Horizon/Gladstones claim - court this week

beamerguy

Shame, sorry to hear that.

Tell us how much you have to pay please.   Someone here will tell you how much Gladstones lost

bargepole

beamerguy said:

Shame, sorry to hear that.

Tell us how much you have to pay please.   Someone here will tell you how much Gladstones lost

Gladstones will have lost nothing. They will have charged fees to Horizon for drafting the claim form, filing the DQ, drafting the Claimant's WS, and for the advocate at the hearing.

After paying all those fees, plus the court filing fee and hearing fee, Horizon will still be out of pocket after deducting the judgment sum awarded by the court. It would have been cheaper to cancel the PCN in the first place.

victorian12

Here goes: court claim was £354.61 and the judge ordered I pay £220. That was after he requested I calculate the costs as Gladstones (GSs) couldn't do it and kept referring to the £100 charge in the WS which I had already pointed out was a mistake.
The cost breakdown was something like this:

actual fine £60 x 2
Court fee £25
Issue fee? (or similar) £25
Legal costs £50
GSs requested to add interest and the judge refused. He also said the 'contractual fee' of £70 per claim was absolutely not allowed.

After the call started it was established that the advocate (can't recall her name) hadn't received my WS, although the judge had (she then found it in her junk folder and said she was OK to proceed), and b) I hadn't received any bundle at all. I said I was happy to proceed as the bundle was exactly the same as the WS I received weeks ago. Shambles on both sides really. She put her case forward and then it was my turn.

I was expecting not to be able to use my WS and to only ask questions so I was almost caught off guard when asked to put my case forward. Thankfully I had written a bullet point sheet which I pretty much just read out. It is quite unnerving to be honest as you are not at all familiar with what language to use, how to order your points, what tone to use, pretty much everything. I felt like I gave it my best shot though. 

Then we both had the opportunity to ask questions before summing up (which did feel a bit like a TV drama). GSs jumped on the fact I had not kept the shopping voucher. I tried to explain it was a flimsy bit of paper with a code on and had no date on it etc. The judge didn't like the fact I had stayed in the car park for 2.5h for a trip to ASDA when the voucher is only for 2h. I had stayed this long but I also went to other shops and was happy enough to pay the extra, but it was too late to explain at this point as he said this during the summing up. So it looked like I wasn't being truthful which is frustrating. 

The whole discussion became about why I hadn't kept the voucher even though I tried to steer it back to the signage. This is where I found it difficult. I am not used to having to bait people and pick holes. I felt a bit out of my depth at this point. If I had my time again I would probably write out my argument word for word.

Umkomaas

I think Gladstones trouser money whatever the outcome. Heads they win, tails they win. Nice work if you can get it!

Le_Kirk

Shame, sorry you lost.

Ralph-y

You can get a sort of revenge buy using you unfortunate experience to the public's turn to comment on the CoP consultation that should have been in August . Your case will highlight perfectly the unfairness of this national disgrace of a scam.

Really sorry you lost

Ralph

victorian12

At least some of the unfair costs were removed. Biggest lesson learned - don't ignore the PCNs. It certainly doesn't look good in court trying to explain why you haven't responded for a year. 

Snakes_Belly

Sorry you lost. You have however not paid much more that the original claim.  It was worth having a go. As BP says it would have been better for the PPC to cancel the ticket.