County Court Claim

smittenkitten

Hi
I have been reading a while over the posts on here and its now my turn for County Court Claim..
I have received the claim 15 March 2021 and have completed the Acknowledgment on  21/03/2021  following the guidelines from the "How to" post.
I am now preparing my defence and did not know which way to take it:
The car is registered to me, my wife was driving at the time and had parked in the local drs surgery with a planned appointment.  The doctors was locked and she waited 20 minutes before being allowed to access, registered in and then registered the car.  The car park is ANPR and you register on the machine  inside the doctors, The doctors was locked when she arrived but she registered as soon as access was allowed. There are no times of use on the car parking signage.

A letter then comes through the post to say the car was not registered (at all) and need to pay a fine.
We have sent doctors appointment cards to both Civil Enforcement and Popla and both are not interested that we were using the car park for its intended purpose and had registered on their machine.
My question is do we continue with the fact she registered and has full proof of the appointment and is adamant she registered or that the defendant (me) was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question but was not the driver - (I was at work at the time) and the defendant cannot be held liable due to the claimant failing to comply with the keeper liability requirements of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (“The Act”), 

thanks for any advice

KeithP

smittenkitten said:

I have received the claim 15 March 2021 and have completed the Acknowledgment on  21/03/2021 

You say you have received the claim on 15th March, but what is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

smittenkitten

sorry wrong wording Issue date 15 March 2021

KeithP

smittenkitten said:

 Issue date 15 March 2021

With a Claim Issue Date of 15th March, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 19th April 2021 to file your Defence.

That's four 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.

KeithP

What did the doctor's surgery have to say when you complained to them?

smittenkitten

receptionist - gave me a print out of the appointment stamped with Drs Surgery  but nothing they can do its the landlord!  I then wrote 2 letters and absolutely nothing  they have ignored!

smittenkitten

Not my case but also been reported in The guardian 
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/nov/03/gp-car-park-penalty-charges-patients-anpr

KeithP

Have you seen the NHS patient, visitor and staff car parking principles?

Particularly this bit...

Contracted-out car parking
NHS organisations are responsible for the actions of private contractors who run car parks on their behalf.

That may not help you now though.

smittenkitten

KeithP said:

Have you seen the NHS patient, visitor and staff car parking principles?

Particularly this bit...

Contracted-out car parking
NHS organisations are responsible for the actions of private contractors who run car parks on their behalf.

That may not help you now though.

thanks I will use this - I'm continuing my complaint with the drs its the fact they have not acknowledged either letter

Fruitcake

You should also include, Frustration of Contract in your defence. The driver complied with the Ts and Cs on the signs and entered the vehicle reg into the scammer's terminal. It is not the defendant's fault that the scammer's system did not register the VRM entered by the driver.

We can suggest and advise, but it is ultimately you who needs to decide if you are going to go with a non PoFA compliant NTK as part of your defence (in which case you shouldn't be telling the world how the driver is related to the keeper in your first post) or to out the driver and have them provide their own witness statement to include with yours, stating that what happened and that they did indeed enter the full and correct VRM as required by the signage.
The driver is a witness, the only witness in fact (unless the receptionist witnessed events). A signed statement of truth from the only witness present should have some weight with the judge.

Coupon-mad

My question is do we continue with the fact she registered and has full proof of the appointment and is adamant she registered or that the defendant (me) was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question but was not the driver - (I was at work at the time) and the defendant cannot be held liable due to the claimant failing to comply with the keeper liability requirements of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (“The Act”), 

Both.

The keeper is the Defendant (make sure #2 says that you were not the driver and that the D was at work at the material time).  You can say both:

(i) there was no breach of any 'relevant obligation' therefore the statutory conditions of Schedule 4 of the POFA were not met.  Even if the Claimant served a valid Notice to Keeper, it is a fact of law that 'keeper liability' fails.  The Claimant is put to strict proof to the contrary.

(ii) the driver registered at the GP Surgery as soon as the driver was allowed access to the building and has full proof of the appointment and has complained to the surgery who have provided further proof of the appointment.  The Claimant should be aware that this situation means there is no legitimate interest in pursuing the parking charge which is clearly predatory and punitive, unfairly targeting surgery patients.