Premier Park claim - UPDATE: I now have a hearing date

heckin_pupper

Hi all,
First of all thank you to everyone who's been posting on this forum, I have found the information here invaluable and I will update this thread with the final outcome to further contribute to the community.

My situation: Premier Park claim, AoS submitted, started working on my defence, a few weeks left to submit. Incident was over a year ago, but I have not responded to solicitor letters or to the original PCN (notice to keeper) as I thought it was all a scam. If I'd stumbled upon this forum earlier, I would have complained to the land owner or at least request a SAR before the Claim stage. As it stands, I don't know what evidence/breach I am actually going up against. I don't have the original PCN anymore but I recall the contravention was something vague like "Unauthorised Entry/Parking" and the CCTV picture was of the car not even in a parking bay - this is in a shared car park, partly managed by PP and partly free of charge for customers of another business. Everyone in the family has used the shared car park but we have always thought we were on the free side, however I drove there yesterday and I can't really tell where the restricted area begins and ends, so at this point I legitimately don't know. With all this in mind, I want to defend myself as I don't think I have anything to lose at this point and it would be a great opportunity to learn more about the justice system.

The redacted Particulars of Claim
The Claim is for the sum of £ being the contractual charge due from the Defendant in respect of a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) for a contractual breach which occurred on [DATE] in the private car park/land at [LOCATION] in relation to a [CAR] registration mark [REG].
The PCN was issued as the Defendant failed to comply with the terms and conditions, as displayed. 
Despite demands, the charge remains unpaid.
The Claim also includes Statutory Interest pursuant to section 69 of the Country courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8% per annum (a daily rate of £0.02) from [DATE] to [DATE] being an amount of £.
The Claimant also claims £60.00 recovery costs as set out in the Terms and Conditions and in the ATA AoS Code of Practice. 

My questions so far:

1. I understand all the "legalese" in the cases I've read so far, but it's not easy for me to produce text that reads like that. Should I strive to achieve that level of formality (by getting inspiration from existing claims/defences) or is it better to write things in my own words? Should I get a professional to help me write this?
2. The claim contains the infamous £60 recovery costs and another £50 in legal representative costs (not mentioned in the Particulars of Claim but appear in the cost table). This is definitely one of the points I will raise in my defence and I am hopeful that this will be enough to have it dismissed, as my local Court has a good reputation on this forum for throwing out similar claims for abuse of process/double recovery. However, if the case does go forward to the hearing stage, I understand I can't bring any new arguments that haven't already been mentioned in the defence. Based on the Particulars of Claim submitted, I would probably mention the following additional points:

i) it is unclear as to what legal basis the claim is brought, whether for breach of contract, contractual liability, or trespass. However, it is denied that the Defendant entered into any contractual agreement with the Claimant, whether express, implied, or by conduct, whereby it was agreed to pay a ‘parking charge’
ii)  is denied that the Claimant's signage in the location sets out the terms in a sufficiently clear manner which would be capable of binding any reasonable person reading them
iii) the Particulars of Claim do not meet the requirements of Practice Direction 16 7.5 “Where a claim is based upon an agreement by conduct, the particulars of claim must specify the conduct relied on and state by whom, when and where the acts constituting the conduct were done.”
        Should I just stick with the abuse of process/double recovery defence or is it worth adding further points to the defence? What do you think of these points?

Thank you for your time, looking forward to hearing what you think!

Shout-out to the Premier Park paralegal who's reading this right now! Hope you have a good day

Umkomaas

AoS submitted, started working on my defence, a few weeks left to submit. 

No one gets 'a few weeks' to submit a Defence. So we can check out your timeline, please supply 'Date of Issue' as shown on the N1 court claim form, and the date you acknowledged service (AOS) please. 

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

heckin_pupper

Umkomaas said:

AoS submitted, started working on my defence, a few weeks left to submit. 

No one gets 'a few weeks' to submit a Defence. So we can check out your timeline, please supply 'Date of Issue' as shown on the N1 court claim form, and the date you acknowledged service (AOS) please. 

Hi Umkomaas, I was being intentionally vague, I'm not sure how many specifics I should be revealing about the case online knowing the other party can also view this info  28 days from my AOS is at the end of November.

Fruitcake

Send an SAR now as per the advice in the NEWBIES. Include a copy of the vehicle V5C if you still have the car, or two redacted utility bills if you don't. Do it asap. This should flush out the original PCN and any other information they hold about the keeper.

For the defence, use the ready written template in the sticky threads as your guide, and follow the guide to court written by bargepole you will find in the second post of the NEQWBIES. Put dates in your diary to remind you what you must do and when.

Abuse of process/double recovery should be included, but yoiu need to put in as many relevant defence points as possible such as non-PoFA compliant NTK, no landowner authority, inadequate signage, ATA CoP failures.

Have you identified the landowner and complained to them yet? 

Get pics of the site and signage asap in the same light conditions as on the date of the alleged event.

Red for the blood that was spilled. 
Black for the mourning of those left behind.
Green for the new growth on the fields of battle.
The leaf at eleven o'clock, symbolising the time when the guns fell silent.

heckin_pupper

@Fruitcake thank you 
"Send an SAR now as per the advice in the NEWBIES. Include a copy of the vehicle V5C if you still have the car, or two redacted utility bills if you don't. Do it asap. This should flush out the original PCN and any other information they hold about the keeper." I will do this now, although there's no guarantee that it will help as they have a month to reply which is past my deadline to submit the defence.
"Have you identified the landowner and complained to them yet? " I thought this was not an option anymore at the Claim stage.
"Get pics of the site and signage asap in the same light conditions as on the date of the alleged event." Will do, thank you.

Umkomaas

heckin_pupper said:

Umkomaas said:

AoS submitted, started working on my defence, a few weeks left to submit. 

No one gets 'a few weeks' to submit a Defence. So we can check out your timeline, please supply 'Date of Issue' as shown on the N1 court claim form, and the date you acknowledged service (AOS) please. 

Hi Umkomaas, I was being intentionally vague, I'm not sure how many specifics I should be revealing about the case online knowing the other party can also view this info  28 days from my AOS is at the end of November.

Why not simply give us the dates we've asked for. @KeithP has asked exactly the same. Trying to confuse the PPC by confusing us in trying to help you, will not take any of us anywhere further. 

This is a parking charge for £100. It's not a murder enquiry or a MI5 espionage case.  We don't ask questions unless they're (a) important, or (b) they put anyone at risk. 

heckin_pupper

@Umkomaas @KeithP Okay, here are the exact dates. Issue date: 21/10/2020, AOS submitted on 30/10/2020 and received on 02/11/2020 (it was submitted at the weekend) 

Umkomaas

Thank you.  

@KeithP will soon be along with your precise timeline details with which to work. 

KeithP

heckin_pupper said:

 28 days from my AOS is at the end of November.

You don't get twenty-eight days from filing an Acknowledgment of Service. The back of your Claim Form explains that.

heckin_pupper said:

@Umkomaas @KeithP Okay, here are the exact dates. Issue date: 21/10/2020, AOS submitted on 30/10/2020 and received on 02/11/2020 (it was submitted at the weekend) 

With a Claim Issue Date of 21st October, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 23rd November 2020 to file your Defence.

That's two weeks 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.

heckin_pupper

@KeithP it's good I confirmed the exact dates, because I obviously misunderstood the deadlines and thought I had longer than I actually do.

I've already started working on my Defence and had two questions about it in my OP. Would you be able to take a look?