Highview county court defence help please

sesabear

Hello

I have received a county court claim form (issued 29th March 2022) for and overstay in a car park - from July 2018. 

I submitted an acknowledgment of service on the 1st April 2022 to defend. 

Requested a SAR from Highview / group nexus and have received this back. The original fine shows the car but no driver known.

My defence is the driver is unknown (will be 4 years ago in July)

Can I please have some support with dates I need to do things by and my defence, I was using/read the Newbies thread to do the above on April 1st and then sadly my grandad died on April 4th and now I need to get back to my defence but am finding the template confusing, which paragraphs I need to keep in. 

Any help much appreciated 

Thanks

KeithP

sesabear said:

I have received a county court claim form (issued 29th March 2022)...

I submitted an acknowledgment of service on the 1st April 2022... 

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 29th March, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service on 1st April, you have until 4pm on Friday 29th April 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'.

sesabear

KeithP said:

sesabear said:

I have received a county court claim form (issued 29th March 2022)...

I submitted an acknowledgment of service on the 1st April 2022... 

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 29th March, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service on 1st April, you have until 4pm on Friday 29th April 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'.

Thank you, I have the defence template and have this as paragraph 2

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question but liability is denied. The driver of the vehicle is unknown on an unremarkable day almost 4 years ago. The defendant does not know who was driving on the day in question due to multiple drivers using the vehicle and too long ago to be sure.

Is this ok?

Do I take out 3: explain in your own words?

I am unsure which paragraphs are relevant to me, is this anything you are able to help with?

KeithP

sesabear said:

KeithP said:

sesabear said:

I have received a county court claim form (issued 29th March 2022)...

I submitted an acknowledgment of service on the 1st April 2022... 

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 29th March, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service on 1st April, you have until 4pm on Friday 29th April 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'.

Do I take out 3: explain in your own words?

I am unsure which paragraphs are relevant to me, is this anything you are able to help with?

Paragraph 3 is for you to explain to the court what the problem is.
Without it the court has no idea why you are Defending yourself against the Claim.

All the other paragraphs should remain. You need to read and understand just why they are important too.

sesabear

Sorry as the template said explain what business the driver had there and what went wrong, I wasn't sure it applied. So I would explain that its unknown who the driver was in this section? 

I have read the template a number of times and a lot of threads, I've seen comments about removing points that aren't relevant to my case so thought I had to take some out but wasn't sure which ones. 

Thanks for your time

Coupon-mad

Copy any other Highview defence that talks about the POFA and Henry Greenslade.  Search the forum and read at least ten recent Highview defences.  You'll see.

sesabear

Coupon-mad said:

Copy any other Highview defence that talks about the POFA and Henry Greenslade.  Search the forum and read at least ten recent Highview defences.  You'll see.

Thank you for your reply, is this more on the right track?

2.  The Defendant was issued with a Claim Form by DCB Legal acting on behalf of the Claimant Highview Parking Limited for a Total amount of £264.27 (inclusive of £35 Court Fee & £50 Legal representative's costs). The Defendant has come to understand that this relates to a PCN that was issued against the Defendant’s vehicle XXXXXX, almost 4 years ago on xx/xx/2018 at Riverside retail park, Norwich.

3. 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. The Defendant was not the only insured driver of the vehicle in question and is unable to recall who was driving on that unremarkable day almost 4 years ago. 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.  Where it is noted that the Claimant has elected not to comply with the 'keeper liability' requirements set out in the PoFA, Claimant has 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.  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, how does the Claimant arrive at the Amount Claimed for a Total of £172.27. The Defendant has excluded the £35 Court Fee & £50 Legal representative's costs from the Total amount for the purposes of this defence point. 

5.  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

Yep. That'll do for this stage!

sesabear

Coupon-mad said:

Yep. That'll do for this stage!

Thank you!

So to confirm I now send my defence as per this section of the newbies threads? and wait for the directions questionnaire? 
Just don't want to miss anything. 


If you have no access to a scanner, then put an electronic signature in it. When you are happy with it, your defence is to be filed via email as suggested here:

1. Print your Defence.
   
2. Sign it and date it.
   
3. Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
   
4. Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk but do to the CCBC's dysfunctional systems, only do this during working hours (a weekday) and you MUST get an acknowledgement.  Also copy in the parking firm's legal team or solicitors, whose email you can find on any other thread about the same law firm.
5. Just put the claim number (check it very carefully) and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'URGENT RE CLAIM XXXXXXXX - Please find my Defence attached,
6. IMPORTANT - MAKE SURE YOU GET AN EMAIL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT BACK FROM THE CCBC!  After filing your Defence, there is more to do.

1505grandad

The sums mentioned in paras 2 and 4 are not the same total.

sesabear

1505grandad said:

The sums mentioned in paras 2 and 4 are not the same total.

Thank you! It was meant to read £179.27. Have I got the next steps right?