One Parking Solution warned by a Judge that they may face an application for a civil restraint order

chelostar

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/judge-awards-driver-500-over-parking-companys-abuse-of-process-5psqx2m27

A driver who was dragged to court over a £182 charge for pulling into a town-centre car park for 12 minutes has won more than £500 from a parking company in a quarrel that the judge likened to a Shakespearean grudge.

One Parking Solution, based in West Sussex, was ordered to pay the woman £529 by May 8 after its penalty was found to be an “abuse of process” by Judge Harvey at Lewes county court in East Sussex.

The deputy district judge said the dispute was one of thousands of “high-temperature” parking cases, typically “fought with the zeal of the mythical Fortinbras’s army portrayed in Shakespeare’s Hamlet”.

Some local residents attended court to watch the proceedings, which Harvey said “would give a field day” to the army of Fortinbras, the vengeful prince of Norway who gathers a large following and marches on Denmark to recover a trivial piece of land.

The unsuspecting driver — herself an expert in English literature — was driving her car in Lewes in March last year when she received a phone call about a job application to work at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London.

Not wanting to commit a driving offence, she stopped her car at a pay-and-display car park in Eastgate Wharf and left the engine running. CCTV footage showed she spent 11 minutes and 48 seconds there, leaving as soon as the call was over.

A week later she received a £100 charge in the post with the option to pay £60 if she settled early. She wrote to One Parking Solution to say she should have been entitled to a grace period.

The company argued that she became contractually liable for a parking charge on entering the car park, saying that a large sign pointed out its terms and conditions.

“I heard my phone ring and I pulled up in the first safe location to take the call. I neither looked for, nor saw, any sign,” the driver said.

One Parking Solution’s sign, containing 650 to 700 words in a variety of typefaces, was found to be “completely inadequate” by the judge, who said it would take three or four minutes to read it all.

Lyn Reeves, a mother of four from West Sussex, represented the woman in court against One Parking Solution’s lawyers, despite claiming to have no legal training or a university degree. “I have an eye for detail and a good memory for facts and policy, codes of practice and laws,” she said.

An estimated 8.6 million charges were issued by private car parking companies in the year to April, 26% more than in the previous 12 months, according to the RAC Foundation. Private charges are essentially invoices for a breach of contract, as opposed to an official penalty charge notice (PCN), or fine, issued by local authorities or the police. They are often designed to look like PCNs.

The number of parking cases reaching the courts is at an all-time high; Harvey said they took up valuable time for “trifling sums of money”.

Marc Gander, co-founder of the Consumer Action Group, said the case had been dealt with “wonderfully” by the two women, who faced down One Parking Solution’s legal team. “The bounty-hunting [private car parking] industry uses the taxpayer-funded court as a cheap way of enforcing small debts,” he said.

“This judgment raises very serious concerns about the behaviour of this company.”

One Parking Solution said many comments made in the judgment were “incorrect or mistaken”.

● 8.6m The estimated number of charges issued by private car parking companies in the year to April, a 26% rise

[Deleted User]

I’m sure there may be a few lines of text we can use in our WS. I’m thinking the difference between parking and stopping. Could a judge disagree what DDJ Harvey has said? What do you legal think?

Coupon-mad

One county court case has no real weight on any other, although it is only right that you should put in cases of similar facts.

You are better using an appeal decision for that argument - Jopson v Homeguard (Google it or search this forum) and make sure you tell the Judge that the transcript you are appending is a persuasive appeal decision and one of the few times that 'parking' as opposed to 'temporary stopping' on private land, has been defined by a Senior Circuit Judge.

beamerguy

Nomad1967 said:

I’m sure there may be a few lines of text we can use in our WS. I’m thinking the difference between parking and stopping. Could a judge disagree what DDJ Harvey has said? What do you legal think?

As coupon-mad says. I don't think it's a case of a judge disagreeing  with another judge, it more so that one judge differs because of their lack of knowledge.

That seems to be changing and with the story getting in The Times", I would expect some very high profile readers

bluetoffee1878

Haven’t been on here for a while, but picked up on this from a group on FB.
Just wanted to add my congratulations to the OP and CM, who has personally helped me on a number of occasions.
Well done.

twhitehousescat

(a) The Claimants solicitors QDR Solicitors Limited are invited to report to the Court by 1 st June 2020 their explanation or observation as to why it appears that Miss Leering may have misled the Court in her witness

statement.

(b) Mayo Wynne Baxter LLP of 3 Bell Lane, Lewes BN7 lJU are invited to report to the Court by lst June 2020 their observations on the authenticity of the commercial lease ref erred to in the judgment, and whether their signature is authentic on behalf of the Debenham Property Trust.

(c) The Trustees of the Debenham Property Trust, Nicholas Debenham and Nicholas Charles Lear of the Managing Trustees Office, 1 Marylebone Mews, London Wl G 8PU are invited to report to the Court by 1 st June 2020 as to whether they authorised and instructed Mayo Wynne Baxter LLP to sign a lease on their behalf.

(d) The British Parking Association are invited to take steps to investigate OPS for breaches of its Code, in relation to the matters raised in the judgment including allowing 5-minute grace periods and whether this would be a breach of its code.


I wonder how many accepted the invite 

Le_Kirk

How about a nice round sum - ZERO!  Of course, we could both be wrong..................... or just cynical.

twhitehousescat

d) The British Parking Association are invited to take steps to investigate OPS for breaches of its Code, in relation to the matters raised in the judgment including allowing 5-minute grace periods and whether this would be a breach of its code.

and the bpa donr do invites , any fecker can join there club

DoaM

Is an invitation from the court really an optional item to choose to respond to or not?

D_P_Dance

I wonder how many accepted the invite 

Will we ever know?