OPS - Vantage Point

95Rollers

Like I said to you privately DCBL are heartless and their accountability of their actions is questionable at best (not my words, but the words of various judges, media outlets, social commentators, motorists, consumers, human rights groups, charities etc) so you wouldn't effectively be going after DCBL as OPS are the claimants. DCBL are just their legal partners/contractors who they've instructed. OPS know fully well what DCBL are like and choose to share your data and use them so effectively they are using DCBL (and the courts) as a tool to get money off people. So you'd have to bring it against OPS. OPS were the ones who have the final say in what happened with the case whether to risk it in court or bail out at the 11th hour with no reasonable warning. Maybe they just wanted to punish you by wasting your time thus costing you money and causing you stress and worrying?!? Kind of like a final poke in the eye as they didn't fancy their chances of winning against you maybe.

fishsoup

I have a hearing soon to recover my costs, due to discontinuance on the day of hearing, any advice would be appreciated.

Claimants response to my claim

- my email was not on court documents but had communicated previously via email to confirm identity, they quote practice direction 6 a (4.1) (2) (c)

- no reason for the discontinuance, they were advised by their client and had to follow that order

- i have failed to evidence the financial loss, should I send a payslip to the court? 

The Defendant has requested that..... be awarded in costs - .......due to loss of 

earnings and ......... due to time spent preparing the case.

For clarity, the Defendant has 

failed to provide any evidence of the above.

It is denied the Defendant is entitled to the cost of their own time. The Claimant was

pursuing what is, in its opinion, a legally owed debt. The Defendant would not have needed 

to incur any such costs if they had not breached the Terms or simply made payment upon 

receipt of the PCN. It is further denied that the cost of time and postage could reach anything 

close to the.....claimed.

It is respectfully submitted that the Defendants costs do not fall within the remit of CPR 45 or 

CPR 27.14(2)(g).

The Defendant has failed to prove financial loss. Subsequently, the amount, which may be 

allowed to a self represented litigant under CPR 46.5(4)(b),

Further to the above, the Claimant has suffered a greater loss than the Defendant due to 

their pursual of the debt throughout the period of the PCN, up until this point. The Claimant is 

not seeking costs.

Thanks

Umkomaas

Have you sent a costs schedule to the court (with copy to DCB Legal)?  You will need to itemise for what it is you wish to claim and the amount of each element (£19ph is the litigant in person rate). 

If you haven't, do that now, otherwise the judge will have nothing to go on and is unlikely to come up with a figure off the top of his head, in which case you'll end up with another day wasted and nothing to show for it. 

Draft your schedule here and regulars will chip in with some advice. I think there's a link to an example in the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, second post.

fishsoup

Umkomaas said:

Have you sent a costs schedule to the court (with copy to DCB Legal)?  You will need to itemise for what it is you wish to claim and the amount of each element (£19ph is the litigant in person rate). 

If you haven't, do that now, otherwise the judge will have nothing to go on and is unlikely to come up with a figure off the top of his head, in which case you'll end up with another day wasted and nothing to show for it. 

Draft your schedule here and regulars will chip in with some advice. I think there's a link to an example in the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, second post.

Yes I've already sent it to them. That was the amount I used, hours spent on case X rate, plus one days annual leave. 

95Rollers

Would OPS not be the Defendant as they were the ones who started the claim by using DCBL!?!  Its OPS who initiated all this with their entrapment zone and DCBL are the conduit they use to try and lever cash from people.

Including a copy of your Pay slip and maybe a screenshot of your Annual Leave request/ holiday Record. Was there anything like Childcare bills of if kids had to be placed into Breakfast or Afterschool clubs or nursery booked for the day?  
What about screenshots of your Internet Browser History which will show the hours you've spent browsing MSE, Google search history and other relevant sites as well. That might help quantify some of the time spent researching.

I've saved a copy of a Team WhatsApp message offering weekend Overtime which I had to turn down to spend a day at home writing my WS!!! I could og gone to work on that childfree Saturday and did 12 hours at Time & Half if I wasn't defending spurious tosh from the OPS firm!!!

ParkingMad

This thread is about the same scenario

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78837354/#Comment_78837354

It's worth not only looking at the links to the arguments used by the person who claimed £500 'unreasonable conduct' costs from Premier Park (posted by Coupon-mad) but also to read on further in Eminowa's thread because bluetoffee1878 has responded to Eminowa this week, and pointed out that he also did this successfully.  His success story is already linked in the 2nd post of the NEWBIES thread, in the section about claiming costs. 

95Rollers

Would this be done via a new MCOL claim or are you applying for a different form through the court itself? Definitely keep us posted.

Coupon-mad

95Rollers said:

Would this be done via a new MCOL claim or are you applying for a different form through the court itself? Definitely keep us posted.

No, it's just a costs hearing like Eminowa's successful case.

The OP needs to cite the White Book note about costs after a small claim discontinuance being claimable if there was unreasonable conduct.

Same as Eminowa did.

@ParkingMad helped them create a skeleton argument and authorities.  She might have a redacted version she can post here.

@fishsoup said

Yes I've already sent it to them. That was the amount I used, hours spent on case X rate, plus one days annual leave. 

You need a skeleton argument so you could pm @ParkingMad for a redacted version, if she has it.

ParkingMad

Claim Number  XXXXXXXX

 IN THE COUNTY COURT AT XXXXXXXX

BETWEEN

ONE PARKING SOLUTION   

Claimant    

and

XXXXXX XXXXXX

Defendant   
                         
        

________________________________________________

SKELETON ARGUMENT

AND COSTS ASSESSMENT OF DEFENDANT

________________________________________________

 

1 The Defendant was informed by the Claimant’s solicitors DCB Legal on 21/09/2021 that the hearing listed for 21/09/2021 was vacated due to the Claimant discontinuing the claim.

 

2 CPR r.38.6 states that the Claimant is liable for the Defendant's costs after discontinuance (r.38.6(1)) but this does not apply to claims allocated to the small claims track (r.38.6(3)). However, the White Book states (annotation 38.6.1): "Note that the normal rule as to costs does not apply if a Claimant in a case allocated to the small claims track serves a notice of discontinuance although it might be contended that costs should be awarded if a party has behaved unreasonably (r.27.14(2)(dg))." On this basis the Defendant would like to request a costs order to be made against the Claimant given that One Parking Solution has behaved unreasonably by tactically discontinuing this claim on the day of the hearing. The Defendant asks the Court to treat this letter as an application as contained in CPR r.23.3(2)(b)

 

3 The Claimant issued a Notice of Discontinuance unreasonably late, after putting the Defendant to wasted costs and many hours spent researching, compiling and printing documents.

The Defendant has incurred significant costs preparing the Defence, Witness Statement and preparing for attendance at the hearing. The costs claimed are shown in the attached costs schedule. The Defendant has attached their wage slip as proof of loss of earnings.

 

 

DEFENDANT’S COSTS ASSESSMENT

 

Ordinary Costs

Attendance at hearing (1 day loss of leave) £95

Proof of earnings attached

 

Further costs for Claimant’s misconduct, pursuant to Civil Procedure Rule 44.11

Research, preparation and drafting documents (xx hours at Litigant in Person rate of £19 per hour): £xxx

 

TOTAL COSTS CLAIMED £xxx

 

 

95Rollers

 Would it be worth a mention that on 10/3/22 the Claimant ran an almost identical case from the same carpark at a different court which was dismissed.  In this case the Defendant who had to take the day off work was awarded loss of leave costs (capped at £95).  I'll supply the case number via a  PM and copy of judgement reasons as soon as I get it (for all).

I did make a claim for a period of time I'd spent working on my case researching, investigating and writing statements etc - but the judge wasn't having that even though he could tell I had put a lot of work into my statements (which I'm happy to share with anyone). But that was just my particular Judge and other Judge's have awarded people for unreasonable behaviour and if you don't ask you don't get. Its certainly a justifiable request.