Court Papers received - draft abuse of process defence

MC12345

beamerguy said:

This is a very simple process in 3 parts

1: Either they discontinue and then it's all over
2: You go to court and lose ?   DOUBTFUL ?  The judge will tell you it must be paid within say 30 days, you pay and it's all over, NO CCJ and no risk of a CCJ
3: YOU WIN, and you can claim costs up to £100 against them

Make sure you highlight ABUSE OF PROCESS to the judge.  He/She will either dismiss the case or simply deduct the fake £60 off the claim

Thanks again for replies, re the £100 limit above I have seen cases on here wehre people have been awarded £200+ as costs see cut and paste below, why is the £100 cap not in effect here, something to do with the £19 limit per hour ?

The below taken from another thread....

reading Letter before Claim and N1 claim documents for claim #3 xxxxxx - 2 hours

replying to LBCs (if you did) - x hours

researching how to respond to county court claims - x hours

writing defences x 3 and submitting these and Directions questionnaires - x hours

researching Witness Statements and preparing evidence x 3  - x hours

reading the Claimant's Witness Statement and evidence for the March hearing re that claim (if their WS has arrived)  - x hours

making a complaint to the SRA about the facsimile/copy & paste WS that has not been signed by the Claimant  - x hours

preparing Defendant's own WS and evidence  - x hours

printing and postage of xx pages  - £xx

MC12345

The above taken from this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76859337/#Comment_76859337

quoted below:

As a result of the Claimants’ unreasonable behaviour - including the false £60 added to each claim, which is an abuse of process UKCPM currently inflict on every Defendant, yet drop it when questioned by a Judge as they cannot justify double recovery - the Court is respectfully invited to order the Claimants to pay the Defendants’ summary costs on an indemnity basis, pursuant to Civil Procedure Rules, rule 27.14 (2) (g) or to at least reserve the Defendant's costs as assessed at this stage and order them to be refunded as an when the other two claims are (likely) discontinued.

With this in mind, you are attaching your Summary Assessment of Costs* so far for the THREE claims, numbered xxxxxx xxxxxx and xxxxxxx because the hours spent on this rather than your work/family/normal life have run into several dozen hours which you have no choice but to ask the court to use their case management powers to summarily assess at £19 per hour LiP rate, given that this Claimant has conducted these three cases separately and you believe that they are about to discontinue the other two (one Notice of Discontinuance has arrived so far - attached).

Here's some relevant wording in this defence (you are of course not writing an entire defence):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76653149#Comment_76653149

beamerguy

There is no cap as such, it's normal, this is a small claims court Some judges award a lot less whilst others can go higher and in one case over £1000 but the defendant in that case was a barrister.
The tip is, don't get greedy as it might backfire on you.

MC12345

cracking thanks for the info.

MC12345

What about loss of earnings in having to attend court for the day, in addition to the prep rates as suggested in the mail above ?

Also is a layperson (such as myself) able to attend court on behalf of my partner ? (and claim costs - as she is so so busy with work, attending a day out of work will cost her employer loads in having to sub the work out and she'll likely get it in the neck ?

nosferatu1001

The costs are simple to work out, and are split in two
Ordinary costs which should be awarded on the day if you win would be half days loss of leave or pay, up to £95, plus parking and mileage (or rail / bus fare you get the idea)
Unreasonable behaviour costs are harder to get, you have to show you are entitled to them by the opponent behaving badly. This lets you get round CPR27.14(2)(g). That is when you can claim for time to prepare defence, etc. 
No. The named defendant must be present unless a lawyer is rep then. You cannot rep them alone. 

MC12345

Thanks for the reply, In being able to demonstrate the unreasonable behaviour, if it was possible to produce an appendix of the amount of times this parking firm have attempted such claims and had then struck out (correct terminology ??) would that be evidence enough that they are continuing to demonstrate "unreasonable behaviour" ? If not, what would constitute it ? I get that might be a whole raft of things. If my other half is off work, the work she normally does is passed to external firms to complete at extortionate amounts, thus impacting her employer negatively. It would be great if there was some way to demonstrate the amount it will cost her employer in her having to attend court, and also have those costs passed on to the claimant, any ideas ? It woul dbe a very hard kick in the nuts to them !

beamerguy

This would be up to the judge to decide on "unreasonable behaviour" and by all means quote all the times the claims have been struck out. If nothing else, the judge could strike out their claim on the same grounds and maybe consider their claim unreasonable.  Each judge has their own thoughts on this so will depend on the judge, there is no fixed result.  Beyond your control.

As far as the cost to outsource someone for the day, you would need to impress on the judge this fact and provide proof. Again, some judges may accept this while others won't.   Everything is worth a try, as said, you never know until you try it

nosferatu1001

You usually have to demonstrate how they have been unreasonable in your (well, your partners) specific case. If you can show they have pursued a claim when they knew they had no chance of winning it, thats agreat start. if they dont comply with court orders, that helps. You must go an look at other threads. This is a well trodden argument, not going to go through all the nuances here again. 
As for the Ds employers costs? Not a cat in hells chance. 

beamerguy

nosferatu1001 said:

As for the Ds employers costs? Not a cat in hells chance. 

I tend to agree but it's not a no go area.  Parking Eye v The Barrister says they can do it, if they want to