ES Parking / Gladstones claim

therugbyfan

Thanks CM.  Yes I have done the draft order and the covering email.  I was only wondering if it was worth taking papers to court as well, just in case they decide to go ahead and do it on papers (even though we are asking them not to) . . . only because I am concerned that I have 65 pages in total and really can't reduce it any more.

Coupon-mad

No, even if they do it on the papers, at the moment emailing bundles from home is understandable and courts are working with that.

therugbyfan

Ok.  Email to court being sent in the morning + draft order (word doc) + pdf of bundle.  Thank you so much for all the help and guidance, it is very much appreciated.  I will report back with any further correspondence.

therugbyfan

One email (as per CM draft wording) submitted this morning to the court and to Claimant Solicitor with the two documents attached.  I have received auto-response receipts from both.  The Solicitor acknowledgement email states in their footer that they do not accept service of documents by email.  Is this relevant at the moment?
The court response is as follows:

Thank you for your email which has been received by XXXXX County Court Civil Section.

Please do not send duplicate emails. In accordance with the Civil Procedure Rules please refrain from submitting unnecessary duplicate documents by only using one method - Post or Email (Claim Forms must be sent by post)

Please note any Enforcement work (Including Warrants / Attachments of Earnings) or Family work (Including Divorce or childrens cases) should be sent to XXXXXfamily@justice.gov.uk To help us deal with your request promptly, please ensure the following are in the subject box
· case number · hearing date · party names · which party you represent

Documents over 25 pages will not be printed. For further information on sending emails to the County Court, please visit the site below [www.justice.gov.uk/courts/email-guidance]www.justice.gov.uk/courts/email-guidance.

***IMPORTANT NOTICE ***

MEDIA AND PUBLIC ACCESS TO HEARINGS if you are a media representative or member of the public and wish to access proceedings remotely whilst they are taking place please telephone XXXXX

XXXXX County Court remains open.

WHAT IF I HAVE A HEARING LISTED?

Most cases will be suitable for a telephone hearing which means you will not need to attend court.
The Judges will be considering all the cases and you will be contacted by the court to make arrangements for a telephone hearing.
As you will appreciate, the court staff are working incredibly hard to contact all the parties for all the cases, so don’t worry if you don’t hear anything until a few days before the hearing date.
If you do not think that the court has up to date contact information for you, most essentially a telephone number, please let us know as soon as possible please by email to XXXXXl@justice.gov.uk Give us your case number, name and the date of the hearing as well as your up to date phone and email address.
It is important to note that when the court calls you, it is likely that the screen will show ‘No Caller ID’.
WHAT HAPPENES AT A TELEPHONE HEARING.
•    At the date and time of hearing: - If the court has requested the parties to arrange the telephone hearing the legal conferencing provider will contact the court as appropriate.
•    At the date and time of hearing: - If the court is arranging the conference call then the Court will call you.
•    Please try to be in a private quiet area so that you are not overheard and can hear everything.
•    It is important you are ready to accept the call at the time of the hearing, so that you can take part. If you do not answer the call, the hearing may go ahead, and a decision made in your absence. Sometimes the Court may be busy and the hearing may be slightly later than originally planned. Please remain available.

IF YOU ARE A LAWYER REPRESENTING A PARTY WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
•    if you have a forthcoming hearing, please talk to the other party/parties and try to agree arrangements for a remote hearing.
•    The Judges are usually able to hear cases on the phone.
•    Tell the Court what arrangements you have made and how the Judge can access the hearing.

HOW DO I LODGE DOCUMENTS FOR MY HEARING?
The preferred option is by email.  Many of the Judges are working remotely and it saves us time in getting documents to them quickly and easily. Your hearing notice will provide specific direction as to the format you must use when lodging your bundle.
WILL THERE BE A FEE TO ARRANGE A TELEPHONE HEARING?
There will be no fee and no need to make a formal application at this time.
I AM WAITING FOR A COURT ORDER/APPLICATION

We are working hard in the court office to deal with relisting hearings and urgent matters. We ask for your patience at this time. Unless your matter is considered urgent, there may be a delay in dealing with it.

MY EMAIL HASN’T BEEN RESPONDED TO

Again, we are dealing with a high volume of emails. Please limit your correspondence to urgent matters only or documents for hearings.  We cannot at this time deal with general correspondence and would request that you do not copy the court into correspondence between parties.

Finally, we thank you for your patience at this extremely difficult time and we send our genuine best wishes to all the court users and stakeholders.  Please stay at home, stay safe and look after yourself and your families.

therugbyfan

Just a quick point, should I send another email confirming my contact telephone number as requested in the auto-response, or does that go against me asking for the case NOT to be heard via. telephone?  I haven't provided a telephone number anywhere before in this case, so nobody would (should) have it at present.
Otherwise, I am done for now & will sit tight and await further correspondence.

D_P_Dance

AFAIAA, there is no law which says you must have a telephone.  If you do have one, can a court demand the number? 

Umkomaas

I'd provide the number - you don't want an omission to give the court any opportunity to have a reason to find against you. Stop overthinking things. 

Coupon-mad

The Solicitor acknowledgement email states in their footer that they do not accept service of documents by email.  Is this relevant at the moment?

No.  Not at the moment in lockdown; they have no option.

And only provide the phone number a bit later, if you get an Order for a telephone hearing and have no choice. 

In which case, read the order carefully and email your phone number at that point, to the solicitor and the court, stating that this is given ONLY for the purpose of a telephone hearing because the latest order requires you to attend one, and the solicitor and their client are not allowed to retain, store or process that data for any other purpose, including but not limited to sending texts and harassing the defendant to settle, which is not an option in a case where there is no contract and no debt.

therugbyfan

I have received an order this morning stating that the District Judge wishes to consider whether or not this hearing should be dealt with without a hearing and on the basis of the papers as provided for in CPR 27.10.  The parties have until 4pm Monday to email the court stating whether they consent to the court dealing with the claim without a hearing and on the basis of the evidence already sent to the court in accordance with the previous directions order.

You may recall that I submitted my witness statements, evidence bundle, cost assessment, etc to the Court by email (cc: Gladstones) as a single pdf along with draft order (word) and the covering email stating the following:

Dear Deputy District Judge XXXXX, 
Re: Claim number XXXXX - hearing date set for XX/05/2020
Important Preliminary matter and Witness statement and evidence from the Defendant
(served by email due to COVID_19 measures)

I am the Defendant.  The appended witness statement and evidence bundle, as well as this covering email, has also been sent to the Claimant's litigation team.  In the event of directions for a future hearing in person at this court, hard copies will be provided when I have access to a printer.

Preliminary matter
I am aware that there is more than sufficient information available in this case to activate the court's duty, as set out in s71 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 ('the CRA').  

The CRA imposes a duty upon courts in all consumer contract cases, to apply the test of fairness in s71 of the CRA and I draw specific attention to more than one breach of CRA Schedule 2, as explained in my witness statement.   Due to this, and to remove an unnecessary burden on the court, I invite the Judge who may at this stage be considering an Order for a Telephone Hearing or adjournment, to instead exercise the court's case management powers pursuant to CPR 3.4, to strike this claim out without a hearing in any format.   

This has already occurred in multiple parking claims in recent months, with duplicate reasons used by Judges sitting at courts as widely spread as Southampton, Warwick, IOW, Caernarfon, Luton and Skipton.  Failed applications with hearings attended by two barristers acting on behalf of parking firms have taken place at Skipton (February 2020, before District Judge Faye Wright) as well as at Southampton, before District Judge Grand.  I refer to my exhibit transcript of the Approved Judgment in Britannia Parking Ltd v Crosby and Anor (11/11/2019) which pays regard to the Supreme Court binding case law and the duty on the courts to invoke s71 of the CRA.

This parking charge claim has been deliberately exaggerated to reach a global sum of £160 despite the Claimant and their legal advisers being well aware by now, that such a sum is unrecoverable in parking charge cases because it is an attempt to go behind case law and statute law, and taints the entire claim.  As such, the Defendant draws attention to the Claimant's continued 'forum shopping' and their clear intention of finding victims who will pay in full without defending, or a less than competent court to allow them to claim a sum far higher than they can lawfully recover. 

Further, there has been no serious attempt to comply with the CPRs and the Claimant's incoherent, stylised particulars do not constitute compliance.  These cases unnecessarily delay and clutter court listings and represent a contemptuous and significant abuse of process.

To assist with the efficient disposal of the case, I attach an editable (Word Document) Draft Order.

For the avoidance of doubt, should the court decide against striking the claim out, I am not in agreement with the case being heard 'on the papers' because:

(a)  this claim is following the usual oppressive parking robo-claim path, with a very sparse statement of case, later followed by a case made by way of ambush, with a tendency to produce prolix witness statements, right at the death.  This places Defendants at a huge disadvantage, given the first time they see any 'evidence' is at completion of the bundle, and their only chance to point out that large parts of the evidence are completely irrelevant, is at trial.  

(b) the case of JD Wetherspoon Plc v Harris and others [2013] EWHC 1088 (Ch.) is an example of the Court using its power to limit the evidence by striking out large parts of a witness statement for abuse, because it was written by a person with no personal knowledge who recited facts based on the documents he had read.  Similarly, parking charge witness statements contain template legal argument, misleading reliance upon ParkingEye v Beavis and even more irrelevant case law, and are more designed to stand in terrorem of defendants  than to assist the Court in determining the substantive issues.  

(c) Such 'witness statements' lack probative value and are very often created by freelance legal writers and 'signed' (or facsimile 'signed') by a third party who is not a witness in the true sense, and who relies upon misleading and irrelevant extracts of case law and undated, old or 'stock' images of signs, some of which are often not even present at the location in question.  

(d) In my case, I strongly believe that I must be afforded a fair opportunity to rebut the inaccuracies in the 'evidence' re the parking location/event and highlight the failure to demonstrate a prominent/legible contract, or liability, or legitimate interest.  There are only two local witnesses, in the true sense, and I believe that, if the claim is to be heard, a decision cannot be fairly made without a hearing in the presence of myself and my other witness.  If the claim is not struck out, I would prefer a hearing in person once the pandemic lockdown is lifted.  However, I understand that to formally ask for an adjournment would be at a disproportionate cost which is not an option for me, so I await the court's Order and Directions.

May I also add that I am an ex-military Veteran who suffers PTSD, anxiety and a stammer.  For this reason, I was hoping to use a lay representative to speak for me at the hearing as this claim has already caused a spike in my anxiety levels and I fear it will be worse still if I should have to undertake a hearing by telephone.  Furthermore, the other witness in my case is disabled and presently shielding for 12 weeks as he is in the vulnerable category.
YS
Documents appended herewith:
- Draft Order (word document)
A single PDF file containing:
- Witness Statement of Defendant 
- Supplementary Witness Statement – Abuse of Process
- Witness Statement of XXXXX
- Evidence – Contents list of exhibits including descriptions & preface
- Photos x 11
- Beavis sign v ESPE sign for comparison
- Blue badge parking card of XXXXX
- Site plan
- Insurance Certificate showing named drivers
- Defence
- Protection of Freedom Act (PoFA) 2012, Sch 4
- Consumer Rights Act 2015, Sch 2, Paras 6, 10, 14 & 18
- IPC Code of Practice Part B, Para 15
- Henry Greenslade wording re: Understanding Keeper Liability
- Parking Eye v Beavis 2015 Judgement - Supreme Court – paras 98, 193 & 198
- VCS v Moran Judgement - Caernarfon Court
- Britannia v XXXXX Judgement at Luton Court
- Britannia v Crosby Approved Judgement at Southampton Courts
- Jopson v Homeguard (2016) at Oxford County Court - Approved Appeal Judgement
- PCM v Bull Judgement -B4GF26K6- High Wycombe Court – relating to forbidding signage
- ES Parking v Ms Q (C0GF4C5K) Preston Court – Parking Prankster web blog
- ES Parking v Ltd Co (C2GF3D6K) Manchester Court – Parking Prankster web blog
- Summary Cost Assessment of Defendant

I telephoned the court later that day to confirm they had received it and the lady also confirmed that she was happy to print the copy for the Judge.  So they've definitely got all of the above to hand.
In my response to the order received today, should I just send the same email, including the order?  Is there anything new I should add?

Le_Kirk

I would suggest the court ONLY wants to know, by 4 p.m. on Monday whether or not you and the claimant want it heard on papers.  I would not be sending it all again as it specifically states on the "basis of the evidence already sent to the court."