This is a tough one!

Blazkowicz

RedX when you say: "dont forget to add the abuse of process paragraphs to the Exhibits , plus the CRTA 2015 relevant parts too" - are you able to guide me to where these are? I'm sorry again if I seem obtuse or badly organised, as mentioned earlier this has sprung up on me due to my fault and I had wanted so much more time to prepare this all, but I have until tomorrow morning at 09:00!

Redx

as I said

check the CEC16 thread where coupon mad explains it as she assisted in court

check the ABUSE OF PROCESS thread by beamerguy where coupon mad has put the wording you need

she also elaborates on the CRA 2015 law relevant sections (I have corrected my typo)

its all there and I did mention them so you could find them and read them

she also extrapolated these details for monkeynuts45 in their winning thread here on page one where they obtained almost £500 in costs

reading and research is the key, I have never been to court, but read many , many threads on here

Blazkowicz

Thank you for your patience RedX. I will read and use as much as possible. Looks like an all nighter for me! I read in H_brogab thread named: Court Claim Procedure point 5 that CouponMad suggests a binder with indexed and tabbed organised documents. I will not be able to send that as the court have told me to email the WS and Exhibits, so I will make it and take it with me to the court.

Redx

those instructions are correct, so maybe take one bundle for the judge and one for yourself ?

if the coury allows email, then do so, plus email to the claimant and also post a bundle with free certificate of posting from the Post Office to the claimant too (belt and braces approach)

Blazkowicz

I am hoping that:
The Judge accepts the WS and exhibits after the deadline (less than 24 hours, but still...)
And if so - it is not used against me by either the judge or the claimant.

A thought has just occurred to me - Is it now too late for the Claimant to come forward with any evidence? Or could they submit further documents against me? For example, hypothetically, if they discovered this thread and provided it... Paranoid I know!

Redx

not paranoid


they should have complied with the same deadline , so if you get yours in late , tomorrow, so could they , or even later, then its a decision by the judge , so oneupmanship by getting yours in first, because B W LEGAL are known for late submissions

KeithP

If you are supplying your Witness Statement late, it might not be a good idea to complain about the Claimant's submissions being late.

Think carefully.

Blazkowicz

They have already submitted their Witness Statement and Exhibits already. They were on time - I'm the late one! I'm definitely not going to complain about any lateness on their part.
My question is mainly about whether there is another change before the court date to add further arguments after the Witness Statement has been sent by a party. My Witness Statement critiques theirs in many places, in one section stating that they have not provided evidence in their exhibits that I "copy and pasted large parts of their argument" - so I guess I am asking - can they then do so after reading that on receipt of my WS...?
I remember reading somewhere throughout my research on here that they can't submit further arguments or documents after the Witness Statement stage, but I can't find that thread now!

Redx

they certainly can file them late , but a judge could decide to reject them for being late, its the decision of the judge , as in your case too

never assume its black and white, all sorts of shenanigans happen

concentrate on what you are doing , forget the mystic meg lark

Blazkowicz

You're right - I'm trying to second-guess everything.
Here is my WS as it stands:


In the **********************

Claim No.***************

Between

************** (Claimant)

and

************** (Defendant)


WITNESS STATEMENT



I, ******************, of *******************, will say as follows:

1.
I am the Defendant in this matter. Attached to this statement is a selection of scanned documents to which I will refer – these documents will be referred to as per their file names.

2.
Before I describe what happened on the day I parked in the **************car park, I confirm that the essence of my defence to this claim is that:

a. A valid permit to park was visible within the vehicle.

b. The parking for this space was paid in full, in advance by the company that I worked for.

c. I have informed the Claimant and their solicitor that a permit was visible and have provided the invoice (Attached ‘*************’)

3
On the *************** I was an employee of the ************** Estate Agents. This company paid for two parking spaces in *************. They paid quarterly invoices in advance to ************ Property management, who were managing the *********** site on behalf of the freeholder. The individual concerned with ************* management at ************ Property Management was a **************. It is worth noting that this individual no longer works for *********** Property management and ********** Property management no longer manages this site. ********* is now managed by ********* . *********** works for this company and thus remains the contact regarding ************.


4.1
When I commenced employment with ***********, I was provided with a permit that had been created and supplied by ************Property Management to prove that the vehicles in the car park were authorised to park there. In 2013 – these permits were replaced by P***** Park permits and signs were erected. On a personal note – I significantly object to private parking companies as I feel that their enterprise is expressly for the purposes of making money and thus they are not willing to enter into any reasonable discourse in their tenacious attempts to ‘catch motorists out’. I personally objected to the employment of this agent, however as an employee of ********* – a large corporate agent, I had to use my car to do my job, and this was the location I was given to park. Therefore I reluctantly agreed to display the permits as a courtesy and did so at all times.

4.2
Attached ‘*******’ is a copy of the invoice for the parking space and an email from the aforementioned ************ confirming that this invoice was paid in full for the period the vehicle was parked. I have also referred to this invoice and sent it to the Claimant in an effort to prove that I had authority to park.

5.1
On the ********* my vehicle with the registration ********* was parked in space marked ‘***’ - one of the two spaces that ****** had paid in advance for. As mentioned in Paragraph 10 of my defence: due to the hot weather – I had placed my permit at the front of the central console of the car between the driver seat and the passenger seat. The permit was made of light paper and thus was prone to being caught by the wind and flying out of the window whilst driving. As this had happened before and I had to stop the car and retrieve the permit, to ensure it did not did not happen again, I placed it at the front of the central console of the car where it would not be caught by the wind when my windows were open. The permit was face up and fully visible through the window of the car.

5.2
As the ticket was given in ****** 2015, it is understandable that I am not in possession of the permit to provide this as proof. At the time of the ticket I offered to do so, however this was not accepted.

6.
I received two tickets from P******* Park in ******2015. One on ******* 2015 and one on ****** 2015. The ticket that they are pursuing in court is the ticket from ******** 2015. The other ticket, dated ****** 2015 also claimed that my permit was not visible and referred me to their photographic evidence online. I enclose the copy of their own evidence. This photographic evidence clearly shows that my permit was visible within the vehicle. I also have a photograph taken on the ******* 2015 on my mobile phone (proving the date it was taken) that showed the permit visible through the window and am prepared to show this photograph to the judge if necessary. P******** Park are not pursuing me for this ticket from the *******. I will ask the judge to infer the obvious as to the reason they have chosen not to pursue this ticket. They have instead chosen to rely on the ticket that offers evidence where my permit is not visible within the car in their photographs due to the angles of photography employed on the day by the P****** Park operative.

7.1
P******* Park have not provided a witness statement, and neither has the Parking Operative that was present on the ******** 2015. Instead, the witness statement is being provided by a legal company in Leeds. There being no witness statement or signed testimony from a Parking Operative means that there is no individual witness that can personally communicate to the court a refutation of my assertion that the permit was within the vehicle. Therefore we have only the photographs to rely on. In the photograph of the driver-side window, my permit is obscured by the steering wheel. In the photograph of the passenger-side window – the reflection on the glass makes viewing the permit impossible. Therefore I deny that the evidence is sufficient to prove that my permit was not in the vehicle.

7.1.2
Whether the Parking Operative took the photographs in such a way to obscure the permit, or was simply negligent in their duty of clearly photographing the contents of the vehicle I am unaware. I was not present when the photographs were taken and thus did not witness the Parking Operative taking them.

7.2
I am aware that in this case – my particular defence that the permit was displayed could be seen to come down to ‘my word against theirs’. However, I believe that paragraph 6. and 7.1 above corroborate my assertions that the permit was visible. The Claimant issued a ticket in very close chronological proximity that clearly showed the permit was visible where I had put it in the vehicle; and the photographic evidence that provides their alleged ‘proof’ is not visually sufficient.

7.3
It is unreasonable for a company to demand that a permit must be displayed in a specific and exact position within a vehicle. The permit was clearly visible and readable through the window of the car.

8.1
Paragraph 41 in the witness statement written by BW L***** states: “the Defendant failed to engage in any substantive pre action dialogue with the Claimant and therefore the Claimant had no option but to initiate legal proceedings against the Defendant.” This is simply not true and thus an unacceptable statement. I contacted BW L***** providing proof of the paid invoice and email as seen in attached ‘******’. I also set out a considered and detailed reason for denying the debt and asserted the very same reasons for not owing P***** Park any money. It is my belief that the only possible action that could have constituted “substantive pre action dialogue” was in fact payment to P****** Park which is wholly in dispute. I called B W L***** and explained that: the permit was visible, the permit was valid, and the space was paid for in advance by ******* estate agents. They would not enter into any consideration and the telephone representative informed me that there was no facility to appeal or provide any evidence. He insisted that I had only two choices – to pay the outstanding balance requested, or to await the Directions Questionnaire. It was therefore not possible for me to provide evidence that the permit was paid for when I was parked in this space. I believe that this is unreasonable. When the claimants solicitor – B W L****** consistently mentions that I have been unwilling to attempt an amicable solution to this issue, I feel that that is considerably unfair. The only amicable solution that they have communicated as available to me is to pay a fine. This fine has varied from £100, to £160, to the £********* now pursued in court. It is my strong belief that I do not owe any amount whatsoever to P******* Park. The company I work for had paid for the space in full, and I had expressed this explicitly to P****** Park. Had I agreed to pay any amount of this fine at any stage – I would have been de facto legitimising their right to charge it.

8.2
Paragraph 41 in the witness statement written by BW L******* states: “The defendant was aware of his contravention but failed to come to an amicable solution.”. At no point did I in any way admit to fault on my part or agree with the legitimate worth of the alleged contravention. I will repeat – I believe that the only “amicable solution” acceptable would have been to pay an amount of money to P******** Park.

9.1
P****** Park have been persistent in pursuing the ticket without, at any stage, any consideration of the fact that I was able to prove that I held a permit, given to me by *********, and paid in full, in advance. It became very clear that they were committed to dismissing all reason regarding my attempts to prove that I held a permit and was therefore fully authorised to park in the space. I had also heard of other individuals that had received tickets in the carpark due to the permit slipping down out of view or other such momentary instances, and even once they had provided proof of the permit and its payment – P******* Park refused to consider this and pursued the fine relentlessly in all cases. Therefore, it was then, and is now clear to me that P****** Park were not in fact interested in the truth of the matter, the facts of the matter, or any proof I could provide that I was authorised to park; but instead were singularly absorbed in efforts to recover the invoiced amount. I believe this is vexatious and unreasonable practice.

9.2
Paragraph 15 in the witness statement written by BW L***** states: “The Claimant has a clear and legitimate interest in maintaining the Scheme at the Car Park on behalf of the landowner. If there were no preventative measures from the enforcement of the Terms and Conditions, the situation could easily arise where a motorist could be deprived from using a parking space at the Car Park. That motorist would then have to park at an alternative location to their detriment, which could have a negative effect on the entire operation of the parking facility, and any businesses it supports.”. Parking space *** in this “Car Park” was for my use as an employee of ******** – who had paid for its use. The “motorist” mentioned in the above quote that “could be deprived from using a parking space at the Car Park” is myself. Therefore the logic of this argument is non-existent. As mentioned in paragraph 11. Of my defence (attached ‘*****’): “this Claimant has carried out a predatory operation on those very individuals whose interests they are purportedly there to protect and uphold.”.

10.1
I would like to point out that throughout the witness statement provided by B W L****** – there are a series of errors. They state, as fact, in Paragraph 64 and point 65 of their witness statement that I am an employee of the management company *******Property Management. I am not now, and have never been an employee of *******Property Management. Paragraph 65 states:
“The Claimant re-iterates that this email is from the Defendants employer, who the Defendant states paid for his parking space, however the Defendant’s employer has also made it clear that it is still incumbent for a permit to be displayed which the defendant failed to do.”
Paragraph 66 then states “In view of the above, it is clear that the defendant has breached the terms and conditions”. However the Paragraph that this refers to (Paragraph 65) contain false information as mentioned above and thus this statement is denied.

10.2
Their reliance on the email that was sent from ******** Property Management to Premier Park is undermined by their incorrect assertion that I was an employee of the management company. As stated above, I was an employee of ****** estate agent who paid ******* Property Management for the parking space rental. It concerns me greatly that they are able to state this obvious error as fact and I feel that it considerably undermines the integrity of their case and brings into question the validity of other ‘facts’ that they are presenting to the court.

10.3
Another error is that a series of photographs supplied previously in evidence and supplied again in the witness statement are not of the vehicle in question and are on different dates ranging from November 2013 to March 2014. The fact that they are including these photographs as evidence confuses the issue and further undermines the credibility of their case.

11.
Paragraph 47 in the witness statement written by BW L******* states: “It would appear that large parts of the Defence have been cut and pasted from websites relating to parking”. Personally – I believe that due to the ‘robo-claim’ nature of BW Legal’s practice – large parts of their Witness Statement are very likely to have also been cut and pasted from other documents. However as I have no evidence for this, just as they have no evidence for their accusation – this becomes a moot point. They do not substantiate this claim or provide evidence of its truth.

The Court is invited to dismiss the claim and to award my costs of attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14. I set these out in attached ‘******’

I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.