County Court Claim - UKPC / St Marys View

Le_Kirk

When you completed and submitted your DQ, did you put any dates when you would not be available or has this requirement to be away just occurred?

KeithP

Nothing of concern here.

You are now waiting to hear from the hearing court and that could easily be months away.

You've stated when you are away, so that's all fine.

Coupon-mad

You won't have hearing Directions for months.

estevenin

Le_Kirk said:

When you completed and submitted your DQ, did you put any dates when you would not be available or has this requirement to be away just occurred?

I did, put all my dates including until christmas time.

KeithP said:

Nothing of concern here.

You are now waiting to hear from the hearing court and that could easily be months away.

You've stated when you are away, so that's all fine.

Coupon-mad said:

You won't have hearing Directions for months.

Alright fair enough. Will wait for that then, and update this post later on

Edit from the 7th of march (6 months after the case was transferred) : Still didn't get hearing directions. No news, good news I suppose. I understand this delay is normal so I'll keep waiting and update that post accordingly

estevenin

Updating this post as I finally received an update, after 9 months since the last one. I received by post (or better said I was forwarded by a friend from my old house), the Witness Statement from the claimant. They have indeed STILL used my old address.

Here is the pack, I should have all personal informations deleted: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fw6qt5n9fdkl3o2chdymu/UKCP-Witness-Statement-Blank-c.pdf?dl=0&rlkey=l4h6494f5zoy9u0d7l9h95h4x

(By the way, they added a bunch of pictures, and one (at least, maybe more) sign on those pictures were definitely not there. Pictures from the inside with Google maps, taken in 2018, show a different sign than the pictures from the outside, taken in 2023, for one particular sign. Does that mean that I can claim that none of the pictures added by the Claimant are admissible, since they don't actually show the signs as there were at the time the Parking Charge was given ?)

I just got it today (Seems to be dated from the 31st of May, but it was definitely received this saturday in my old house, I suspect they have sent it later than the written date), and on the first page they mention that the hearing is scheduled for the 22nd of June, in 10 days (!). Lucky that I had that pack from them, as I didn't receive anything at all from the court, not by mail, not by post or any other way. Even on MCOL there are no update. Hadn't planned my days off for so long in time but luckily, I'll be able to make it.

I suppose I am allowed to contact the court so they can confirm if that's true and the time?

Anyway, I'll get back to it, read all the messages again and the different instructions. I understand I need to write a witness statement now, so I will do that right away and update this post tomorrow, as to have everything in order as fast as possible.

Will post my WS tomorrow.

KeithP

You must ask yourself why you have received nothing from the Court about the date of the hearing.

Does the Court - which court? - have your correct address?

You mention MCOL.
MCOL and the County Court Business Centre play no further part once a claim has been transferred to a hearing court.

Yes, you need to write Witness Statement, but you knew that was coming.
The fact that you have received the Claimant's bundle almost screams that your bundle is late.

You must must must file and serve your WS and evidence PDQ.
The Claimant will almost certainly complain at the hearing that you have sent it late and it is therefore inadmissible.

Coupon-mad

@WoodyTheCowboy has just worked on a WS that is about signs that were not actually there at the time:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6299656/dcblegal-excel-parking-hearing-date-june-2023/p7

Copy and adapt that one.

You MUST add screenshots from Google Streetview showing which signs were really there (or not there) that year, and also he court Transcript of the Jopson v Homeguard judgment as an extra Exhibit.

In their WS they've tried to mislead the Judge that "Jopson deals with different subject matter" but that's disingenuous, because in fact HHJ Harris in Jopson talks about visiting commercial drivers such as milkmen, and how they cannot reasonably or fairly be bound by 'parking' terms when visiting briefly in the course of normal daily work activity such as loading/unloading items (or passengers).  You must point that out, quote from HHJ Harris and put a bomb under what young Josh has said.

Show us your draft in the morning!

I am concerned that they say the McDonalds was OFF-SITE.  Is that true?

That might possibly lose you the case...why didn't you just stop on a single or double yellow on-street (being a cab driver you'll know that's allowed for loading, as long as there are no kerb blips). There's no reason to seek out a car park.

I reckon everyone is still using your old address for service.  Why is that?  Did you tell the Claimant's legal team to erase the old address and did you tell the local court, in writing, the same?

MCOL has not played a part for months.

It was only the gateway CCBC admin service that sent the claim out to your local court.  It was the local court (and the Claimant's legals, QDR) that you had to tell to "erase" your old address.

Neither of them have done, so you must address that when you send your WS bundle tomorrow.

And we mean, TOMORROW BEFORE 3.30pm.

Copy in QDR.

DO DRAW ATTENTION TO THE ADDRESS ISSUE AGAIN, IN THE COVERING EMAIL.

DO NOT APOLOGISE FOR LATENESS.

DO PHONE THE LOCAL COURT ONCE YOU'VE EMAILED YOUR WS BUNDLE.  

ASK THEM TO CONFIRM THEY RECEIVED YOUR WS EMAIL AND TO RE-SEND THE HEARING ORDER BY RETURN EMAIL SO YOU CAN SEE THE TIME TO ATTEND AND IF IT IS 'IN PERSON' OR BY VIDEO.

estevenin

Hi All,

Thank you for the feedback.

Yes the most obvious answer is that the court is using my old address as well. When filling up my defence all my details were correct and up-to-date, I assumed that the court would use the details that I have provided, had no idea that they would use the ones given by UKPC, since MCOL is supposed to have forwarded all that.

Edit : Just checked the N180 form and there is the correct address and email. The Court must therefore have it, since they received this N180 form.

I have looked them up, and fun fact, they seems to have established themselves in the building that seems to have the right on the land where I received the Parking Charge!!! They just moved there a few months ago.....

That's the court : https://www.find-court-tribunal.service.gov.uk/courts/watford-county-court-and-family-court

- McDonalds is indeed right next to where I parked, I have attached a picture of that
- The reason for not stopping in a double yellow is because this is a one-way street in the city center, with no space to stop at all except this small piece of road, as other road users, buses would not be able to pass. I have also explained that in my WS.
I have learnt that, every single car delivery driver has to stop here, and the Parking Attendant is patiently waiting in his car, as soon as the driver leaves, he applies the PCN, then drives away, and come back a few minuts after to do the same. I have attached a video of that in my WS. I know how this sounds, and that's exactly the business.
- The @WoodyTheCowboy WS has been deleted from the Dropbox. So I have put on my own arguments.

Draft finished with personal details removed : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mDwQ3JiBJtdc-ZZ1IoYptabGo0dZIGAO/view?usp=sharing

Any thoughs welcome, please no worries about the bold stuff, I don't understand why when converting to PDF it just adds some random bold and removes Italic, I'll figure it out.

Also, I couldn't find the Jopson case, only in the parkingcowboys website there is a PDF copy so that's the link I added, not sure if that'll be valid.

Thank you

KeithP

estevenin said:

...this is a one-way street in the city center, 

I was born in Watford before the NHS was invented and spent my formative years there. Never in my life have I heard it referred to as 'a city'.
It has changed a bit over the years, but it's still not a city.  

Not that this post helps you in any way... sorry.

estevenin

No worries, yes I suppose there is a long way to go . Draft Updated to the latest version with personal details removed (the forum had my dropbox link removed), I will append the Britannia case at the end when it is ready.

This might be a silly question but... just to make sure... if they allocated it at the court that I have requested, is that the right email to send the WS to ?

County court

enquiries.watford.countycourt@justice.gov.uk

(for Civil (County Court) matters)

Or is that more of a general public's email, and I should have a specific email to send to ? I guess I also need to send it to the Claimant.