Highview Parking/DCB Legal County Court Claim

Coupon-mad

The sentence makes no sense and you maybe copied it wrongly from someone?  Or is that whole line in other people's threads?  It's not good English when you read it.

MissUltraViolet

Oh then yes I agree it doesn't seem to flow very well but it's worded the same way on 6+ other threads I have read and I have seen no comments from anyone pointing it out so I just assumed it would be correct and didn't want to mess with it! I have split [3] up a bit, as per other threads which hopefully makes it easier to follow.

I have added point [6] Henry Michael Greenslade, should I?

I am wondering whether I should keep the 'a number of family members were insured to drive the vehicle', be more specific and add 'and friends' to the original sentence or be less specific and just say 'people'. Also, am I better off referring to the date as 'over 5 years ago' or 'almost 6 years ago'. Or if it even matters, overthinking!?

Last edit is below. After [6] the remaining defence follows the template from point  4. The facts in this defence come from the Defendant's own knowledge and honest belief.....to the end.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. Through research the Defendant has come to understand the PCN relates to a PCN that was issued against the Defendant’s vehicle LXXX XXX, almost 6 years ago on XX/XX/XXXX for parking in The Broad Centre retail car park. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question but liability is denied. The identity of the driver at the material time is unknown to the Defendant. A number of family members were insured to drive the vehicle therefore the Defendant is unable to recall who was driving on that unremarkable day almost 6 years ago.

3. The Defendant believes that the Notice to Keeper was not compliant with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (‘PoFA’), and therefore incapable of holding the keeper liable with the ‘keeper liability’ requirements set out in the ('PoFA'), Schedule 4.

4. Following on from [3] where it is noted that the Claimant has elected not to comply with the 'keeper liability' requirements set out in PoFA, Claimant has also included a clear falsehood in their POC which were signed under a statement of truth by the Claimant's legal representative who should know, (as the Claimant undoubtedly does), that it is untrue to state that the Defendant is 'liable as keeper'. This can never be the case with a Highview Parking Limited claim because this parking firm, same as any Group Nexus company, have never used the POFA 2012 wording, of their own volition. 

5. Not only does the POC include this misleading untruth, but the Claimant has also added an unidentified sum in false 'damages' to enhance the claims.  So sparse is their statement of case, that the Claimant has failed to even state any facts about the alleged breach or the amount of the parking charge that was on the signage, because it cannot have been over £100.  Which then leads to the question of how they arrive at the Amount Claimed for a Total of £330.52 (The Defendant has included the £35 Court Fee & £50 Legal representative's costs for the purposes of this defence point).

6. The Parking and Traffic Appeals Service (PATAS) and Parking on Private Land Appeals (POPLA) lead adjudicator and barrister, Henry Michael Greenslade, clarified that with regards to keeper liability, “There is no ‘reasonable presumption’ in law that the registered keeper of a vehicle is the driver, and the operators should never suggest anything of the sort” (POPLA report 2015).

Coupon-mad

Yes, I went and looked and found that sentence in other people's defences.  It'll do!

I prefer 'almost 6 years ago' but it is repeated so I'd remove the first use of that phrase in the third line of point 2.

MissUltraViolet

Brill, thank you.

Is there any point in delaying sending the defence or should I just get it done now? Think it needs to be in by the 5th April.

Fruitcake

You are correct with your defence filing date as already confirmed by our deadline expert, KeithP, but don't do it until Monday morning after 9 am. We have seen posters say they have had problems with the CCBC not receiving documents/emails outside normal working hours due to some sort of glitch.

It is also advised to send a copy to the claimant as we have seen the same problem where the CCBC has failed to forward it.

Remember, you will be emailing your defence to the CCBC, between 9 am and 4 pm. I believe the email address is in the NEWBIES guide to court and also on your claim form.

KeithP

To email your Defence to the CCBC use the address given in the opening post of the template Defence thread but do take notice of the guidance given by @Fruitcake above.

MissUltraViolet

Okay, I will wait until Monday to email it into court. 

As for sending a copy to the claimant, should this be done via email or should I print it and post it? I assume it should be sent to DCB Legal as per the 'send any documents to' part of claim form and not to Highview?

Sorry for all the questions!

Le_Kirk

MissUltraViolet said:

Okay, I will wait until Monday to email it into court. 

As for sending a copy to the claimant, should this be done via email or should I print it and post it? I assume it should be sent to DCB Legal as per the 'send any documents to' part of claim form and not to Highview?

Sorry for all the questions!

Correct. 

Umkomaas

Okay, I will wait until Monday to email it into court. 

Be aware that there are some reported problems when using gmail and hotmail - they seem not to get there. When you do submit your email and attachment check that you receive an auto response confirming receipt by the CCBC. Check your junk/spam folder too, as sometimes the auto response can slip into either of those. 

MissUltraViolet

Defence emailed to court, recieved an acknowledgment from them within a couple of minutes so I assume that's all good. 
Sent a copy to DCB Legals email address and also recieved an automatic response/acknowledgement, will that suffice or should I still post a copy to them?