Urgent Assistance - CCC Defence deadline today!

Coupon-mad

I'm just concerned that our local court does not seem to be taking the same view of private parking charges as others and seem to take a dim view if you've not tried to reach agreement?

Which court is that?

Judges take a dim view of people not appealing or engaging in the dispute process when they first get a PCN but there is no reason for a consumer to feel pressured to have to offer settlement at all, if they believe there  was either no breach or no contract formed.

BPJT

UPDATE ( @Coupon-mad ): Have completed Directions questionnaire and now received a letter from BWL - states they are giving me 21 days to pay in full or arrange payment plan and withdraw defence. Also states the following (Sure I shouldn't have been sending evidence yet?):

In respect of the contents of your Defence, it is apparent that a large amount of the information contained therein has simply been ' copied and pasted ' from an external source, which we see on a regular basis. Large portions of your Defence are irrelevant to the claim and therefore nonsensical, and therefore unreasonable.

Given that your Defence is endorsed by a statement of truth, coupled with the fact that the content is evidently copied, your Defence cannot possibly be deemed within the scope of your own knowledge, and therefore we submit, a false statement.

Notwithstanding the procedural issues set out above, you have tendered no evidence in support of your position . Therefore our Client's position remains unchanged to that which has previously been set out to you.

The evidence held in our client's favour supports the logical conclusion that you parked for longer than the maximum time permitted. Therefore, your breach of the terms of the contractual licence affording you permission to occupy the land in question [the car park] is unequivocal.

In summary, we consider your Defence to have been copied and pasted, largely irrelevant to the claim, liable to be stuck out and arguably amounting to a false statement. We reserve the right to highlight this to the court on the issue of costs.

Redx

Everyone gets a similar letter to unsettle them , I believe that it is mentioned in the 12 numbered steps by coupon mad in the defence template post at the top of the forum in announcements , just follow those steps !

B w legal are acting for the claimant , so as a defendant you should not be taking advice from them , the opposition

BPJT

@Redx well it worked - I was unsettled - thanks for the reassurance!

Coupon-mad

The fact they send that crap to frighten people makes me even more determined to make a difference elsewhere.  The roboclaim lot need pricing out of the parking industry entirely.

BPJT

@Coupon-mad it is intimidating (which is the point I suppose?) to suggest/imply that using the template is as good as making a false statement and by implication therefore risking a contempt of court claim? That's how I read it at least.

Umkomaas

BPJT said:

@Coupon-mad it is intimidating (which is the point I suppose?) to suggest/imply that using the template is as good as making a false statement and by implication therefore risking a contempt of court claim? That's how I read it at least.

Not sure how you made that leap, anything to back it up?

BPJT

Given that your Defence is endorsed by a statement of truth, coupled with the fact that the content is evidently copied, your Defence cannot possibly be deemed within the scope of your own knowledge, and therefore we submit, a false statement.

@Umkomaas it was just my reading of the above section. The statement argues that content copied could equate to a false statement, and the statement-of-truth states "proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth."

I took (and take) the view that as long as I (and anyone else using the template) hold an honest belief that the text contained in the defence is true, copied or otherwise, that it was OK to include. It just rattled me at first and I was right up against a deadline for my son's defence so just sought some reassurance here to make sure this wasn't some new method PPCs were using against us is all. 

Coupon-mad

Calling your statement a 'false statement' is tantamount to accusing you of fraud.  That's a brave phrase from s legal firm and can be used at WS and hearing stage to argue their and their client's behaviour has amounted to a vexatious and wholly unreasonable course of conduct.

D_P_Dance

Calling your statement a 'false statement' is tantamount to accusing you of fraud. 

That surely has to be conduct likely to bring the profession into disrepute.  Why not ask the SRA to investigate.  Complain here.

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/