East Midland Airport PCN notice case in local court

nosferatu1001

WITNESS STATEMENT! For the nth time
Defence
Witness Statement
Exhibits
That is what is together known as your bundle of docs
You must be exact. This is a formal legal process. 

Redx

As mentioned above , you are NOT preparing the defence , it was done last year , many months ago

Concentrate !!

Do what Nosferatu said above , witness statement plus exhibits plus the summary costs assessment , your bundle

Rameshlcc

Done what Nosferatu suggested and sent to VCS and court. Now waiting for hearing. 

Rameshlcc

Round 1. Telephone Hearing 30 mins.
After introduction the Judge advised that he is already 15 mins late. He will hear main reason from claimant and defence and see if case can be settled before main hearing. VCS rep advised that he was in the impression that final decision will be made today. He further suggested that if both parties agrees then decision can be given by the judge. He is willing to accept £125.00 as final settlement. I opposed to that stating that 15 mins is not sufficient for me to put my defence and offered only £25.00 court charge. The judge concluded that matter cannot be settled today and he referred the case for full hearing for 90 mins at later date by video Hearing. Judge advised that he has read both sides statements and he would like to know few things from VCS rep. The judge asked for explanation about validity of contract between VCS and myself as he is concern that displayed signage at EMA is not complete to warrant charges and requesting court to award £160 instead of £100 advertised on signage will need to be properly broken down (he is not going to conduct full hearing but if he was then he would not allow additional £60)..He pointed that VCS has few hurdles to cross at the hearing. When I was asked I advised I am fighting for 2 reasons. One is mitigating circumstances were ignored by VCS and second is EMA Bylaw condition 4 para 4 where it states parking or stopping for less than one minute cannot be regarded as parked or stoppage. Final hearing was put for future around May/June 2021..

Umkomaas

If you've missed this very latest court decision to come to the forum's attention, please read here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/16qovzulab1szem/G4QZ465V%20Excel%20v%20Wilkinson.pdf?dl=0

And this is a paragraph that @Coupon-mad suggests can be placed into a Witness Statement.  Use these as you see fit.

At the Bradford County Court, District Judge Claire Jackson (now HHJ Jackson, a Specialist Civil Circuit Judge) decided to hear a 'test case' a few months ago, where £60 had been added to a parking charge despite Judges up and down the country repeatedly disallowing that sum and warning parking firms not to waste court time with such spurious claims.   That case was Excel v Wilkinson: G4QZ465V, heard in July 2020 and leave to appeal was refused and that route was not pursued.  The Judge concluded that such claims are proceedings with 'an improper collateral purpose'.   This Judge - and others who have since copied her words and struck dozens of cases out in late 2020 and into 2021 - went into significant detail and concluded that parking operators (such as this Claimant) are seeking to circumvent CPR 27.14 as well as breaching the Consumer Rights Act 2015.   DJ Hickinbottom has recently struck more cases out in that court area, stating: ''I find that striking out this claim is the only appropriate manner in which the disapproval of the court can be shown''.

Rameshlcc

Thanks for your help UmKomaas. To me, it appears the Judge has hinted to VCS rep to look at their claim once again and make a decision if they want to proceed to full hearing or not. VCS has option to take the case back if they wish until the hearing date. I have put lot of information in my defence witness statement such as fairness of the case, unfair recovery of additional £60 and EMA Bylaws in addition to their incomplete signage they relay on for the contract (hurdles as per judge) which VCS has to think  before the hearing. To my knowledge, all the cases which VCS has taken drivers to court are based on parking/over staying  at an establishment as far as I am aware, this is the first case where they have to deal with of stopping on red route in emergency on the side street for less than a minute where no signage is displayed, in addition to EMA Bylaw which is against them.

Coupon-mad

Sounds positive.  Maybe they will now discontinue.

Snakes_Belly

This is very similar to what happened in my first hearing. The judge had not got time for both hearings that afternoon so she rescheduled mine as the other hearing was higher priority. She did give some directions though and told Excel's rep to advise them to produce records to show that the ticket machine was working. She basically told them to put up or shut up. The next hearing was for two hours.

I thought that they might discontinue as there would be the costs of a further two hours of rep's fees. They didn't and went ahead and hired a barrister.  It was a different judge who took a different approach but still turned out OK although no real winners. More of a drop hands. Very costly for Excel not so for me.      

FYI Excel and VCS are owned by the same directors, 



 

Rameshlcc

Hi everyone
The judge in my case advised that he is NOT giving direction on submitting any further evidence as both parties have provided sufficient to deal with the case. We have been asked to wait for hearing date and in the meantime VCS has to come up with acceptable explanations to judge that how incomplete wording on the signage can be regarded as binding contract, £60 additional cost etc. Let us see what happens. Thanks with the help of all of you in this forum, I think I have put enough hurdles for VCS to overcome; main one £60 additional charge and EMA Bylaws in addition to fairness treatment and abuse of justice system . 

D_P_Dance

Be sure that Excel v Wilkinson is brought to his attention.  Have you considered, when you win.  asking the judge for unreasonable behaviour costs, CPR27.14(2)(g)?