CEL County Court Defence

SportHorse

Hello Experts 
I would be very grateful if you could read over my defence letter and advise of any improvements.  Background info, I am pursuing this on behalf of my son who at this point was quite prepared to pay just to make them go away., having followed the advice to ignore all the previous letter.  So I said I would  fight it on his behalf.. 
Claim Form issued 27.08.2020       AOS submitted 04.09.2020       Defence deadline (I think) 28.09.2020
Paragraph 18 is very weak because having visited the car park myself I am struggling to find anything solid to fight with.  Son overstayed in a KFC by 2.5 hours in June 2019 and there is no meter to pay to extend your stay that I could find.  I have left the POFA statement in because CEL haven't specifically sent a Notice to Keeper, their second letter was a Notification Regarding Keeper Liability.  To this point we have not responded to any of the letters sent from CEL, Debt Recovery Plus or Zenith.
Thank you

KeithP

SportHorse said:

Claim Form issued 27.08.2020       AOS submitted 04.09.2020       Defence deadline (I think) 28.09.2020

You are right with your target date but there might be something useful here...

With a Claim Issue Date of 27th August, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 29th September 2020 to file your Defence.

That's one week away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

Umkomaas

Background info, I am pursuing this on behalf of my son 

Is the Defence in your son's name?  Is he the Registered Keeper?

having followed the advice to ignore all the previous letter

There has been no advice to ignore a PCN for approaching 8 years. Ignoring is the root of the issue of a court claim. 

Son overstayed in a KFC by 2.5 hours in June 2019 

To paraphrase what a Judge might ask - 'Why?'

1505grandad

Para 17  -  you only leave one of paras   -  the one relevant to NTD (8) or ANPR (9)

Para 25  -  you have put the Company No. of KFC instead of CEL

SportHorse

Umkomaas said:

Background info, I am pursuing this on behalf of my son 

Is the Defence in your son's name?  Is he the Registered Keeper?

having followed the advice to ignore all the previous letter

There has been no advice to ignore a PCN for approaching 8 years. Ignoring is the root of the issue of a court claim. 

Son overstayed in a KFC by 2.5 hours in June 2019 

To paraphrase what a Judge might ask - 'Why?'

1. Yes he is the registered keeper and the defence will be in his name.
2. Every time he got a letter I researched and the advice was always not to respond right up until County Court Claim when the        advice was at this point Do Not Ignore
3.  Good question, which I why I don't have much to say in paragraph 18

Coupon-mad

Every time he got a letter I researched and the advice was always not to respond right up until County Court Claim when the        advice was at this point Do Not Ignore

Where?  We haven't said to ignore a CEL charge since 2013.  Nor does pepipoo, nor does any parking forum worth reading.

The SAR will show him the NTK and he can then check if it's a POFA one.

SportHorse

KeithP said:

SportHorse said:

Claim Form issued 27.08.2020       AOS submitted 04.09.2020       Defence deadline (I think) 28.09.2020

You are right with your target date but there might be something useful here...

With a Claim Issue Date of 27th August, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 29th September 2020 to file your Defence.

That's one week away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

Thank you KeithP .  I did attach my first draft to thread hoping for some constructive criticism

SportHorse

1505grandad said:

Para 17  -  you only leave one of paras   -  the one relevant to NTD (8) or ANPR (9)

Para 25  -  you have put the Company No. of KFC instead of CEL

Thank you very much I will correct Para 25 and I will look again at Paragraph 17 

Coupon-mad

Remove 'should not proceed to trial' from the subheading, and your #4 because I will remove them from the template soon.
Cases are not being struck out at the mo.

SportHorse

Coupon-mad said:

Every time he got a letter I researched and the advice was always not to respond right up until County Court Claim when the        advice was at this point Do Not Ignore

Where?  We haven't said to ignore a CEL charge since 2013.  Nor does pepipoo, nor does any parking forum worth reading.

The SAR will show him the NTK and he can then check if it's a POFA one.

My mistake, reading resurrected old forums on CEL. Debt Recovery Plus and Zenith Collections are still advised to ignore I think.
The SAR will show him the NTK and he can then check if it's a POFA one.

Where will I find the SAR?  He has not received a NTK just a Notification Regarding Keeper Liability.

Also the initial PCN states that it has been issued because "the driver failed to pay the parking charge in respect of the period of parking and the parking charges have not been paid in full."  If there is no meter/app to pay for parking how could he pay?

SportHorse

Coupon-mad said:

Remove 'should not proceed to trial' from the subheading, and your #4 because I will remove them from the template soon.
Cases are not being struck out at the mo.

Done, thank you