CCJ from CPM - help please to set aside

Coupon-mad

Ah OK. so your defence would be that you are a resident and your tenancy is silent about any need to display a permit or pay charges to park and as such, you have primacy of contract (and an allocated bay?) so you are never 'unauthorised' nor required to display any permit in your own space.

To be clear, your set aside hearing is not about your defence but you might get asked and if so, you must have some grounds.

Jetjet_12

Thanks Coupon Mad. I think I just want to cover all aspects and read about as much as I can as I am getting apprehensive thinking about all of this. 

Coupon-mad

Covering all aspects is good.  At a hearing, I've found you do have to think on your feet a bit and 'read the room' from the Judge's eyes, if it's an in person or video hearing. 

A bit harder on the phone.

Have a bullet point crib sheet of points.  It will help you focus.

Johnersh's link is really useful.  Your Judge might be a bit clueless and easily impressed by the fact the PPC used the DVLA address, as if that's all hunky dory.  The rep will try to blame you.

You need to know how to explain that assuming the notoriously unreliable DVLA Database is a serviceable address months later, is NOT OK.

Jetjet_12

Gladstones has informed me that they have sent an electronic trial bundle to the court. It is now my understanding that I will just need to give the court my contact details as this will be a remote hearing. I don't think I need to send anything else at this point.
Am I right?

Gladstones' trainee solicitor has included in their Witness Statement the following:
"It is not the Claimant's intention to actively participate in the Defendants application to set the Judgment aside by attending the hearing or instructing an advocate as this will involve additional costs, costs which it would be unfair to expect the Claimant to meet, given that they have acted both reasonably and proportionately to date and have complied with the pre-action protocol and CPR in relation to the service of the Claim Form. It is also the Claimants position that any costs associated with making the application, as far as the Defendant is concerned should be met by them."

So I'm presuming that their rep would not even be there. Also, they got my name wrong in a lot of the paper works. 

Coupon-mad

Ah, yes, looks like no rep, so you will need to rebut what they say in their WS because the Judge might take their stance and read out their WS - at least to an extent - in the interests of balance.

If the PPC filed a claim to an old address with no evidence of any checks since getting your (known-unreliable) DVLA data, then that's in breach of their Trade Body Code of Practice and the CPRs, and the CCJ must be set aside and they should certainly be ordered to pay your costs.

Johnersh

It's the gap... They could rely on the address the moment they got it, but once they wait months or years, the greater the prospect that the address is old and no longer reliable.

So, on or about 28 days after the event, the ppc obtained details from the dvla. Approximately 1 year later after presumably haphazard correspondence with parking company and debt agency, they instruct a lawyer. NB given that you intend to defend the whole of the claim and additional costs sought, it is not surprising that the claim was not resolved earlier. 

That lawyer then does *nothing* to ensure the address they are given is viable, despite there now being reason (no reply and the passage of time) to doubt whether you continue to reside at the same address. If they did a credit search revealing more than one address, they failed to isolate which. That is their obligation as claimant. In failing to undertake those checks/making lazy presumption, they should not be permitted to rely upon last known address - a rule that exists to prevent defendants "going to ground" to avoid the reach of the courts, not to permit service at any old address that a defendant once lived. 

Jetjet_12

Thank you so much Johnersh and Coupon Mad. I will update you how I go next Wednesday.

 I am feeling a bit more at ease with all the inputs you have shared with me. I think I can definitely prove that they did not do their Experian search as they have claimed since no dates were included on when they conducted the search. Meanwhile, Credit Karma has updated my address by 30 April 2021 and they filed claim to CCBC on 10 May 2021.

Jetjet_12

I just received a letter from the court saying that the court hearing has been vacated due to the lack of judicial availability and they would contact me once it will be re-listed. I actually had to request time off for that hearing. What would happen if I would not be available on the next hearing date? Thanks guys

D_P_Dance

To be clear, your set aside hearing is not about your defence but you might get asked and if so, you must have some grounds.

I have querirred this several times but never get a reply, why?

What if you agree the the PCN was properly issued?  The CCJ was certainly not, the two are unrelated surely?

Jetjet_12

D_P_Dance said:

What if you agree the the PCN was properly issued?  The CCJ was certainly not, the two are unrelated surely?

In my case, the PCN was properly issued at the right address.I always had the intention of challenging it at court since I became aware of this forum hence I was waiting for it to go to trial after they denied my appeal. However the CCJ was filed more than a year after the original PCN's. So yes the CCJ was not properly issued in my case as they relied on an old address from DVLA. I understand that they are totally unrelated but I suppose I am just preparing and thinking outside the box if the judge will ask me why I allowed the case to become a CCJ. Pregnancy and isolation did not help in my case as I had to go shielding at the height of the second wave of the pandemic as I work in a high risk job. So never once did i think to remember to update CPM of my address change.