Surprise CCJ from Parking Eye wanting to get it set aside and overturn the original PCN

Coupon-mad

Great!

Be ready to point to the right paragraph in the BPA CoP that puts the burden on the parking firm to check details before filing a claim (i.e. do a soft trace) that P/Eye have not shown or stated they did.

Too many Judges still think it's OK for a parking firm to just use a DVLA address even years later.  Nope!

The wording in the BPA CoP is deliberately vague but you might want to read the equivalent paragraph in the new incoming (but currently temporarily stalled) statutory Code of Practice which spells out that 'checking' means a soft trace.

I'm on the Steering Group that helped to shape the new Code and it makes it clearer what the BPA CoP means by 'check that it's the right person'.

Remember to ask for your costs at the end!

An unserved claim is dead and this has cost you £275 or more to put right.

You want ParkingEye to pay that back to you and the claim dismissed as 'dead'.  They can always file afresh but THIS claim can't continue because it was never properly served. You need to leave your Judge in no doubt that the court has NO JURISDICTION to let the claim continue when it was never served.  Make sure at the start that he/she has your skeleton argument and authorities.

aMulqus

So all went pretty well.
The judge didn't accept that the claim wasn't correctly served.

There was no mention of setting the claim as dead. I guess because he didn't accept that the claimant had not served the claim properly.
However, he also said that he had no reason to believe that I didn't receive the papers and so agreed to set aside the CCJ.

He did say that it seemed I had a reasonable case to defend my case.
Meaning that it will now go forward to a hearing for the original charge given and that the looser of that will then bear the full costs.

So I have to wait now for another court date to contest the parking charge which could be next year sometime.

At least the first stage has been done and the CCJ is now at least going to come off my credit record.

Thank you all for your help so far. 

Coupon-mad

Very good on getting a discretionary set aside!  At least the CCJ will now be wiped.

Do you mean your costs were 'reserved' to be determined at the final hearing?

Be aware that ParkingEye are better than most with court submissions so you will have to be all over it to win.  Quite possibly, PEye will make an offer along the way to drop the case but whether you  negotiate that (and shoulder the £275 fee you've shelled out, and walk away) is up to you and depends on how strong your defence is.

You are not risking 'full costs' by the way.  Nothing major as long as you don't do anything to act unreasonably, such as missing deadlines or not attending the final hearing.

Can we talk about your defence case now, what the issues in dispute are, what the Judge said was strong about your defence case and what your deadline is to defend?

Is the Judge ordering PEye to firstly furnish you with a copy of the claim by xx date, then giving you 14 days to defend?