District Enforcement Limited Residential Parking Fine County Court

upsetbanana

Le_Kirk said:

4.         On XXXX I sent documentation to prove that I was now a residence resident of the estate and make an application to purchase a permit from the Claimant

either you are a resident or you are in residence
You keep referring to fines, which they are not, either speculative invoices or Parking Charge Notices (PCNs)

Oops. thanks for spotting. Correct the spelling mistake and changed all to parking charge notices instead of fine. 

Any other advice? Or do you think it seems sound? 

Coupon-mad

If you are relying upon these 3 cases then you need the transcripts to attach as exhibits:

 Jopson v Homeguard [2016] B9GF0A9E, the parking company could not override the tenant’s right to temporarily stop near the building entrance for loading/unloading. Further, in the cases of Pace v Mr N [2016] C6GF14F0 and Link Parking v Ms P [2016] C7GF50J7

They are easily found onlne in the Parking Prankster's case law page links.

1505grandad

A heads-up:-

"Exhibit XX-08 – Excel vs Wilkinson Approved Judg(e)ment – Bradford CC  16 -  25"

If you look at the title of the doc you are exhibiting it does not include the middle "e" in Judgment in this context.

"20.       Therefore, I am appending with this bundle a fully detailed costs assessment (exhibit XX-08) which covers my proportionate but unavoidable further costs...."

Should that be 09?

upsetbanana

Thanks, very helpful! 

Good spots too! Fixed those. 

Emailed the court and firm now. According to the instructions for teams, GS should make a combined electronic bundle and send that 48 hours before hearing to the court. 

Well, we shall now see what happens. xD

upsetbanana

Hmm...so they have now submitted a supplementary witness statement which is produced here: 

"IN THE CENTRAL LONDON COUNTY COURT

 

CLAIM NO: XXXX  

 

 

DISTRICT ENFORCEMENT LIMITED

(CLAIMANT)

 

-AND-

 

 

XXXXX

 

 (DEFENDANT)

 

____________________________________

 

SUPPLEMENTARY WITNESS STATEMENT OF XXXX

____________________________________

 

 

I, XXXX, OF District Enforcement Limited, A1 Optimum Business Park, DE11 0WT WILL SAY AS FOLLOWS:

 

1.      I am the Director of the Claimant Company (‘my Company’) and I am duly authorised to make this statement on its behalf. The facts and matters set out in this statement are within my own knowledge unless otherwise stated and I believe them to be true.  Where I refer to information supplied by others, the source of the information is identified; facts and matters derived from other sources are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.

 

1. The Defendant is liable for a parking charge relating to the parking of a vehicle on the Relevant Land as listed in the schedule below.

 

PCN Number	Date of Charge	Location	Description
XXXX	XXXX	XXXXX	Expired Ticket

3.      This witness statement has been prepared in addition to the statement as submitted by me previously, dated 21/06/2021. The defendant has now served a copy of his witness statement upon us. Within the same, the defendant has referred to a schedule of costs. As this information has been brought to light after our initial evidence was filed, this supplementary statement has been submitted in response to the same. This is to be read in conjunction with the earlier, and has been prepared to deal with the issue as raised by the defendant regarding costs.

4.      The defendant has sought to rely on a template schedule of costs which is heavily circulated on the internet. The defendant has sought to claim a total of £399 which has only vaguely been broken down, with no substantive detail regarding the same.

 

5. I submit that with matters allocated to the small claims track there is no automatic entitlement to be awarded the same save for the fixed costs associated with the claim.  I submit that there is no jurisdiction for the Defendant to recover the costs in the sum claimed or indeed at all.

 

6.      The defendant has claimed the sum of £95.00 for “ordinary costs, loss of leave through attendance at court hearing”. I submit that the defendant has not provided any evidence in support of the amount claimed or how this figure has been attained. The defendant is asked to provide evidence in support of his loss associated with attendance at the hearing. Further, I would like to submit that the matter has been litigated upon owing to the fact the initial charge remained outstanding. My company issued proceedings upon its right to do so, in order to seek recovery of the debt. Therefore, I submit that my company viewed litigation as a last resort and the same could have been avoided.

 

7.      At no stage upon receiving the letter before claim did the Defendant correspond with Gladstones Solicitors to seek to avoid litigation. It is denied that the Defendant should be entitled to a claim for costs as set out above.

 

8.      The defendant has then sought to claim £304.00 at a rate of £19.00 per hour for 16 hours. The defendant is asked to clarify the ‘litigant in person’ rate that the he has claimed. The total work claimed equates to 16 hours which has vaguely been broken down, as contained therein.

 

9.      The defendant vaguely breaks down £304.00 as “research, preparation and drafting” but has failed to substantiate this any further. The claim form is served upon Defendant’s with accompanying notes, which the Court provide to all Defendant’s as a matter of course. The same contain detailed instructions as to how to respond and therefore it is denied that the Defendant should be entitled to costs in the sum of 16 hours as alleged. Further, the defendant has not provided any evidence in support of the time claimed or what “preparation, research and drafting” has been done.

 
10. The summary of costs document provided by the Defendant is extremely brief and does not provide any breakdown as to time claimed. Reference is made to the Defendant’s defence which was a template document heavily circulated on the internet.    
11. In conclusion, it is denied that the defendant is entitled to the costs claim as set out within his assessment of costs. The document is not substantiated with any detail to support the £399.00 claimed. The defendant has merely indicated the time claimed but failed to provide any breakdown as to how that time was incurred.

 

STATEMENT OF TRUTH

 

I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

 

 

              Signed:

 

              Print: XXXX

 

              Dated: 28/06/2021"

I've removed their name too, just in case they are looking around on the forum and searching by their name etc. Any advice on whether to do anything in return would be great. I figure I'll just talk about it in court. 

Thanks all.  

D_P_Dance

4.      The defendant has sought to rely on a template schedule of costs which is heavily circulated on the internet. 

So what, if it wins it does not matter where it came from .  In my opinion thi statement is derogatory and unprofessional and a compliant should be lodged  with the SRA.

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/public/for-public-visitors/using-a-solicitor/complain-about-a-solicitor

upsetbanana

D_P_Dance said:

4.      The defendant has sought to rely on a template schedule of costs which is heavily circulated on the internet. 

So what, if it wins it does not matter where it came from .  In my opinion thi statement is derogatory and unprofessional and a compliant should be lodged  with the SRA.

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/public/for-public-visitors/using-a-solicitor/complain-about-a-solicitor

I also thought it seemed a bit unprofessional and also desperate. If they wanted to raise objection to it, they could do it in the hearing. A supplementary WS seems a bit much, esp so close to hearing. 

This whole internet complaint is in the main WS too under a section 'Internet Defence' and argue that my defence  should be struck out because it's a template widely circulated on the internet. Which I figure just made them look a bit dumb. The Internet is a open resource to use and research which is what I've done to create my WS and defence. In the same way that their claim is automated and copy and pasted by Gladestones! A bit ridic 5o complain about my use of internet resources. Hahaha.They also don't attach any proof of that claim so I'll draw attention to that at the hearing. xD 

Coupon-mad

I also thought it seemed a bit unprofessional and also desperate. If they wanted to raise objection to it, they could do it in the hearing. A supplementary WS seems a bit much, esp so close to hearing. 

Thirded.  Sledgehammer to crack a nut!  

The Internet is a open resource to use and research which is what I've done to create my WS and defence. In the same way that their claim is automated and copy and pasted by Gladstones!

Indeed.

upsetbanana

Is it worth actually making a complaint? Not sure whether all that is mostly just wasted time. 

Should I confirm receipt of the supplementary WS from them and make a point of saying that is seems unusual to have done this so close to trial when it could have been raised in court? Or should I just ignore it and raise my points at trial with the judge?

D_P_Dance

Is it worth actually making a complaint? 

Absolutely, it costs them money, it costs the SRA time to investigate  and could be the last straw