UK Parking Control Limited - County Court Claim

m3377

Hello all,

I have a bit of a unique situation, both in terms of the incident itself and the timescale, hence why I'm writing this post in hope of help.

I received a parking notice back in 2016 for not parking within the lines of a space. It was a matter of about a foot and it was done on purpose because I drive a Land Rover Discovery and had to get the children out of the boot. The space was a lone space with nothing in front, meaning that by moving forward this foot I was a) not affecting anyone else in a negative way whatsoever, b) enabling my children to get out of the car safely and c) actually making it easier for the cars parked side on behind me to get out!

One thing to mention is that the car was registered in my father-in-law's name, with me having the insurance on the vehicle. Hence all communication about this has gone to my father in law.

I have ignored all correspondence from various companies up until now. Then I have now received, by post via my father-in-law, a county court claim. The Issue date on this claim form is 11th October 2021. Unfortunately my father-in-law didn't seem to appreciate the seriousness of this and therefore took a while to post it to me (also without teling me about it!). From what I can see I have 4 days (until 30th October) to lodge my defence.

So, my questions really are these:

1) When I submit my defence, I am presuming I should at this point admit that I was the driver of the vehicle?
2) I am presuming that I need to request a SAR but can't do this to DCB Legal as it is too late now?
3) I have seen the example defence template but this is mostly refuting not paying for the car park, but this doesn't apply to me. Is there any advice on how to refute not parking within the lines?

Many thanks for anyone who can help at this short notice!

KeithP

m3377 said:

I have now received, by post via my father-in-law, a county court claim. The Issue date on this claim form is 11th October 2021. Unfortunately my father-in-law didn't seem to appreciate the seriousness of this and therefore took a while to post it to me (also without telling me about it!). From what I can see I have 4 days (until 30th October) to lodge my defence.

 Firstly, you have more time than you think.
Or rather... your father in law has more time than you think.  

With a Claim Issue Date of 11th October, you have until Monday 1st November to file an Acknowledgment of Service but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an AoS, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an AoS in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 15th November 2021 to file your Defence.

That's nearly three 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 again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service instructions.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an Acknowledgment of Service has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Of course everywhere I have written 'you' or 'your' I mean the named Defendant.
Everything must be done in the name of the named Defendant.

Coupon-mad

This is your FIL's court case as keeper and it is too late to name you as driver now (he could have done, all along, but not now).

THIS IS NOT YOUR CASE.  Your name goes nowhere in the defence.

You are not the Defendant and you can't change that, not even where the MCOL system says 'name of Defendant if different' (that's to cover married names/name changes).

This is important to understand, courtesy of @KeithP:

Of course everywhere I have written 'you' or 'your' I mean the named Defendant.
Everything must be done in the name of the named Defendant.

Is FIL even going to tell you about all the Court Directions snd paperwork along the way, in time?

Redx

As mentioned above , legally this has nothing to do with you , although you can assist him

His name is on the court claim , only he can complete all the legal steps , in his own name

You must not do the SAR , you must not acknowledge the court claim , you must not complete the Defence either , nothing is submitted under your name , because you cannot act in a legal capacity for him

The deadline for the time to name the driver has now passed

Either he does it himself , or he employs a qualified person at considerable expense !! Such as a solicitor. It will not be economically worth it , but it is an option , just like a lot of claimants do

Otherwise , he must email a SAR to the DPO at UKPC , attaching a copy of the claim form as proof of I D under the GDPR law

He must login to MCOL and do the AOS online

You can assist him with the defence , but he signs it and he emails it to the ccbcaq email address ( to Northampton )

m3377

Ok, I'm thinking that I can set up an email address and do all of the correspondence as if I were him. That should be fine right?

One other question - what is the likelihood of this going to court? My father-in-law is not really in a fit state to want this kind of stress if it was to come to it.

Coupon-mad

Yes you can do it in his name as long as you are acting for him and only typing what he wants to be said.

Hearings are by phone nowadays, almost every time, and you can sit with him in his or your house on the phone as his lay rep to speak for him if he wants support.

KeithP

To avoid missing anything, you might want to consider telling both the Court and Claimant that the Defendant's address for service is your address... using your newly setup FIL's email address of course. 

Redx

It will go to court if the claimant pays the CCBC fee plus pays the court hearing fee in several months time

But they could drop it at anytime up until the court hearing , so you must assume that it will go all the way , until it does or doesn't

We see many discontinued a week or two before the hearing , because for the claimant irs decision time

Unfortunately , we have more success predicting the rollover lottery numbers than knowing if a claim will finally be in front of a judge !!

As for his Defence , he was not the driver , so number 2) is easy , keeper but not the driver , liability is denied

As for 3) did UKPC comply with POFA ? Yes or no ?

If yes , he can be held to accountability as keeper , so could be liable

If no , if they failed to comply with POFA , then POFA is his saviour , no keeper liability if POFA was not fully complied with

If you are dealing with the admin , get him to sign a white piece of paper with black ink , take a picture , send it to you , use it as a digital signature added to the final Defence PDF

m3377

Ok, thanks for the various pieces of advice. I will go ahead and set up the new email address and proceed on FIL's behalf.

In terms of the defence then, do I just proceed with "I wasn't the driver" and don't mention anything about the ridiculousness of the ticket itself? Will there ever be a point that it's worth bringing in that argument? As I mentioned before, the original ticket was just a joke - if I had have parked within the lines the person in the car behind wouldn't have been able to get in to his car!!

Le_Kirk

Except you/your FIL don't use "I" as all defences are written in the third person, therefore he would write "the defendant was not the driver at the time".

Coupon-mad

Of course you must put in all the facts, as the template defence thread tells you.  Not just that he wasn't driving.

You have already been shown where the template defence and NEWBIES threads are, it's all explained there.