County Court Claim - Defence + Counterclaim

Coupon-mad

Sounds mad, given the Claimant discontinued. It isn't their hearing!

Follow it up by email now to confirm the conversation and your expectation of payment so that YOUR hearing can go ahead.  Name the person you spoke to, and say it feels wrong. Remind the court that the Claimant long since discontinued and this is solely YOUR hearing.

theeagleman

Quick update - the local court has emailed me with both the payment and refund receipt. 

They have stated in writing to call back after 21st (20th is when it expires - also did tell them that it was actually discontinued), but did not have any of it. 

Below is the exact email and the receipts attached.

Dear Sir/Madam,

 Please see attached your fee and refund receipts.

 Please call us back on the 21st June 2022 to enquire whether the hearing fee was paid by the claimant and how to proceed.

 Thank you,

 Kind regards,

 Fees and Finance Section

Coupon-mad

Right. As I said, reply.

theeagleman

So they issued another WS and told me disregard the previous one (which they submitted to me within deadline of April 2022).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0lisnegpsw1tn1l/PPC WS - Redacted - New.pdf?dl=0

They are responding to my WS basically.

Can they do that i.e. the validity of it? and should a counter WS addressing their points be submitted (it does not make sense for me to do so).

Memory refresh: This is a counterclaim against the PPC, whom dropped the case - but i am continuing it for GDPR, harrassment and distress.

Hearing fee paid and date set - so they responded with the above WS by the looks of it (I think they were hoping let the deadline slide and it would auto get struck out)

Coupon-mad

Don't respond with another WS.

If this one was late, then robustly address this first at the hearing, and ask the Judge to strike this replacement WS out.

Point out that UKPC waited to see if you knew to pay the hearing fee, then sent this late WS without asking the court for relief from sanctions and without making any application to change the statement they'd served in April.

Thus, this is an abuse of the court process and the second WS should not stand.

I mean, it is a pile of pants but best to have it disallowed! It will put their rep on the back foot for a start.

There is nothing useful in there. Nothing to worry about.

You know (but the Judge won't - because the law is what you bring to the courtroom and what you say on the day!) that the POFA allows a keeper to name the driver AT ANY TIME before court action commences.

You did so. You transferred liability in accordance with the applicable law and in good time, and truthfully.

You cannot be criticised for taking 5 years to do so, because the POFA says this can be done 'before action commences' (a time period confirmed by a legal firm in a BPA article).

The reason you did do after 5 years is because suddenly, instead of posturing with aggressive (but hot air) DRA demands, as UKPC had done before, they suddenly used a solicitor. But there was still a right to transfer liability to the driver.

You didn't do that before because you are not obliged to do so and had no wish to throw the driver under the juggernaut that is a private parking firm and their aggressive debt collectors. You hoped UKPC would drop the case and given the alleged parking event was many years ago, you honestly thought they had.

However, when push came to shove, you were entitled to name the driver before a claim was filed and you met the requirements under Schedule 4. There is no requirement for the driver to then respond. If they don't, a parking firm can pursue that driver.

They cannot revert to the keeper. There is nothing in PoFA to allow that.

Contacting you again just because the nominated driver was silent, was a clear breach of the DPA 2018 from that point on. And all letters and this court claim (that they discontinued) was all unwarranted contact from that point on.

The BPA code of practice that the Witness says they comply with, confirms the POFA position and states that if the driver's name and address are known they may ONLY pursue the driver.

This case is simple.

UKPC were knowingly hounding the wrong person for an alleged debt that person could not legally owe.

Whilst UKPC may have had an arguable case at the start to handle your rk data, that right immediately ended as soon as you transferred liability.

That puts this cc on all fours with settled harassment cases such as Ferguson v British Gas and similar county court parking cc cases such as VCS v Ferguson and Simon Clay v Civil Enforcement. The latter being a claim specifically about abuse of data where there were no grounds to continue to process it.

Castle

Since their witness is very keen on Pre-Action Protocols, here's what is covered by the "Media and Communications claims" Protocol:-

1.1 This Pre-Action Protocol was updated after a consultation following the formation of the Media and Communications List in 2017. It now applies to cases within the scope of CPR rule 53.1: all cases involving claims in defamation, misuse of private information, data protection law or harassment by publication, and claims in breach of confidence and malicious falsehood which arise from publication or threatened publication by the print or broadcast media, online, on social media, or in speech

So, it only applies to publications.

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/protocol/prot_def

And of course, the OP hasn't suffered any personal injury; so that particular "protocol" is also irrelevant. 

theeagleman

Thank you so much both Coupon-mad and Castle!

Appreciate that. Just realising they put the PAP for Media and Communications Claims - for data privacy laws by publication.

However, for a GDPR claim against a data privacy that are not publications, then DPA and GDPR 2018 apply without a need for PAP?

few q's if no one minds. 

1. I am expected to take the evidence. Is a print out of the emails to/from employer and booking confirmation suffiicient evidence? or is there some particular format in which it has be? (i am perhaps overthing thinking this a bit). Also the letter received by the driver, they sent me a picture on whatsapp for it only. So i can print the picture out, but do not have the actual letter to hand.
   
2. They keep mentioning medical evidence, but only have emails and letter from employee. there is also a 5 day sick-leave as per law without requiring a sick note. Therefore, i am not required to?
   
3. I will print out their WS and make points counteracting each point they have, however, how does it work in terms of layout and oppurtunity to present my case to judge?
   
4. The VCS/ Simon Clay PPC cases, i did not mention anywhere - can i still mention them at the hearing?
   
5. Any other advice?
   

Coupon-mad

For a counterclaim, you really need the help of adducing VCS v Ferguson and Simon Clay v CEL (the actual transcripts) to show your Judge what other county court Judges have ordered in similar cases.

IMHO it's an error to exclude or overlook those.  It's not just 'mentioning' them!

You need a skeleton argument with all your transcript authorities.  Have you filed a skelly already with other transcripts but missed those out?  Address it now.

Counterclaims v PPCs often fail and you really have to lead a Judge by the nose.

theeagleman

Coupon-mad said:

For a counterclaim, you really need the help of adducing VCS v Ferguson and Simon Clay v CEL (the actual transcripts) to show your Judge what other county court Judges have ordered in similar cases.

IMHO it's an error to exclude or overlook those.  It's not just 'mentioning' them!

You need a skeleton argument with all your transcript authorities.  Have you filed a skelly already with other transcripts but missed those out?  Address it now.

Counterclaims v PPCs often fail and you really have to lead a Judge by the nose.

Sadly, i did not include them in either my defence + cc, or my WS.

Also, I did not file a skelly at all..... no clue I had and did not come across it in my research anywhere.

I feel like i have fumbled this.

I mentioned the elements ferguson vs british gas in the WS and viddal-google and the relevant remarks from the judgement passed in those cases.

hearing just over 2 weeks away, so will get onto it.

Coupon-mad

You need all those transcripts with a skeleton. See NEWBIES thread.

No worries. It is not late. You file & serve that along with costs schedule if you've not done that yet).  There is no deadline on a skelly or costs.

The week before a hearing is ok.