CCJ- Set Aside- CLAIMANT DISCONTINUED

Coupon-mad

dtnwf said:

Thank you. I'll wait out for further instruction.
I feel confident with regards to my defence however, with the diabolical above Witness statement for the set aside i'm not sure I'll even be provided with the opportunity to put it forward.

Eh?  In what way is it diabolical?

Apart from this bit that's a pretty good set aside witness statement!

No Loss Suffered by Claimant: Their claim is presumably based on damages for alleged breach of contract. It is a fundamental principle of English Law that a party who suffers damages through breach of contract can only seek through court action to be put back in the same position as they would have been if the breach had not occurred. In order to do so, they must demonstrate their actual, or genuine, pre-estimate of loss. I submit that no loss has been suffered by the Claimant as a result of any alleged breaches of contract on the part of any motorist of the vehicle of which I am the Registered Keeper.

2.5.3. Claimed charge is an Unenforceable Penalty: I further submit that the Parking Charge that the Claimant claimed, given it is not based on any loss suffered due to the alleged breach, is nothing but an unenforceable penalty.

You don't have to submit a defence or proof of being a resident.  You can either take it to court if it ends up being a face to face hearing, or (more likely) you will get court directions about it being a telephone hearing and asking you to submit everything by email anyway. 

You don't need evidence to support the DEFENCE at this stage.  You are doing fine.

Le_Kirk

Well, as @Coupon-mad writes, that is a pretty good Witness Statement (seen far worse!), gather your evidence ready and wait for more instructions from the court.  Was the original  hearing to be face-to-face or had they intimated it would be telephone or video?

dtnwf

Thank you all for the reassurance. I just felt that the Witness statement wasn’t as good as it could have been. I typed it up hastily. I should have spent more time researching. I was extremely naïve to this process and to how parking companies & their Solicitors operate.

 

The court order for the set aside hearing was sent to me in November 2019 prior to the pandemic, I now imagine this will be telephone.

 

Prior to finding out about the CCJ I had no correspondence with the parking company, their debt collectors or Gladstones Solicitors. It was only through the CCBC that I could ascertain what the default CCJ was for.

 

Just to clarify; the hearing next month is for a set-aside. I don’t need to send any evidence to support what I have said in my Witness Statement unless otherwise instructed by the court? If in the event it does proceed as face-to-face I will take my evidence to support the set-aside with me.

 

In the hopes that I will be granted a set-aside next month I have prepared a draft defence.

Coupon-mad

Yes, honestly, you are all set.  If it is a remote hearing then I'm sure the Directions will ask for your evidence (re the defective service of the claim, to support the set aside application) by email maybe a week or two before. 

You could if you want, also append your draft defence to show the Judge you have 'prospects of success' and IMHO the abuse of process issue means I fail to see how ANY Judge won't see a 'good reason' to set aside an exaggerated quantum CCJ.  That in itself is a huge issue.

Just drop the 'pre-estimate of loss' issue that was in your WS.  In fact if you get to email your bundle, remove it.

dtnwf

Hello again,
Thank you all for the advice.
I have received direction from the court that the set-aside hearing will take place via telephone.
Gladstones Solicitors have provided me with the Claimants phone number and their representative - The company director of NWFEE LTD.
 Is this normal? I assumed I would be dealing with a solicitor from Gladstones.

Coupon-mad

Gladstones never send a solicitor, they don't get involved!  They either send a legal rep from a firm like LPC Law, or the claimant company decide to attend themselves. 

Why have Gs given you a phone number?  Are you meant to be arranging the conference call, surely not!  What does  the court Order say about the arrangements and who to send phone numbers to?

D_P_Dance

They are very small beer, check them out on Companies House Beta.

henrik777

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part23/pd_part23a#I

Telephone Hearings

Interpretation

6.1 In this paragraph –

(a) ‘designated legal representative’ means the applicant’s legal representative (if any), or the legal representative of such other party as the court directs to arrange the telephone hearing; and

(b) ‘telephone conference enabled court’ means –

(i) a district registry of the High Court; or

(ii) a County Court hearing centre,

in which telephone conferencing facilities are available.

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When a hearing is to be conducted by telephone

6.2 Subject to paragraph 6.3, at a telephone conference enabled court the following hearings will be conducted by telephone unless the court otherwise orders –

(a) allocation hearings;

(b) listing hearings; and

(c) interim applications, case management conferences and pre-trial reviews with a time estimate of no more than one hour.

6.3 Paragraph 6.2 does not apply where –

(a) the hearing is of an application made without notice to the other party;

(b) all the parties are unrepresented; or

(c) more than four parties wish to make representations at the hearing (for this purpose where two or more parties are represented by the same person, they are to be treated as one party).

6.4 A request for a direction that a hearing under paragraph 6.2 should not be conducted by telephone –

(a) must be made at least 7 days before the hearing or such shorter time as the court may permit; and

(b) may be made by letter,

and the court shall determine such request without requiring the attendance of the parties.

6.5 The court may order that an application, or part of an application, to which paragraph 6.2 does not apply be dealt with by a telephone hearing. The court may make such order –

(a) of its own initiative; or

(b) at the request of the parties.

6.6 The applicant should indicate on his application notice if he seeks a court order under paragraph 6.5. Where he has not done so but nevertheless wishes to seek an order, the request should be made as early as possible.

6.7 An order under paragraph 6.5 will not normally be made unless every party entitled to be given notice of the application and to be heard at the hearing has consented to the order.

6.8 If the court makes an order under paragraph 6.5 it will give any directions necessary for the telephone hearing.

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Conduct of the telephone hearing

6.9 No party, or representative of a party, to an application being heard by telephone may attend the judge in person while the application is being heard unless every other party to the application has agreed that he may do so.

6.10 If an application is to be heard by telephone the following directions will apply, subject to any direction to the contrary –

(1) The designated legal representative is responsible for arranging the telephone conference for precisely the time fixed by the court. The telecommunications provider used must be one on the approved panel of service providers (see Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service website at www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk)

(2) The designated legal representative must tell the operator the telephone numbers of all those participating in the conference call and the sequence in which they are to be called.

(3) It is the responsibility of the designated legal representative to ascertain from all the other parties whether they have instructed counsel and, if so, the identity of counsel, and whether the legal representative and counsel will be on the same or different telephone numbers.

(4) The sequence in which they are to be called will be –

(a) the designated legal representative and (if on a different number) his counsel;

(b) the legal representative (and counsel) for all other parties; and

(c) the judge.

(5) Each speaker is to remain on the line after being called by the operator setting up the conference call. The call shall be connected at least ten minutes before the time fixed for the hearing.

(6) When the judge has been connected the designated legal representative (or his counsel) will introduce the parties in the usual way.

(7) If the use of a ‘speakerphone’ by any party causes the judge or any other party any difficulty in hearing what is said the judge may require that party to use a hand held telephone.

(8) The telephone charges debited to the account of the party initiating the conference call will be treated as part of the costs of the application.

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Documents

6.11 Where a document is required to be filed and served the party or the designated legal representative must do so no later than 4pm at least 2 days before the hearing.

6.12 A case summary and draft order must be filed and served in –

(a) multi-track cases; and

(b) small and fast track cases if the court so directs.

6.13 Any other document upon which a party seeks to rely must be filed and served in accordance with the period specified in paragraph 6.11.

(Rule 2.8 explains how to calculate period of time expressed in terms of days.)

dtnwf

I'd received an email yesterday from the court stating: To enable the Judge to make contact with you to conduct this hearing please provide contact details for all parties who need to be present during this hearing.  Please send the contact details to XXXX@justice.gov.uk.  The Judge will then dial parties when they are ready to hear you.

I then emailed Gladstones and requested details. Today they then forwarded the contact numbers to the court and copied me into it. Claimants representative number and name + Defendants name and number.
Just to be safe I also sent the contact details too.

I just thought it was odd to have had all correspondence with Gladstones then have the Claimant/Claimants representative be the one present. I'm clearly looking too much into things, however having now been on the receiving end of their tactics i'm suspicious of every minor detail.

Umkomaas

I just thought it was odd to have had all correspondence with Gladstones then have the Claimant/Claimants representative be the one present.

It's the cheapest way for a small fry PPC. They obviously don't want to pay for a freelance advocate to be allocated to the case (and hearing) by Gladstones - starts around an unrecoverable £120.