Help needed for court Defence against ParkingEye for unfair PCN

Rich_the_owl

Le_Kirk said:

They won't have a PDT record for that day with your VRM on it or a near miss if you did not attempt to pay.  They might have (in fact almost certainly) will have your VRM on the ANPR and if that does not match up with an attempt to pay using your VRM I don't see where you go with this.  Didn't like the terms and conditions and drove away????

Yes, I didn't like the Terms & Conditions so I drove off. I have a right to not agree to them. The Terms & Conditions were inside the car park itself on a small board. The only way I could review the terms & conditions was driving into the car park so I could safely pull into a legal space, get out of the car and read them. This is the whole basis of my Defence. I was there a matter of minutes.

Coupon-mad

Don’t press the issue of the PDT log. It would be unreasonable to keep chasing that because it’s irrelevant and of course they have a machine log.  Don’t play games.

Rich_the_owl

UPDATE

Hi all, 

Sorry I have not updated this post since June, but not much happened post submitting my Defence. The case was referred to the Court and I have been waiting for an update from them ever since. 

A few days ago I received a N159 form from the court. In the points the Judge "proposes to dispose of the claim without a hearing - that is on the papers alone." (can anything be read into this on whether it means the Judge thinks the claimant or defence is most likely to win at all? Is it usual for this to be proposed?)

It goes onto say it can only do this if both parties agree. So my question is should I allow the case to be settled on the papers alone? Or should I refuse and order that the claim be settled by a hearing? Based on people on this forum's experience what is the better option for the Defendant? 

Happy to provide more info on what the N159 form said if required. I can provide a picture of it if needed too

I found this post which suggest to NOT agree for the case to be heard on papers alone, but I wanted to check if this is still the case: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6167775/claim-form-received-vcs-won-for-the-second-time/p7

Thanks in advance for the advice

Jenni_D

The advice is usually to never accept a hearing on the papers as that tends to favour the Claimant - judges can subconsciously favour the party with legal representation whilst not properly understanding the points the Defendant has made; an oral hearing allows the D to reinforce what they mean.

This has been sent so as to try and reduce the number of hearings and ease the burden on the courts. (Yet the same court process has advocated directions/mediation hearings - which rarely result in agreement - that have increased the burden on the courts). 🙄

Redx

The expert advice on here has not changed ! Just the timeline due to the court delays for various reasons , but the advice is never to accept mediation or an on papers option

Le_Kirk

I can only echo what @Jenni_D and @Redx write, you are onto a loser with "on papers".  When the telephone hearings first started one of the regulars @Coupon-mad wrote a post explaining in detail why you should never accept that N159 suggestion. 

Rich_the_owl

Thanks @Jenni_D , @Redx & @Le_Kirk for your help and advice, much appreciated. I will respond to the form saying I do not accept a papers only hearing to the court and claimant. My hope is that once the Claimant knows that I am serious that I am willing go to court they will drop the case. Probably not likely though.

Rich_the_owl

UPDATE

I'm happy to tell you all that a few days ago I received a letter from ParkingEye stating "We write to confirm that ParkingEye now consider this matter closed and the Parking Charge cancelled. We have notified the court that we do not wish to proceed with the above numbered claim."

RESULT - Seems like ParkingEye knew I wasn't just going to give in and have conceded as they did not want to pay court fees given they knew I had a case. Very happy with this result and that I don't have to go through the aggravation of going to court.

They have also sent me a copy of the "Notice of discontinuance" that they have sent to the Court stating that they wish to discontinue the case. I guess this is it but I wanted to check if I should contact the Court just to be 100% sure that the case has been discontinued? Or can I be sure that this is absolutely finished? I'm just conscious that I want to make sure the Court knows that the Claimant has discontinued the case so nothing gets marked on my record for missing a hearing or something stupid. Please let me know your views.

Finally, I just wanted to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who has helped me on this thread. I would not have been able to win this had it not been for the help from the people on this forum. I am happy to share my experience of going through this process with others so please let me know if you would like to know more. Particularly those who are in dispute with ParkingEye.

Coupon-mad

Yay. ANOTHER PARKINGEYE ONE BITES THE DUST! 

You won, no need to check.  

Jenni_D

With some other PPCs we may say "Check with the court" but ParkingEye seem to generally play by the rules.