly this last part is where the bulk of the cost has come from, but we hadn't been given any prior notice or warning of this at all.

Coupon-Mad - Thank you for this. Pardon my ignorance, but I would do this by letter to the Court themselves I presume?

Umkomaas

£447.88 - Pre-Bankruptcy Order - what on Earth is this and why has she paid it?!

While we never recommend them for advice on parking tickets per se (they know very little about them), with this Pre-Bankruptcy Order, you might find that the CAB has some knowledge and advice for you. Try them and see what they can offer.

BrownTrout

Never heard of a pre bankruptcy order

Coupon-mad

I am not legally qualified but thanks to bargepole for this in a previous case:

I think the application would be for permission to appeal using form N164, for which the fee is £120 (but free if they qualify for 'Help With Fees' on low income grounds - EX160).

This is a no-brainer if they qualify for a free appeal, so check the income ceiling online for Help with Court fees.

The application must be filed within 21 days of the first hearing, and a decision on whether to allow permission is then decided on the papers by a Circuit Judge. If permission is refused, the Appellant can ask for an oral reconsideration within 7 days.

The N164 notice will merely need to state a summary of the principal grounds, which can then be expanded upon in a skeleton if and when leave is granted.

IMHO the grounds would be these (but why not try to get a free half hour legal advice?):

1 - the Judge erred in law in not setting aside the CCJ when it was established as fact, by evidence shown, that the Claimant negligently and/or knowingly filed the claim to a wrong address (not the one provided by the DVLA) and as such, the Defendant's case was made out, that the N1 was never received and they were not offered any fair opportunity to defend the matter.

2 - the Judge erred in law by placing any reliance upon an unsolicited and brief phone text, which is not good service of a claim and bore all the hallmarks of a scam text.

3 - the quantum granted was excessive and disproportionate. - CPR 44.3 (2) states:
''Where the amount of costs is to be assessed on the standard basis, the court will;
(a) only allow costs which are proportionate to the matters in issue. Costs which are disproportionate in amount may be disallowed or reduced even if they were reasonably or necessarily incurred; and
(b) resolve any doubt which it may have as to whether costs were reasonably and proportionately incurred or were reasonable and proportionate in amount in favour of the paying party.''

Instead, the Claimant was granted £712 for an unproven and certainly defendable £100 private parking charge, where £60 was added on without justification, and £447.88 for a Pre-Bankruptcy Order, according to a vague breakdown by the Claimant's solicitor. Such quantum is clearly wholly disproportionate and the Defendant has no idea what a pre-bankruptcy order is, and why the Judge allowed costs for same or considered it appropriate to the case where the Defendant had grounds to defend the parking charge and was never served with a claim and has effectively been punished seven times the disputed parking charge, for seeking a set aside of a CCJ they knew nothing about.

Additionally, the '£60 debt collection costs/damages' were an abuse of process/double recovery. Case law (ParkingEye v Somerfield [ref: para 419] and ParkingEye v Beavis [ref paras 98, 193 and 198]) has exposed adding the 'operational costs' relating to letters and demands twice, as legally unrecoverable. This is also asserted by virtue of the POFA 2012 Schedule 4, para 4.1.(5). County Court Judges, including in 2019, DJ Taylor and DJ Grand in the Southampton Court circuit, have reportedly struck out several parking cases without a hearing, by the sole reason of the wholly unreasonable costs in parking ticket claims, in cases of similar facts and costs to this Claim.