Defence Help - County Court Claim Form received from Civil Enforcement Limited

Redx

The witness statement later on is the time to go into the issues , for now concentrate on paragraphs 2 & 3 after reading the other paragraphs as well , no need to address what is already included

It's the court later on where any jackanory stories come up, which will be next spring or summer

WH1234

OK guys I've amended the defence paragraph's 2 and 3 and I'll attach it in a separate post below. KeithP advised I need to understand the defence I'm filing so I have the following questions from the defence template so that I understand what's going on. I'm sorry for so many questions, I haven't got a clue with regards to most of it. I've seen another defence very similar to mine (except I admit to being the driver) which was quite simple and won over here, but I'm assuming this one I'm currently using is the best up-to-date one that I should be using? I can't post links yet apparently, but the thread I've just mentioned is titled: Civil Enforcement Ltd County Court Claim Form, by Nijinsky.

If there's any queries that aren't overly important for me to understand then you can ignore, but please do advise me on what is important. I've started the paragraphs with referencing the paragraphs in the defence template:

4. I don't see anywhere on the letters I've received explicitly stating that "costs/damages" have caused the amount due to go up, so if someone can clarify on this? What is s71 and s62? And is it "paragraphs" 6, 10, 14 and 18 Sch2, or "examples" that it's referring to in CRA 2015, like this (added in spaces to the URL so I can post): https:// www. legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/schedule/2/paragraph/18 ? What's UTCCR?

5. What does it mean by "appear to be penal?" How so? Does this link to double recovery/abuse of process, that it's just basically taking the mick and adding on costs with no real backing?

6. I've come across a bunch of threads about double recovery/abuse of process. Is it sufficient that it's mentioned here or should I also write to the CEL with one of the templates asking why they've added charges on? And do the charges relate to legal rep costs (£50 in my case), and court fee (£25) that were put on the claim form? Or to anything above the £70 that they originally told me to pay 3 years ago? Think it's worth mentioning at this point that from the letter before the claim form the amount due was £206, and now it's £259.91 plus the £75 court fee + legal rep costs bringing total to £334.91.

7. Is this paragraph basically berating CEL and sarcasm? Do I need to read into all these different cases referenced? Is "point #5" mentioned refer to paragraph 5 in my own defence? Once again a bunch of s# are mentioned (s62, s63, s67). I don't know what these are referring to.

8. "...even in cases where a parking firm has complied with its other requirements (denied in this case)." What other cases?

9. What is the "penalty rule"?

13. Is it safe to assume that CEL has vague/hidden terms? Or should I go check this out and amend accordingly? Or is it fine for CEL to try and rebuttal this themselves, as I have my other points to defend against CEL with? If I have to go check it out, how would I know if the signs are recent or the same from 2017 when I got the original PCN?

14. I don't need to read into these cases do I?

15. Who are the CoP, MHCLG, BPA and IPC? Do I need to know?

16. I don't understand this paragraph.

WH1234

Defence Draft:

2.       It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question and also the driver.

3.        The Defendant was admitting his mentally ill sister to hospital due to a sever high energy episode following the families mother passing away. The Defendant’s sister has prior been diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder, suffering sever anxiety, agitation, paranoia and delusions so needed to be sectioned for her own safety. The Defendant is familiar with the hospital, having used it for over a decade due to different family’s mental health conditions, and never experienced a parking charge notice (PCN) here before. The car park has a sign on entry stating “Free Parking”, and “Terms Apply” underneath, but the actual terms are not visible. There is no clear mention that the parking limit is 3 hours.

Coupon-mad

Why have you removed ''but liability is denied'' from #2?  It's standard, of course you must deny liability for the parking charge, that's why you are defending.

You still have this typo and weird wording:

a sever high energy episode 

Le_Kirk

WH1234 said:

15. Who are the CoP, MHCLG, BPA and IPC? Do I need to know?

There is a list of acronyms in the last post of the NEWBIE sticky thread.  If you haven't found them you clearly have not read the sticky!  If the acronym (or anything else about which you are unsure) is not in the sticky ask Auntie Google.

nosferatu1001

Private companies cannot levy penalties
that is the penalty rule. 

WH1234

Coupon-mad said:

Why have you removed ''but liability is denied'' from #2?  It's standard, of course you must deny liability for the parking charge, that's why you are defending.

You still have this typo and weird wording:

a sever high energy episode 

I thought liability was referring to denying being the driver. I'll add it back in, thank you.

With regards to the medical condition, I didn't totally understand what you wanted me to do from your previous post. Do you want me to delete "a sever high energy episode" and add "a severe flare up of frenetic, agitated behaviour", or do you want me to correct the typo in "sever" to "severe" and go into more detail with your wording? Is the following amended defence OK?

2.       It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question and also the driver but liability is denied.

3.        The Defendant was admitting his mentally ill sister to hospital due to a severe flare up of frenetic, agitated behaviour following the families mother passing away. The Defendant’s sister has prior been diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder, suffering severe anxiety, agitation, paranoia and delusions so needed to be sectioned for her own safety. The Defendant is familiar with the hospital, having used it for over a decade due to different family’s mental health conditions, and never experienced a parking charge notice (PCN) here before. The car park has a sign on entry stating “Free Parking”, and “Terms Apply” underneath, but the actual terms are not visible. There is no clear mention that the parking limit is 3 hours.

Coupon-mad

Do you know what the word 'sever' means?  Your sentence made no sense but the above new version is so much better.

WH1234

Thank you @Coupon-mad , is this good to send out then? Or should I wait a while...?

Redx

I would wait a while and do it before the 23rd , plus it gives time to get more comments onboard

Personally I would not be using all that jargon and put something like severe or chronic medical condition , or similar