Civil Enforcement ltd court claim form

Newcount

Hello and thank you in advance for any help and advice.
I am a taxi driver,parked in a market car park on 02 December 2018,while waiting for customers to" pick some bits and pieces". Waites a total of 20 minutes.
Received a PCN from CEL a week later. Because the PCN was very crudely formed,without sender address,I assumed it was a scam and ignored it. It had pictures of my taxi and entry time and exit time which was exactly 20 minutes.
More letters followed,some from two different debt collecting companies,which I ignored.
Yesterday I received a CourtClaim Form, in which Cel is asking for 255.88,it was 170.00 up to this point.
I signed the page of Acceptance of Service and posted to court today.
I need some advise as to my defence,since it feels hopeless,I assumed there would be an allowed time before they charge you,as is the case in most supermarkets.

I thought about paying it when I saw the court claim form,understood this was not a scam (or was it!)
But now I am not worried about paying it,as I could afford it,but after reading exessively in this forum I want to defend it out of principle,not for lack of funds.
I am willing to pay the sum to anyone who can help me defend this claim.
Apologies for any spelling mistakes and unstructured writing.
Thank you.

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Did it come from the County Court Business Centre in Northampton, or from somewhere else?

Coupon-mad

I am willing to pay the sum to anyone who can help me defend this claim.

Well no, you do NOT want to pay someone and certainly not anyone who contacts you by pm here, or styles themselves or a company as a parking appeals service.

AVOID AVOID AVOID.

One of them in particular has aggressive people who are worse than parking firms, believe me, truly nasty pieces of work who are not the sort you'd want to have your data. You have been warned - and Trustpilot backs me up.

Have taxi drivers not yet sussed to cover your numberplates on private land, such as in retail parks? I know lots of people who do this to avoid such scams and certainly taxi drivers should ALL do it even though you'd have to stop for 10 seconds after leaving, to remove the sock or duct tape (or whatever is safe to cover the letters & numbers) from your rear numberplate.

The_Deep

Cel is asking for 255.88,it was 170.00 up to this point.

This I far more than the law allows. The judge may throw the claim out as abuse of oricess, read this

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6014081/abuse-of-process-district-judge-tells-bwlegal

Nine times out of ten of these tickets are scams so consider complaining to your MP.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, many of whom are former clampers, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies

Newcount

Sorry I had not seen the reply earlier.
The date was 23 September.

nosferatu1001

Did it come from teh CCBC?
Answer ALL questions given, theyre asked for a reason

Have you read post 2 of the newbies thread, which you MUST read?

Your first step is acknowledging the claim ONLINE, TODAY

Newcount

I have no idea of covering the plate,I had no idea at all there was parking restriction as it is not an area I go usually,second time in the last three years. The first time did not have any problem at all,must have been recently that they installed Anpr.

Newcount

I did send it in the post yesterday,but I will send it today online as well.
I am new to the forum and did not see the question,I apologise,Trying to learn how it works.

Newcount

The claimform was from Northampton court.

Le_Kirk

Newcount wrote: »

The claim form was from Northampton County Court Business Centre (CCBC).

For your information: -
It is not a court but a government handling centre staffed by administrators.

KeithP

Newcount wrote: »

The date was 23 September.

Newcount wrote: »

The claim form was from Northampton court.

With a Claim Issue Date of 23rd September, you have until Monday 14th October to do the Acknowledgement of Service. If possible, do not do the AoS before 28th September, but otherwise there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. To do the AoS, follow the guidance offered in a Dropbox file linked from post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread. About ten minutes work - no thinking required.

Having done the AoS, you have until 4pm on Monday 28th October 2019 to file your Defence.

That's over four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.


When you are happy with the content, your Defence could be filed via email as suggested here:

Print your Defence.
1. Sign it and date it.
   
2. Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
   
3. Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk
   
4. Just put the claim number and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'Please find my Defence attached'.
   
5. Log into MCOL after a few days to see if the Claim is marked "defence received". If not chase the CCBC until it is.
   
6. Do not be surprised to receive an early copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire, they are just trying to keep you under pressure.
   
7. Wait for your DQ from the CCBC, or download one from the internet, and then re-read post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread to find out exactly what to do with it.