CCBC claim for 2 x motorway services parking tickets

woodpecker44

Good Afternoon, I am new here and have read the sticky threads but hoping for some further advice.
The background - I received a court claim issue date 31/12/20 for 2 x PCN from 2016. This is from CP Plus (claimant) via DCB Legal.
The claimant claims £340 + 8% interest for 2 PCNs which comes to £460 + court fee £35 + legal representatives costs £50 = Total £545!!!  As this is a completely unreasonable trumped up charge I intend to do what is humanly possible to prevent these lovely people from getting anything. I have not made any representations yet to either CP Plus or their agents although have received several of the usual threatening letters.

I have done the AOS via MOCL so have a while to prepare my defence which will be based on the advice given by people on this forum. 

However after receiving the court claim form I complained very strongly to both service station operators, Moto and Roadchef.  The ticket from the Moto service station should not have been issued in the first place as I had stayed the night at their on-site hotel and parking should have been free. Moto asked CP Plus to cancel that ticket which they did (had no choice) and I got a notice of discontinuance from DCBL for that part of the claim only. I have not heard back from Roadchef yet. Also in case it has any bearing on the advice you might give I have a few more CP Plus motorway services PCN from 2017/2018 which DCBL are sending threatening letters about, but not LBCs so far.

Questions
1) Will I get an amended claim form showing the new amount claimed?
2) Is it still worth sending an SAR to CP Plus and a letter or email to DCBL asking what authority they have to add £70 on to the original £100?
3) As one of the PCNs was cancelled can I counterclaim for damages e.g. harassment, distress, wasted time for that part of the claim? 
4) I am not in any way legally trained but have read about abuse of process and was wondering if henderson v henderson applied to the other PCNs  i.e. is it abuse of process on their part if they now subsequently try to take me to court for the other PCNs when they could have done them all in one go?

Any advice will be very gratefully received and thanks to everyone for doing what you are doing. We all have the same common goal!   

Redx

So similar to this thread then

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6230054/overstaying-whats-legal-defense/p1

1) possibly

2) ALWAYS

3) unlikely

4) probably , there is some law or precedents on this , I have seen other threads discussing this on here

KeithP

woodpecker44 said:

I received a court claim issue date 31/12/20 for 2 x PCN from 2016. This is from CP Plus (claimant) via DCB Legal.
I have done the AOS via MOCL so have a while to prepare my defence...   

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service? Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that, but for the moment I'm going to assume an AoS was filed after 5th January. Please confirm.

With a Claim Issue Date of 31st December, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 2nd February 2021 to file your Defence.

That's nearly three 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.

woodpecker44

Thanks Redx,
It is a very similar case, even the same issue date! When did CP Plus get so aggressive or is it down to DCBL?  
I will do the SAR to CP Plus and a letter to DCBL tomorrow.  

Redx

You keep asking for all court claims to be merged if you have 2 claims instead of one ?  , but treat every court claim separately until a judge merges them into one hearing about all of them , no matter if it's 2 or 22

Write to b w legal staring this and that any and all outstanding PCN, s should have been done at the same time and this will be brought up in any future claims as abuse of process

The pandemic has meant reduced income for all parking companies so they have nothing better to do than go through all their previous invoices that they stored within the last 6 years and pass them on for LBC and then issue court claims !! I thought that would have been obvious ?

Dcbl do what their client tells them to do , as do Gladrags , b w legal and several others too

woodpecker44

AOS was filed on 5th January but received by MCOL on 6th January

KeithP

woodpecker44 said:

AOS was filed on 5th January but received by MCOL on 6th January

Then your Defence filing deadline is as stated in my earlier post...

...you have until 4pm on Tuesday 2nd February 2021 to file your Defence.

woodpecker44

OK thanks very much

Coupon-mad

easy enough to do, as everyone does in about half an hour max, by putting the facts about the 2 parking events into para 3 of the TEMPLATE DEFENCE.

woodpecker44

Yay success - Moto cancelled the first PCN and now Roadchef have agreed to cancel the second PCN.  I have to say Roadchef were actually very gracious about it.  I have had a cancellation letter from CP Plus but not a notice of discontinuance of the court claim yet.....
Even so this is good proof that these things can easily be cancelled at any stage. 
Motorway Service areas are supposed to be areas of refuge for drivers not for trumped up stealth charges. I can understand that MSAa have an issue with people who leave their cars for long periods while they disappear elsewhere but on the other hand the two hour 'free' period is not long enough for a very tired or under the weather driver. As per Government guidelines 'Don't Drive Tired'. I think they need reminding of that basic message when complaining about a PCN.

woodpecker44

Thanks to all for your help. Now I am going to try to help some others.