ANOTHER Euro Parking / Gladstones bites the dust - Not parked in (non-existent) marked bay or space

Snakes_Belly

The PPC's photograph of the car park looks like a war zone rather than a car park.  

1505grandad

Para 4  in your WS:-

"............ it does not give a clear demonstration (of the show) the true size of the sign relative to the car park.........."

perhaps amend to read:-

".............. it does not give a clear demonstration as to the true size of the sign relative to the car park........." 

May be other posters can suggest more applicable phrases.

brummie108

They have now sent in an additional 'supplementary witness statement' (attached) received 3 days after the official court deadline for submission of papers. They're asking the court to admit them as 'my witness statement was provided at the last minute and they had no time to counter the points'. 

Surely this is ludicrous, as countering the points is what should take place at the hearing, for example, I won't now submit my own 'supplementary witness statement' to counter the points they've made in their supplementary one.

I presume I make this point to the judge at the start of the hearing and ask for it to not be admitted?

1) As they've showed their hand as to how they plan to counter my points, any additional pointers on approaches I should take (especially around the case law examples) would be appreciated.

2) How do I approach the point they're now making that I've 'shown no evidence that I did not live at the address they tried to contact me on'? If they'd asked for this to begin with, I'd have provided it.

3) I presume the judge will ignore their request for my Witness Statement to be thrown out as it 'contains arguments used on the internet', but in case he/she does consider it, any tips on specific language to use in relation to this point would also be appreciated.

Looking forward to getting this done and dusted on Tuesday!

Fruitcake

With regards to comments about information gleaned from the internet, must judge's answer is, "so what". Don't worry about it. You are allowed to use any and every source available to you including the internet. This is especially relevant in covid/lockdown/restriction times when there is possibly no other way to research the subject.
It's perfectly reasonable and allowable.

You have left the PCN number showing.

The Britannia appeal court case judgement is specific to that case only. The judge merely said there wasn't enough information to decide whether the fake add on should or should not be allowed, not that it was allowed.

With regards not having to not having time to review and respond to your WS, aw-diddums. It was served to the court and claimant within the court mandated timescale as per the CPR, unlike their supplementary WS.
You could ask the judge to discard this late document. If you decide to do so you would need to tell the scammers at the same time.

nosferatu1001

You have evidence surely - your testimony. You can appear as a credible witness. 

This is all because they're running scared of court claims right now. They are losing more and more and their profitable work has dried up due to lockdowns. 

Coupon-mad

If you were late filing & serving your WS and evidence then, I would say, DO NOT object to their supplementary WS.  You are in danger of yours being struck out anyway because you didn't comply with the original Order about filing & serving this not later than 14 days before the hearing (the Order from 6 months ago, the Directions from which still applied to the new hearing).

If it were me and this was raised at the start, I'd apologise for the late WS & evidence and say you were going by the Order about this hearing, but point out that the C has not been disadvantaged and has even had time to file & serve a supplementary WS, so the parties are on an even footing and you are not objecting to their late extra WS if they are offering you the same courtesy.

 In addition, as the contractual costs were not considered in the Beavis Case, 

True.  But presumably (if you copied and adapted the current example WS) you have ParkingEye v Somerfield (High Court) to refer to anyway and know about the Semark-Jullien case already, because the example WS already covers both.  You know that Somerfield para 419 covers the added costs and declares them unrecoverable.

brummie108

All in all, I elected not to ask the judge to discount their additional WS. I don't want to come across as being petty, and nothing they've stated in their additional WS affects the Defence arguments. 

This is going to sound like an incredibly naïve question, but after reading some online guides about what to expect from a small claims hearing, I'm still not entirely sure what the format of the hearing will be.

Will the judge ask us to present our WSs, to which we are supposed to read them word-for-word, or will he/she read through them in the hearing and then ask each party any clarifying questions that they wish? 

Coupon-mad

The Judge should have read them both and will ask the Claimant to summarise their case (not word for word WS) then ask you to counter it and to summarise your defence points (again, not word for word).

brummie108

CASE WON. Judge dismissed the claim entirely.
To say I'm overjoyed would be understating it.

Before I go ahead and post details of the ruling, is it indeed okay to do so before the official transcripts have been sent out? Don't want to break any sort of law inadvertently.
 

Umkomaas

brummie108 said:

CASE WON. Judge dismissed the claim entirely.
To say I'm overjoyed would be understating it.

Before I go ahead and post details of the ruling, is it indeed okay to do so before the official transcripts have been sent out? Don't want to break any sort of law inadvertently.

Nice one, well done.  A fulsome court report is absolutely fine, there are no issues you need to be concerned about as long as you keep it to factual reporting. 

There won't be an official transcript, unless you want to fund one yourself. They are not cheap - think three figures - and unless there was some earth-shattering revelation, we don't suggest that people should routinely purchase a transcript. What you will receive is an official notification of the judgment. It's unlikely to be more than a couple of sentences long, and it may not even cite the reasons for the decision.  

If you could please let us have information on the court location, the Judge's name, court claim number, did the PPC field an advocate, what did they have to say, what did you say, what did the Judge say, on what point(s) did the Judge make his/her decision, did you get your costs (ordinary and additional) ...... that would all be very helpful.