Horizon parking court claim

winner1111

Coupon-mad said:

13. The Claimant’s witness statement was received five days after following the court's deadline. 

Remove the word 'fraudulent - a Judge won't entertain that word.

Amended point 13. I have changed fraudulent to forged. I'm guessing you have a better term...!

winner1111

I will leave this for tonight and if there are no more amendments by early afternoon then I'll have this posted to both the court and Gs. The only remaining question I have is whether or not I should include the whole transcript in the document or have it as a separate exhibit to be referred to. If I don't hear anything then I'll simply add it to the document.
Thanks again guys. 

Coupon-mad

Exhibit A1 I am not sure I can attach (is this allowed?) so I may need to include it as the text body? It's the transcript of Excel Parking Services v Smith.

Attach it as an exhibit.

nosferatu1001

Indeed, its an exhibit so erference it the same way you did all others - hopefully, exhibit YOURINITIALS/001.
THe reason for using yoru initials is obvious - both of you have exhibits, and initials makes it clear WHOSE exhibits anone is talking about at any one time. 

winner1111

Okay, the good news is we won! Case was dismissed and I will outline basics below.
It didn't quite happen for the reasons I thought it would. The judge found two reasons to find in our favour; firstly that the car park was previously unmanaged and the change to being managed was not obvious to anyone not looking (she agreed that the signs were small, too high up and unreasonable to expect a driver of a moving vehicle to actually notice, let alone read). The second (and main) reason was that the Claimant's WS was received only 6 days before the hearing (which I had to point out otherwise it would've been missed) and this was seen by the judge as a serious breach (I think that's the word used but I can't remember exactly) and totally unacceptable way for a professional solicitor firm to operate since they know the rules. In fact, based on this alone I would suggest to anyone filing their WS to do so at the 'last minute', thereby giving Gs no chance to file theirs on time since they seem to want to read the Defendant's first. 
An interesting point is that before the hearing commenced, the judge berated me for using the term fraudulent in terms of the signature on Gs WS. I replied by saying I didn't use the term 'fraudulent' but 'allegedly forged' and the judge said I had no right to use this terminology. Strange. What do you think? The judge was clearly not happy. The judge also questioned my legal background (of which there is none) and then said there were a couple of other points I should not have used but didn't elaborate on these. 
Another point is that the judge brought up the fact that the POFA point was not in my defence (wasn't bothered about the WS and so could not be used (Coupon-Mad: you are absolutely right about that being the silver bullet). The judge also said that I had "no right" to send in a skelly, but saying that she did refer to it on at least two occasions when discussing my defence!
Anyway, thank you so much everyone, I learnt a lot today at the hearing and on how to go forward with such cases. 

Umkomaas

Great result and thank you for the update, it means a lot to the small number of regulars ploughing through Groundhog Day stuff every day of the year.

this was seen by the judge as a serious breach (I think that's the word used but I can't remember exactly) and totally unacceptable way for a professional solicitor firm to operate since they know the rules. 

Presumably the Judge meant that they are paid for their services, as opposed to any other form of construction of 'professional'? 🙂

Le_Kirk

Well done, a result and a win is a win.  You will have to change your user name to winner1111+1.

D_P_Dance

What about your costs?  Did you ask for unreasonable behaviour costs?  If not, read this

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/making-a-small-claim/

winner1111

D_P_Dance said:

What about your costs?  Did you ask for unreasonable behaviour costs?  If not, read this

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/making-a-small-claim/

Yes, we tried to get those costs but the judge only permitted a day's lost pay (£68) + mileage and parking which came to £76.90 in total. Other costs for unreasonable behaviour, work done in prep and even stationery costs were denied. I was surprised by this. 

nosferatu1001

they presumably thought having the case dismissed was sufficient sanction. did the claimant turn up - solicitor or otherwise?
Civil court is no place to allege criminal conduct, which you did, unless you have strong back up for using the term.