We won today

KeithP

BelladonnaTook said:

Date of issue of N1SDT = 26 Jan 2022
Signed AoS sent by post = 8 Feb
Accepted by court today = 9 Feb

With a Claim Issue Date of 26th January, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 28th February 2022 to file your Defence.

That's over two 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 at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline 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'.

BelladonnaTook

removed as could be identified

Le_Kirk

I think a lot of that defence would be better saved for the witness statement stage.  Keep the defence short, punchy and restricted to legal/technical arguments, then you can fill in the detail when your witness statement backs up and supports the defence later in the process.
Glad to see you have added the part about the Government new Code of Practice.

BelladonnaTook

Le_Kirk said:

I think a lot of that defence would be better saved for the witness statement stage.  Keep the defence short, punchy and restricted to legal/technical arguments, then you can fill in the detail when your witness statement backs up and supports the defence later in the process.
Glad to see you have added the part about the Government new Code of Practice.

Thank you so much for responding.You can't imagine how much I appreciate it.

Please could you let me know which bits I should take out and which to leave in? I'm worried about taking out the things that may be important and leaving in the bits that can wait. 

Sorry to be such a pain - I really have tried to avoid being hand-held but I have CPTSD amongst other conditions that make if really difficult to think clearly at times like this.

Le_Kirk

Take out any part that is a "story" or narrative as that will be in the WS.  Leave in any part (but in short punchy words) that refutes what the Particulars of Claim state.  You lean heavily on signage, barrier and permits and that is good.  You only need to introduce those points in the defence and then all your excellent writing can be put into the WS to back up the defence.  There are already signage points in the template defence so make sure you do not duplicate or detract from what is already there.  Your points 5 b & c are now normally given paragraph 6 (assuming you haven't introduced any new paragraphs).  If you introduce new paragraphs you will have to make an adjustment as below, normally posted by @1505grandad: -

Hopefully you have read and understood the Template Defence and therefore realise that the existing para 7  in the Template states -  "He was not taken by either party to Somerfield in point #5 above and in any event it is worth noting that the lead Southampton case of Britannia v Crosby was not appealed." 

As you now have more than paras 2 and 3 - and therefore have to renumber the subsequent paras - you have altered the reference to point 5 accordingly.

BelladonnaTook

Thank you, you are a star !  

Fruitcake

If you mean the proposed government CoP, then include anything you think will help, even if it is not yet implemented.

Have you told us the name of the PPC?

If it is a BPA member, you should add that the BPA told its members at a parking seminar last week that they should make a start on implementing the soon to be mandatory changes as soon as possible. 
This point was stressed several times.

BelladonnaTook

Thank you Fruitcake.
Should save it for the WS ?
I'm still struggling with what to put in and leave out of the Defence and I'm running out of time. That is my own fault for reading TOO MUCH and trying to assimilate or filter it- not easy with no legal experience. It HAS all become clearer overall though by doing that!
I mean how much to quote of the new code.
Its VCS so not BPA.

Fruitcake

The template defence already covers inadequate signage, so I suggest you leave it out of the defence and save it for the WS stage.

Please try not to stress. We are here to help you.

You have the rest of this week to produce your defence, but obviously don't miss the filing deadline.

Get some sleep, and post your draft defence paragraphs in the next day or so for the regulars to check. 

BelladonnaTook

oops,i somehow posted the above before I saw Fruitcake's previous post - i was not ignoring Fruitcake's advice - just so dozy, i didn't see it. I will redo as per advice