HELP! County Court letter received, VCS - deadline is 28/7

KeithP

D335071 wrote: »

It is WS and Evidence next so do I draft that and submit here again for help?

If you wish.

Have a look at a few other threads and see what others are doing - see how others are winning.

D335071

Thanks all. I have had confirmation that it has been transferred to my local County Court which is a relief. I have also had the SAR back which shows the car parked and the sign some distance away illuminated behind it on the fence only by the flash of the camera! There is no way you can see the sign without a flashlight or similar.

I will crack on with drafting the WS. Any good examples to follow as a guide? I assume it is:

- a witness statement with the facts and dates
- a skeleton argument with the legal arguments in bullet points, referring to cases in your evidence, the POFA, etc
- evidence such as photos and case transcripts

I have pulled all the evidence together already and exhibited it all. Do I add the stuff from the SAR?

I take it I need copy for me, one for the judge and one for the defence, with index and my costs claim. Just wondering how much time I have to get all this done now before the court makes contact with me?

Thanks

Le_Kirk

You will receive a letter with a date for the hearing and in that letter it will probably say something like "claimant and defendant to submit witness statement and evidence by DD/MM/YY" OR "within 14 days of the date of case"

Check out the forum for ring binder posted by user Coupon-mad which will tell you that it is best to put your witness statement (WS) together in a folder (ring binder) with a contents page and tabbed pages for evidence with your evidence referenced in your WS as e.g. Initials_001. You take one to the court (hand delivered) before the deadline, one for yourself for the day and send one to the claimant by whichever means they allow.

D335071

OK - So heard not a lot and then I get a letter from the courts allocating this to my court on the 5th Nov.

Interestingly the letter reads that the deputy district judge has reviewed the statements of case and unless the claimant does by 4pm on the 8th of October pay the £25 or file a for help with fees it will be struck out by the 8th of Oct. So I am fingers crossed that it gets struck out!

However as I am not that lucky I have started my Witness statement with referenced evidence, a skeleton of the legal arguments in bullet points and an evidence list. I have also submitted an expenses claim.

In an update: I have been in contact with the landowner who has confirmed that they do not wish to pursue the matter in writing.

I have also reviewed the info VCS Ltd has provided me via the SAR and two things are apparent. Firstly the pictures they have taken show a number plate and then a silver car. It is impossible to adduce that they are one and the same nor is it possible to adduce the location where they were taken. I assume they will provide a witness statement to corroborate this via whomever filled the report in. They also state that there were 6 photos taken and only provided 5!

In the case management notes it appears that DCBL Ltd have done a further DVLA search on me as they have obtained my new address when I changed my DL. This feels like a breach here as there was no good reason for the speculative search via the DVLA as they already had my contact details on record. I shall be making a complaint to the DVLA about that.

Finally they also appear to have held my personal details on file for the best part of 5 years with no good reason that i can see as have made no effort to contact me regarding this matter and therefore I shall make a complaint to the iCO (and about the missing photo!)

Too much?

My question now is would someone like to help me with reviewing my WS and skeleton argument? I don't want to upload it here as redacting will be a nightmare and was wondering if someone would be kind enough to DM me and take it from there. Do I wait for VCS LTD to send something to me or not?

Deadline for submission to them and the court is 21st Oct so I would like to get it to the court way before then.

All support and advice gratefully received.

KeithP

D335071 wrote: »

My question now is would someone like to help me with reviewing my WS and skeleton argument? I don't want to upload it here as redacting will be a nightmare and was wondering if someone would be kind enough to DM me and take it from there.

In my opinion, that is not a good strategy.

For at least two reasons:

• Now that you have asked for people to PM you, please be aware that all those who reply may not have the same agenda as you. The parking companies, and other troublemakers, are known to trawl this forum and you could easily be led in the wrong direction.
  
• Any guidance offered on the open forum is obviously viewed by others. This has the benefit that if you are given a wrong steer, inadvertently or otherwise, someone will be along quickly to correct things. Clearly that cannot happen in a Private Messaging environment.

Think carefully.

D335071 wrote: »

Deadline for submission to them and the court is 21st Oct so I would like to get it to the court way before then.

Don't be too hasty.
Yes of course prepare early, but leave filing until as late as possible to avoid giving the Claimant too much information too early.

Also, if you can review their WS and comment on it in your WS that may help.

D335071

Thanks KeithP - noted and I hadn't considered that. I will complete it, redact and upload then. And noted on the time I have so will ensure it is here for support (review and for others) but will sit on it for a bit before submitting.

Thanks

nosferatu1001

If DCBL hadnt performed that search youd now have an overdue CCJ on your file...

So youre saying
1) The first picture shows the number plate but no detail of the car?
2) The second shows a silver car, but no numberplate?

You say there is no way to aver tehy are the same, but are you sure about that? Were they taken seconds apart? Is enough showing? These are all questions any reasonable court woudl ask.

There will no doubt NOT be any witness statement from the parking operator.

D335071

If DCBL hadn't performed that search then would they have submitted to the court regardless? That seems a little unfair given that I had already had correspondence from them that they were dropping the matter? And that they already had all of my contact details.

I am not intending on pursuing the argument re the car as I don't think it will stand up to scrutiny but it was an observation. What I will point out is that the sign is only visible because of the camera flash - otherwise it is invisible in complete darkness.

D335071

All pointers and thoughts appreciated. The WS is much shorter and sets out what I have gathered and done in the past 4 years that this has been going on. Thank you all.

(I will need to submit it by Monday 21st Oct.)

Redx

DVLA particulars (surely) ?