Read the newbies thread, confused over adapting the Defence template over MCOL

JamesBebb

Hi all, thank you for your advise. I emailed MCOL as you advised, and next day they updated the site to say my defence was received - just in time!! 

Now 28 days later I have received a letter from DCB Legal with their intention to proceed. One thing I have noted is they have attached a copy of the directions questionnaire, and I have not received mine yet. I assume that will come in due course? Just surprised the solicitors sent theirs through already.

I've also noticed they have asked for the hearing at the Claimant's home court - if that's for UKPC, that's in Coventry. If it's for the solicitor, that's in Runcorn. I live in the south east so keen to avoid a long journey if possible - what's the odds the court will decide to go with the claimants court preference over mine?

Jenni_D

Check your MCOL history and see if one has been sent to you. If yes then simply download a copy, complete it and email it back to CCBC. DO NOT fill in the version they sent you.

You select your choice of court - what they want is irrelevant unless it also happened to be your local court too. (As the litigant in person defendant your choice carries more weight than theirs).

Please go back to the NEWBIES thread and look at the court process section - there's a detailed overview of what to expect and how to complete each form.

JamesBebb

So just to update you all - the solicitors missed the date to submit their request to proceed with the case. So if they wish to proceed they will need to apply to the judge and pay £100 - for a single parking ticket, that was originally worth £60, and they had raised to £270. I think the case it probably dead in the water now, which is great. If that is the case, thank you to everyone on this forum for their help, I couldn't have fought the case without the help and guidance on here!

Coupon-mad

Brilliant! ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

But a word of caution, PPCs can and do pay to reinstate cases all the time.  Might even be a year or two down the line, out of the blue.  BW Legal did that with a batch of warehoused/stayed cases and people were caught napping.

Keep ALL letters and evidence just in case.

And if you move address, write/email to tell them to erase the old address, and do the same to the CCBC so you can't miss a sudden resurrection of the claim behind your back much later on.

D_P_Dance

If they cancel read this

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/small-claims/making-a-small-claim/

JamesBebb

So surprisingly, they seem to have paid for the case to be unstayed and a directions questionnaire was sent to me on the 15th December! So looks like I will be going to court, which is fine by me. I'm just a little surprised at how determined and disorganised they have been.

Have emailed the directions questionnaire to the court and DCB legal just now. Will wait for the next steps.

Coupon-mad

Not really surprising, we said in October:

But a word of caution, PPCs can and do pay to reinstate cases all the time.  Might even be a year or two down the line, out of the blue.  BW Legal did that with a batch of warehoused/stayed cases and people were caught napping.

[Deleted User]

Which email address did you send your defence to please 

Coupon-mad

Everyone sends it to the email address that the Template Defence thread tells you in the '12 steps' to use.

JamesBebb

Hi everyone, it's been a while! So a date was set with the county court on Friday 26th August. Then I got an email last week, on the 20th July from the legal company stating:

We write to you in relation to the above matter.

To assist the Court in achieving its overriding objective, our Client may be prepared to settle this case. I can confirm our Client would be agreeable to £130.00 in full and final settlement of this Claim. The current outstanding balance is £130.00.

This was half the £260 they were asking for in court, but obviously I wasn't having this as the original penalty was £60 anyway, plus they had no case whatsoever as outlined in my defence (no signs, no penalties listed, no bay markings to not be parked within etc.). They asked me to get back to them in 7 days, which I did not.

Yesterday, I got this message:

We act for the Claimant in the above matter.  

Our client has instructed us to discontinue Court proceedings and close our file. Therefore, please find enclosed the Claimant’s N279 Notice of Discontinuance for your records.  

The attached has also been filed with the Court. 

We will now proceed to close our file accordingly. 

The attachment was of the N279 form. So presumably I no longer need to go in on 26th August and have won the case by default?! Which is fantastic!

It was a bizarre case for them to pursue, and I'm not too surprised they decided to drop it. Ticket originally issued on 26th Dec 2018. Years of Debt Reclaim company letters and then finally court proceedings last year. They then missed their date to request to proceed with the case, and had to pay £100 to re-open case. They've now closed with no reimbursement. So they've paid at least £135, to open and re-open the case, plus the cost of legal services, debt collection company services, many many letters and peoples' time, all for a £60 fixed penalty notice with no legal basis. How these companies stay in business I don't know, but I presume there are many others giving in through fear of being in court.

If it wasn't for this forum, I would have folded and paid at the court order, at a cost of £260, so thank you so much for all the help on here and guides! Just wondering what the next steps are? Presumably I need to wait to hear the same from the court, and then can I claim expenses? Obviously no transport costs, however I put quite a few hours into this. I earn £24 an hour in my day job, and would love to slap a few hours at that cost on them.

Also, any chance they could re-open the case, or launch a 'new' case for the same ticket a few more years down the line?