Please help me with my defence

monkeychompy

I've been as careful as possible to follow the instructions in the newbie thread. The last thing I did was sent off the  'Notice of Proposed Allocation to the Small Claims Track' form with N180 questionnaire. I'm sorry I'm not familiar with the acronyms DQ and CCBC.

monkeychompy

Fruitcake said:

Start on the WS and exhibits now. Get photos of the site and signage in readiness. See if Google Streetview has anything useful.

I've got photos from the time of the ticket and I've been back recently too for more photos.
As far as I can tell my defence centres around poor signage and unfair incremental charges. Is there a witness statement template you can direct me to?

KeithP

monkeychompy said:

I'm sorry I'm not familiar with the acronyms DQ and CCBC.

DQ = Directions Questionnaire.

CCBC = County Court Business Centre.

monkeychompy

Update: letter today "Notice of Transfer of Proceedings" saying that the claim has been transferred to my local County Court (as I requested on my N180)

Le_Kirk

Good, did they state a date for the hearing on the transfer?

monkeychompy

Le_Kirk said:

Good, did they state a date for the hearing on the transfer?

No date set on the transfer.

Coupon-mad

Does it say anything about the deadline for all parties to file and serve evidence (i.e. your witness statements?  Sometimes it's in this early allocation correspondence and people miss it.

monkeychompy

Coupon-mad said:

Does it say anything about the deadline for all parties to file and serve evidence (i.e. your witness statements?  Sometimes it's in this early allocation correspondence and people miss it.

No it's a very minimal letter. I quote:

To all parties

This claim has been transferred to the below County Court Hearing Centre for allocation. On receipt, the file will be referred to a procedural judge who will allocate the claim to track and give case management directions. Details of the judge's directions will be sent to you in a notice of allocation.

If you would like any further information you can contact the local County Court Hearing Centre directly but please away the Judge's directions

Contact details:
County Court at xxxxxx

Coupon-mad

Details of the judge's directions will be sent to you in a notice of allocation.

That'll be the one to read deadlines from.

monkeychompy

After a lengthy silence I have another letter:

"The judge proposes to dispose of the claim without a hearing - that is on the papers alone. The parties must complete the Form N159 Response which is attached to this order and return it to the court.
The Judge can only deal with the case in this way if both parties agree. If both parties have not returned the form to the court by (date and time), indicating agreement, directions will be given for a hearing to take place."

I thought I had already ticked the box saying I didn't want a 'paper hearing'. Anyway I have previously read that it is better to have an 'in person' hearing.

Anyway I will return the form and tick box B "I do not agree that the claim should be dealt with on papers along.".
Which also means I have to tick box C "I have sent a copy of this completed form to the other party".

I will take a photo of the completed form and email that to the Parking company solicitors and post the completed form to the court.

Does all that sound sensible?