My court defence v Captial car park control

ldnpt

All sorted now. Spoke to them on the phone and resent the original email and their acknowledgement and then they managed to find it.

ldnpt

Got a Notice of Trial Date today for one of the cases, much sooner than expected, it will be via 'TEAMS' apparently and heard by a central London judge, which was not what I asked for, the reason given...

This Notice gives you less warning of the hearing date than would be usual. However, HHJ Luba QC, the Designated Civil Judge for the County Court at Bromley directed on 23rd August 22 that time be abridged (i.e. shortened) so that the case can be heard at the earliest oppurtunity.

Also goes on to say...

Unless the claimant does by 4pm on the 20th of September 2022 pay to the court the trial fee of £27 or file a properly completed application (i.e one which provides all the required information in the manner requested) for help with fees, then the claim will be struck out with effect from 20th September 2022 without further order and, unless the court orders otherwise, you will be liable for the costs which the defendant has incurred.

Capital Car Park control also emailed me offering to settle for a significant discount probably just the usual pre set letter chain I guess

This has taken a bit by surprise and gives me less time than expected, do I reply to any of these emails (maybe reminding them gain that there's two claims and they should be combined?) and do I now have to start my witness statement and submit it?

Thanks for any help guys

Not_A_Hope

You will have to submit a WS. The Notice you have received should give both parties a deadline - usually 14 days before the hearing. Two recent examples that you can use as a template are posted in the threads  by aphex007 and Daiapolon2021 . When you submit your WS to the court and claimant you will have another opportunity to remind the court the PPC should have advanced their whole case for all the claims.

I suspect the fact they are offering a discount means they are not confident in their case and may not bother paying the hearing fee. You will then win by default.

Keep playing the game. If it goes as far as a hearing don’t forget to ask for your costs when in all likelihood you win.

Coupon-mad

You could reply straight back pointing out that there are two duplicate claims (all but parking date) which will turn on precisely the same facts and arguments and you trust that the court will either consolidate both into one hearing or strike out the second claim (number xxxxxx) due to cause of action estoppel.

ldnpt

Good news, I recieved an email from DCB Legal this morning with an N279 Notice of Discontinuation attached so one down one to go. Thank you so much guys even just having beaten this one is a huge weight of my shoulders after a tough couple of years and having some really dark thoughts for the first time in my life.

Thank you all.

ab2000

Congratulations, well done.

Not_A_Hope

Well done ldnpt for successfully seeing them off. Might be worth following up coupon-mad suggestion with the court and tell them the other claim should be struck out.

ldnpt

Hi guys, it's been a while. Finally got the letter from the court about the second claim, it's a different court this time (The Royal Courts of Justice) and again will be via microsoft teams. No email notification this time from the court followed by the quick backing down of the PPC, hopefully they will contact me once they recieve this letter and back down again. One question, will I still ony need to submit a WS? This letter talks about 'Bundles' and needing to always include 1. claim form 2. defence 3. Reply/defenceto counterclaim 4. court orders 5. any applications 6. relevant witness statements 7. any other relevent documents All this when emailing bundles.

Also seems they don't have my email address unlike last time so maybe wasn't passed on? seems a bit of a mess this time to me.

Not_A_Hope

Did you send in a copy of your original defence to the CCBC in order to defend the 2nd or 3rd identical PCNs. If so I would I assume this would have been months ago and that the CCBC would have given the PPC 28 days to confirm they wished to proceed. I have no idea why the Royal Courts of Justice would now be involved as you would normally be sent a Directions Questionnaire some time after the 28 days and the case would be assigned to your local court.

I would suggest ringing the court for an explanation and if necessary ensure you meet any deadlines to provide copies of your defence and witness statement. If you don’t you might find you lose by default. It is the responsibility of the claimants solicitor to submit ‘the bundle’ which is a combined copy of yours and their documents.

Coupon-mad

Yes, you must do a WS bundle in time.  Recent good examples are by @aphex007 and @SJRRJS.

You should also have a section near the start, pointing out that this is the second of two near-duplicate claims (all but parking date. - the other claim number being xxxxxxxx) which involved precisely the same facts and arguments.  This is an abuse and a waste of the court's time because the Claimant should have advanced its entire case in the first claim.  

Henderson v Henderson ...yadda, yadda...