DCBL Letter of Claim - UKPC

prez78

After months of waiting....

Received a notice of allocation to the small claims track (Hearing), along with a hearing fee to be paid by the claimant.

Following that I received a letter from dcbl (without prejudice to save courts) which amounts to approx £160 down from their ridiculous claim in excess of £300.

I don't have any supporting documentation to be used in the hearing to share with the claimant at this time, so would I just wait for the hearing date confirmation.

Not_A_Hope

No doubt they are trying to tempt you into settling for the lower amount after putting in a ridiculously high court claim to frighten you. 

Keep following the Newbies thread and follow the court directions in relation to providing your WS. 

patient_dream

prez78 said:

Following that I received a letter from dcbl (without prejudice to save courts) which amounts to approx £160 down from their ridiculous claim in excess of £300.

TRANSLATION
We are aware that we will not win and so we are tempting you with a last ditch attempt otherwise we will discontinue

NO REPLY TO THAT LETTERI IS NEEDED .The ball is in their court now...    

Coupon-mad

I don't have any supporting documentation to be used in the hearing to share with the claimant.

You do. And that letter gives you a deadline to file and serve it.

And you must. If you don't submit a WS and exhibits you will have breached the hearing order.

Recent good examples of this bundle and exhibits to include, are in the threads by:

@aphex007
@Daiapolon2021

Sebi_895

prez78 said:

After months of waiting....

Received a notice of allocation to the small claims track (Hearing), along with a hearing fee to be paid by the claimant.

Following that I received a letter from dcbl (without prejudice to save courts) which amounts to approx £160 down from their ridiculous claim in excess of £300.

I feel cheated now! I did not receive a letter from those clowns with a reduced offer. I'm at the WS stage as well so I wish you all the best.

prez78

I have submitted my defence to both the claimant and the courts prior to the small claims hearing allocation. (details earlier in this thread - End of December)

I'm uncertain if anything further needs to be sent wrt WS BUNDLE as that is my defence with regards to the claim.


Below is what was submitted as a defence.... Main points around what the defendant has is defence as per points 1,2,3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2sv7k5rm3x5fn11/defence.txt?dl=0


 I did see that @aphex007 added several points to his WS Bundle.
"quantum of abuse" point 17 onwards 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3mulbl0szjb3a8r/WS IPC v4.pdf?dl=0
Should this be appended as part of my defence / WS Bundle?
There is a section on further / fixed costs points 30 onwards... will they be relevant as part of the bundle?

Coupon-mad

"quantum of abuse" point 17 onwards 

Errm, sounds like a Bond Film!  Do you mean: 'abuse of process - the quantum'?

Yes you are meant to say that the quantum (amount of money) is too high and the relevance of the announcements in the DLUHC Code (even though it's temporarily withdrawn).

And you should be attaching a costs assessment.

KeithP

prez78 said:

I have submitted my defence to both the claimant and the courts prior to the small claims hearing allocation. (details earlier in this thread - End of December)

I'm uncertain if anything further needs to be sent wrt WS BUNDLE as that is my defence with regards to the claim.

@Coupon-mad's post on 25 July at 9:29PM stated quite clearly that you need to file and serve a Witness Statement and evidence. She also stated that failure to do that would be in breach of a court order. That in turn could lead to an accusation of the Defendant's conduct being totally unreasonable and substantial costs awarded against you.

The second post of the NEWBIES thread explains exactly how you might go about creating a Witness Statement and gathering evidence and CM's post above pointed you towards recent examples.

Look again at your Notice of Allocation. The Notice that gives the hearing date.

Is there not a paragraph something like:

Each party must deliver to every other party and to the court office copies of all documents on which he intends to rely at the hearing no later than [ . . . ] [14 days before the hearing].

Might be on the back.

Those documents you intend to rely on are your Witness Statement and evidence.

prez78

Hearing date has not been set as of yet according to the document, but here is my WS bundle.

As the defendant cannot recall being the driver of the vehicle at the time on this unremarkable day, the following would be submitted .
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qo2pinogzq9l2mh/ws_defence.pdf?dl=0

There is photographic evidence of the registered vehicle in a disabled bay,
Signage (however small) is in the WS - I can get a cleared picture of this to submit as evidence, though not sure how that would help the defence apart from potentially not qualifying as a legally binding contract - will get a clear image tomorrow.

Coupon-mad

That's a defence.  Not what we are talking about.

See examples of good WS and evidence bundles posted in the threads by @aphex007 or @Daiapolon2021