County Court Defence - Highview Parking Ltd/DCB Legal - Please help

Coupon-mad

You don't need to mention the costs, as the template covers the abuse of the added £70.

Also remove this as the POC sentence about 'agreed' doesn't mean what you think it does:

The Defendant also never agreed to pay the parking charge which is claimed in the POC.

Le_Kirk

Your first sentence is also covered in the defence template.  Unfairness doesn't come into it, it might be incorrect due to lack of signage about match days or that motorists are not warned by signs that it is a match day but that would be for the witness statement (WS).  The fact that you were shocked is not a defence as that is after the event.  A lot of what you say could be kept for the WS.  Keep the defence short and punchy; Free parking for shoppers, no signage about match days, no signage to warn it was a match day and then expand on that in the WS to back up and support the defence.

Alex1801

Any better? (Thanks again) I REALLY appreciate all of your help

3. The Defendant denies being in breach of the Terms and Conditions claimed in the POC, as the signage at the Retail Park was inadequate. The Defendant believed that they were permitted to stay on the retail park for up to 4 hours as stated on the visible signs. The Defendant stayed on site for 2 hours and 41 minutes and their purpose for being there was to visit the retail shops and to have lunch with friends . The Defendant believed that the day was a normal day and claims that it was not reasonably conveyed to drivers/shoppers that the day of the alleged breach was a match/event day which limits the time allowed on the Retail Park compared to normal days. The Defendant also claims that the Entrance Signs at the entrance in which they entered the Retail Park do not follow the Private Parking Code of Practice. 

Not_A_Hope

That that is shorter and better but still needs a bit of work to get your main point across. I would rewrite or scrap the first sentence as you unknowingly did breach their grossly unfair terms and conditions. Don't use abbreviations such as POC as the judge may not be aware of them.

Have another go starting with where you went, what you were doing and what you saw in terms of signage. Then state you complied with those terms by leaving within 4 hours and were unaware as a result of poor signage that there was any other maximum time limit in place until you received the PCN. Then briefly describe what your subsequent investigations found in terms of inappropriate signage for match days. In contract law there has to be an offer and acceptance. As the PPC did not make you aware of the offer that applied on match days or that it was a match day you could not have accepted their terms.

The Private Parking Code of Practice is brand new so of course the PPC haven't followed it and a judge wouldn't expect them to. They often don't comply with their own BPA / IPC codes of Practice in relation to signs. You can check and detail their failings later in your witness statement. However there is nothing to stop you including a couple of sentences from the foreword to the Private Code of Practice which is scathing of the industry and particularly the practice of hidden terms and conditions and inadequate signage.

Alex1801

Thank you! My next draft...

3. The Defendant visited the Retail Park to shop and have lunch with friends.  From the visible signs, The Defendant believed that they were permitted to stay on the retail park for up to 4 hours. The Defendant complied with these terms by leaving within 4 hours. As a result of poor signage, The Defendant was unaware that on the day of the alleged breach, there was a different maximum time limit in place until they received the PCN. After subsequent investigations , The Defendant learned that there was an evening match later that day, hours after the Defendant had left the Retail Park. The Defendant claims that the signage was inadequate as it was not reasonably conveyed to drivers/shoppers that the day of the alleged breach was a match day which limits the time allowed on the Retail Park compared to other days. The Defendant could not have accepted the Claimant’s terms if the Defendant was not made aware that it was a match day and therefore a different maximum time limit applied. 

I wasn't sure what you meant about the Private Parking Code of Practice so I just took the line out. One reason I was going to include it was because the entrance signs were placed so a driver would need to look left to see them however when you approach the retail park from the entrance which I used on the day, you need to look right to check for oncoming traffic as the main entrance to the car park is on the right. So the signs are easily missed. I thought I would have needed to mention something within this paragraph to be able to bring it up in my witness statement.     

Not_A_Hope

You are getting there. Some suggested amendments:-

3. The Defendant drove to Robin Retail Park to shop and have lunch with friends.  The visible signs permitted parking on the retail park for up to 4 hours. The Defendant complied with these terms by leaving within 2 hours 41 minutes. The Defendant was unaware that on the day of the alleged breach, there was a different maximum time limit for 'match days' until after they received the Parking Charge Notice. After subsequent investigations the Defendant learned that there was an evening match later that day, hours after the Defendant had left the Retail Park. The signage detailing potential changes to terms and conditions was clearly inadequate and it was not reasonably conveyed to drivers/shoppers that the date of the alleged breach was a match day and that the time limit was reduced. As the Claimant failed to make the amended terms clear in their 'offer' the Defendant could not have been deemed to have 'accepted' them so any alleged debt is denied.

You don't need to worry about adding some words about the Private Parking Code of Practice as Coupon-Mad has recently updated the standard defence template to include them.

When you have finalised your paras 2 and 3 with any other comments insert them into the template and send them to the CCBC using the email address listed (i.e. not MCOL) before the deadline. 

Alex1801

Also I've just been reading through the Newbie thread on how to email the defence in. I can see it says to copy in the firms legal team or solicitors in aswell whose email you can find on any other thread but I can't seem to find one. It is DCB Legal if anyone knows? 

KeithP

I just stuck DCB Legal email into the forum's search facility and it returned this post from a few days ago.

Read subsequent posts on that thread.

Alex1801

Can anyone give me a rough idea when to expect to hear from either the court/DCB legal? 

I submitted my defence on 6th April via the email from the newbies thread. Got a confirmation email back, MCOL was updated straight away and I then got a letter through the post confirming acknowledgement of defence. The letter says that the claimant may try to contact me to resolve the dispute and they have 28 days to let the court know what they will be doing or the claim will be stayed. It's now been 30 days and I haven't heard anything from anyone so far. Nothing updated on MCOL either since my defence submission on the 6th April. Assume I just have to sit and wait?

KeithP

Alex1801 said:

Can anyone give me a rough idea when to expect to hear from either the court/DCB legal? 

I submitted my defence on 6th April via the email from the newbies thread. Got a confirmation email back, MCOL was updated straight away and I then got a letter through the post confirming acknowledgement of defence. The letter says that the claimant may try to contact me to resolve the dispute and they have 28 days to let the court know what they will be doing or the claim will be stayed. It's now been 30 days and I haven't heard anything from anyone so far. Nothing updated on MCOL either since my defence submission on the 6th April. Assume I just have to sit and wait?

The CCBC sent you a letter saying the Claimant had twenty eight days to consider your Defence.

What you don't know is when the CCBC sent a copy of your Defence to the Claimant. 

It follows from that that it is not known when the Claimant has to respond to the CCBC. 

Further, we don't know what delays there are in the CCBC that means they don't send you a Directions Questionnaire as promptly as you might like.

Can I suggest that you keep checking your MCOL Claim History and as soon as you see that the CCBC has sent a DQ to you, you are ready to download a DQ, complete it and fire it back to the CCBC, remembering to send a copy to the Claimant of course?