DCB Legal & Premier Parking Logistics (Hearing Day 😞)

Th1nDiesel

D_P_Dance said:

Why do you need proof.?  The judge, if it gets t court, has to decide, OTBOP, whether.you are telli.ng the truth or not.  .

I understand that, but surely proof makes the case watertight? If it comes down to probability, is it worth including the other ticket as evidence that I paid on the other occasion I used the car park in order to push the BOP in my favour?

Th1nDiesel

nosferatu1001 said:

YOU can give CREDIBLE evidence. 
WItnesses are evidence. I dont know why people forget that!

Yes, I suppose I hadn't thought of the witness statement like that!

nosferatu1001

How will the claimant provide credible proof otherwise? You can describe the process you went through to buy the ticket. They cant say anything as no other witness exists

Th1nDiesel

I've finally been asked to submit my witness statement and I have until next Friday (23rd) to email it to the court and the claimant's solicitor. I've been working on it over the last couple of days and would appreciate any comments or guidance on my first draft please. I've used the witness statement linked in the Newbies thread as a base and some of it has been left fully intact; I'm assuming this is okay. Link below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2w1jgwhl2xcj0uq/Witness Statement Draft Redacted.pdf?dl=0

I have a few comments/questions:

Paragraph 12 - I'm not sure if this is relevant; I've included it as the ticket is evidence that I'm not a serial bilker, but as its a separate incident, am I best to leave it out?

Paragraphs 15&16 - I've not yet received the claimant's statement, so I've not seen the landowner contract. Therefore, I've left these in as a placeholder and will amend as necessary, removing completely if it turns out they have no relevance.

Exhibits xx-01 & xx02 - I don't have any photos of the entrance to the car park from the date of the incident, so I've had to rely on Google Maps. Sadly there are no pictures of the site from around the time in question; exhibit xx-01 is from 2015 and exhibit xx-02 is from 2020 (the incident was in 2018). It's no good going there now as the site is no longer a car park and the signs are no longer there.

Exhibits xx-13 & xx14 - You've all seen these before, so I'll add these in later.

Coupon-mad

Paragraph 12 - I'm not sure if this is relevant; I've included it as the ticket is evidence that I'm not a serial bilker, but as its a separate incident, am I best to leave it out?

If you include it, explain why you are including it, because you want to court to note that you are an honest driver and honest witness.

Exhibits xx-13 & xx14 - You've all seen these before, so I'll add these in later.

You are better using Excel v Wilkinson rather then Britannia v Crosby, because of the way parking firms will say that the 'Southampton case' was appealed and overturned (even though the Crosby claim wasn't actually appealed; only Mr Semark-Jullien was cherry-picked due to him not being forum assisted and putting forward a hopeless defence, making him the obvious target of appeal). 

See the recent WS by @jrhys for the most recent example.  He just missed out the landowner authority point I think but you are on that.

I've also seen that exact sign in a PPL witness statement this past week on another PPL court thread, so it will be worth you reading the recent ones like yours by trawling back a dozen pages looking for PPL threads, because it will give you a heads up as to what his useless PSA (agreement) looked like.  How we laughed!

Th1nDiesel

Thanks for your feedback @Coupon-mad; I have added to paragraph 12 and swapped Britannia v Crosby for Excel v Wilkinson which has shortened the WS slightly. Updated version below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uh9nhaob2oxx5e7/Witness Statement Draft Redacted v2.pdf?dl=0

If you are referring to the case where the landowner agreement was signed months later than the commencement date, then I am already following that one quite closely as I suspect that it may be at the same court. It was very useful seeing an example of the claimant's WS as I now know what to expect. I'm just hoping that the contract in my case is just as poor and that I receive it in enough time to alter my WS accordingly.

SayNoToPCN

Indeed, the agreement there is awful (for them!) - more holes than substance

Coupon-mad

Nit sure if it's the same; I was thinking of the one where no client's name is given at the top of the 'PSA' and no details of who the signatory is/works for!

Th1nDiesel

I have now received PPL's witness statement, a reacted (by me) copy of which is linked below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ue6f1123wmoac11/WW PPL Witness Statement_Redacted.pdf?dl=0

A couple of things I have noted that I am looking to add to my WS:

1. The name of the client appears slightly different to that of either of the landowners found in the land registry ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/6lujnwmdw1n5m5w/Proctor Street Car Park Land Registry.pdf?dl=0 ). This could just be down to poor handwriting though - is it worth mentioning in my WS?

2. Point 3 states that 'contraventions of permissions given by the client' can be found in Appendix 1, but this is not supplied. If it doesn't exist then surely there is no agreement between the landowner and PPL over what constitutes a breach of the T&Cs.

Is there anything else from this that I should be adding to my witness statement? All feedback gladly received.

Th1nDiesel

In light of the receipt of the claimant's WS, I have now updated my own, with paragraphs 15 & 16 changed to take into account the PSA and a copy of the HM Land Registry title as evidence.

I have also added to paragraph 9 to includes reasons why there may not have been a PCN on the windscreen when I returned to the vehicle - is this okay or is it too accusing?

Link below - if I've missed anything obvious that could support my WS, or if I've added in anything that I shouldn't, please could someone let me know. Deadline is this Friday. Thanks in advance.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mxqiv4r6eoqjx51/Witness Statement Draft Redacted v4.pdf?dl=0

Also, a couple of questions about costs:

1. I've not had a hearing date or confirmation of whether it will be in person or over the phone, so I've only included the loss of earnings. If it's the former, how would I go about adding travel/parking costs?

2. I've read that a copy of payslip or proof of earnings is required. At what point is this needed?