Going to court against Vehicle Control Services

parkingnightmare

Vehicle Control Services are taking my wife to court over a parking fee in a pay and display car park.
I was using her car and I most definitely did pay for the amount of time I was parked. I can only presume I entered the car reg incorrectly or some other technical error occured.
Hands up to being stupid and ignoring all of the letters, including the letter before court action. I'd read the forums, but obviously not good enough. My fault, I'm an idiot. 
However, as it's in my wife's name, I'll be attending with her as the witness. I read the forum here (more carefully this time!) and wrote out a defence which was sent several months ago. I now have a letter from VCS (a huge document) that contains a covering letter, a copy of the defence I put together and a witness statement from a Mohammed Wali of Europa Court?.. beginning of the statement reads "I am employed by Vehicle Control Services Limited as a Paralegal and have been employed since January 2020..." Then there's an 'Exhibit site information" which contains lots of images of the signs within the car park and a contract (what good is the contact if I didn't see it, let alone sign it?) and then images of the car parked up, you can even just about make out the ticket I paid for, on the dashboard!
Here are my main concern. In the letter from VCS, there were two pages attached that are headed 'claim form' On the second page it says:
"Do not ignore this claim form, If you do nothing Judgement may be entered against you without further notice. This will make it difficult for you to get credit"
It then states:
"If you disagree with the claim or if you want to make a claim against the claimant you must send either the completed acknowledgment of service or a defence to the court within 14 days of the date of service"
I already sent the defence months ago and is logged on my moneyclaim.gov.org dashboard:
On there it says: Your claim was transferred to XXXXXXX on XX/XX/2019 (hiding this as I know the scum bags read this forum)
1. Please can someone tell me if I need to do anything else?
2. This letter makes it sound as if my wife will be CCJ'd if the ruling goes in favour of VCS. Please tell me this isn't the case? I thought even if she (we) lost the case there would be no CCJ unless we didn't pay after the ruling?

Redx

1) SHE (you on her behalf I assume) must do the WS + Exhibits + Costs Schedule by the due date on the court order, usually a few weeks before any hearing. I hope that she has emailed a SAR to their DPO to get all the data ?

one bundle to the claimant , one to the court and one she takes with her on the day

2) of course she will receive a CCJ if she loses, goes without saying so I have no idea why you thought any different ? (The Judge issues their Judgment on the case, in court , at the time)

C C = County Court , and J = Judgment , meaning Judgment by the County Court on behalf of the claimant , instant

However, the judge will give a timeframe for the figure set by the court to settle the matter, usually 30 days , to avoud the CCJ going on record and affecting her credit rating

parkingnightmare

Thanks for the quick reply. 

It’s me being stupid again. I read that there would be no CCJ as long as payment is made within 30 days. I have ADHD so I find it difficult to follow the amount of useful info in the forum. 

I can’t belueve this legalised crime is allowed to happen. I’m going to have to pay up. I can’t risk it going against my wife. 

Hands up ignoring the letter before court and not understanding the instructions but kinda stings that I paid for the parking fair and square but have no way of proving it. I do hope the law changes sometime soon. But I doubt it will. 

Redx

best bet is to fight on , then pay promptly if she loses in court , take your chequebook with you or obtain payment details and pay up asap

the point is to stop it being recorded on the credit file after 30 days , hence why its deferred for 30 days , so it can be paid promptly and therefore expunged from the record.(as if it never happened)

Coupon-mad

 I read that there would be no CCJ as long as payment is made within 30 days.

Yes, that is true.  There is NO CCJ that has ANY effect if the D pays quickly.
Redx said this at the end of his reply and you are both right:

However, the judge will give a timeframe for the figure set by the court to settle the matter, usually 30 days , to avoid the CCJ going on record and affecting her credit rating

And why are you thinking she's going to lose?  Only very few here lose, I can count them on one hand most years.  There is no CCJ risk.