DCB legal - Letter of claim

Le_Kirk

Just refute the claim by saying that a copy of the permit was supplied to the PPC several times and then keep the story and the timeline for the witness statement and evidence stage.

Coupon-mad

helpadviseneeded said:

In my defence should I be listed everything that has taken place and note this as a separate number 

e.g.: 

1. The defendant appealed on ...

2. There was no response, the defendant contacted xyz, etc 

Should it be like a timeline?

No. That is for the later witness statement.

helpadviseneeded

Hi all 

Is this correct? I am unsure which other parts to quote  

IN THE COUNTY COURT

Claim Number: ********

Between

UKParking Control Limited

(Claimant) 

and 

*******                      

 (Defendant)

_________________

DEFENCE

1. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all and liability is denied.

2. The defendant parked the vehicle in a car park which was allocated for staff members. The defendant had a valid permit which was displayed every time he parked his vehicle in the car park. The date of the alleged incident is 24th December 2016 which was a windy and rainy day. The defendant placed his permit in the window and left the vehicle to commence work. When he returned there was a Parking Charge Notice on his windscreen. The permit had fallen off the dashboard which occurred when he shut the door. 

3. The Defendant parked the vehicle in that location 5 days a week and in the same parking place each time.

4. The defendant has repeatedly provided proof of the valid permit to the Claimant on all occasions and during the appeals process but this has been wholly disregarded.

5. The Claimant, or their legal representatives, has added additional sums to the original £100 parking charge. Schedule 4 of the Protection Of Freedoms Act, at 4(5), states that the maximum sum which can be recovered is that specified in the Notice to Keeper, which is £100 in this instance. It is submitted that this is an attempt at double recovery by the Claimant, which the Court should not up hold, even in the event that Judgment for Claimant is awarded.

6. For all or any of the reasons stated above, the Court is invited to dismiss the Claim in its entirety. Given that the claim is based on an alleged contractual parking charge of £100 - already significantly inflated and mostly representing profit - but the amount claimed on the claim form is inexplicably £325.76, the Defendant avers that this inflation of the considered amount is a gross abuse of process.

STATEMENT OF TRUTH

I confirm that the contents of this Defence are true.

(Defendant)

(Date)

KeithP

That doesn't look much like the Defence shown in the template defence thread.
OK, we don't need to see all that template, but your Statement of Truth is not good enough.

Nor do you need these two lines...
Date of Claim: 03/08/2022
Acknowledgment of Service filed: 08/08/2022

You paragraph 3 has no relevance.

helpadviseneeded

KeithP said:

That doesn't look much like the Defence shown in the template defence thread.
OK, we don't need to see all that template, but your Statement of Truth is not good enough.

Nor do you need these two lines...
Date of Claim: 03/08/2022
Acknowledgment of Service filed: 08/08/2022

You paragraph 3 has no relevance.

I've removed this information and edited my previous post rather than posting it again. 

Can anyone please help as to what else I can add as I thought I have to add additional information in at a later stage?

Le_Kirk

Looks like you have used the older defence template.  You need the one on the first page of the Parking Tickets forum: -
Template defence to adapt for all parking cases where they add false admin costs - edited March 2022
where the important bit is the date March 2022

helpadviseneeded

@Le_Kirk

do you mean this one? 

1. The parking charges referred to in this claim did not arise from any agreement of terms. The charge and the claim was an unexpected shock. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.  It is denied that any conduct by the driver was a breach of any prominent term and it is denied that this Claimant (understood to have a bare licence as managers) has standing to sue or form contracts in their own name. Liability is denied, whether or not the Claimant is claiming 'keeper liability', which is unclear from the Particulars.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question.

^EDIT THIS PARAGRAPH EVERY TIME, REGARDING WHO WAS DRIVING^.  

If you were driving (obviously, please edit this and don't wait for us to tell you...) add 'and driver'.   

If you were not the registered keeper (e.g. you were the hirer) change the wording.

Alternatively, if the Defendant doesn't know who was driving, say exactly that.  

Alternatively, deny being the driver if you weren't (ONLY IF TRUE.  'DENY' is a strong word). 

3. [EXPLAIN IN YOUR OWN WORDS...but please notice that defences are written in the THIRD person as 'the Defendant', not 'I did this' nor 'my/me']. 

Explain briefly what business the driver had there & what went wrong?  

If you don't know because the Defendant didn't get any letters, say that instead.

Were signs obscured/unlit in darkness? 

Did a permit slip off the dash, or the keypad failed to record the full VRM?

If the PCN was issued at a residential site where the driver lives or was a permitted visitor, state those parking rights - equally good if there's no mention of permit obligations in your lease.  Say so.

Shall I amend para 2 and 3 and add my own information like this ?
Does all the rest get added in word for word (paragraphs 4 onwards) or do I only put in what is relevant to this case?

Do I put in para 1 as below? 

1. The parking charges referred to in this claim did not arise from any agreement of terms. The charge and the claim was an unexpected shock. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.  It is denied that any conduct by the driver was a breach of any prominent term and it is denied that this Claimant (understood to have a bare licence as managers) has standing to sue or form contracts in their own name. Liability is denied, whether or not the Claimant is claiming 'keeper liability', which is unclear from the Particulars.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was a named driver of the vehicle in question and at the time of the Parking Charge he was employed as a store manager for ? who operated in the ? Shopping Centre. 

3. The defendant had a valid staff permit which was displayed on a daily basis in the ? Staff Car Park. There were allocated spaces for ? Management and the defendant parked there and displayed his permit every time he was working in the store. On the day of the alleged contravention the weather was both wet and windy which is not unusual for Christmas Eve. As the parking charge was issued for not displaying a valid permit and the defendant displayed one, it is deduced that the permit had blown off the dashboard as a result of both the weather and the impact of the car door closing. The permit was a small flimsy card which evidently had slipped off the dashboard as it was lightweight.

4. The Defendant parked the vehicle in that location 5 days a week and in the same parking place each time.

5. The defendant has repeatedly provided proof of the valid permit to the Claimant on all occasions and during the appeals process but this has been wholly disregarded.

6. The Claimant, or their legal representatives, has added additional sums to the original £100 parking charge. Schedule 4 of the Protection Of Freedoms Act, at 4(5), states that the maximum sum which can be recovered is that specified in the Notice to Keeper, which is £100 in this instance. It is submitted that this is an attempt at double recovery by the Claimant, which the Court should not up hold, even in the event that Judgment for Claimant is awarded.

7. For all or any of the reasons stated above, the Court is invited to dismiss the Claim in its entirety. Given that the claim is based on an alleged contractual parking charge of £100 - already significantly inflated and mostly representing profit - but the amount claimed on the claim form is inexplicably £325.76, the Defendant avers that this inflation of the considered amount is a gross abuse of process.

STATEMENT OF TRUTH

I confirm that the contents of this Defence are true.

(Defendant)

(Date)

Am I on the right lines?

Im so sorry this is so overwhelming and I really am out of my depth and honestly do not know how to set this defence out and what to include and that would be relevant to the permit falling off the dashboard. 

Coupon-mad

You've seemingly chopped off over half the template and are still using the wrong (replaced three years ago) statement of truth:

STATEMENT OF TRUTH

I confirm that the contents of this Defence are true.

The right one is in the template and you aren't meant to remove any paragraphs.

Also why are you saying the permit slipped down when you closed the car door? The driver doesn't know that,  because if they knew it they'd have opened the car door and replaced it on the dash.

Why not just copy a previous fluttering ticket defence?

Le_Kirk

helpadviseneeded said:

@Le_Kirk

do you mean this one? 

That is the correct one.  Post here your paragraphs 2 & 3 for critique and don't forget to add in the rest of the template when you get the all clear from us.  Don't show us the rest of the template, we trust that @Coupon-mad has that right!  Do take note of the advice given by @Coupon-mad.

helpadviseneeded

***MY POST has crossed with
@Le_Kirk *******

However you said it's the right template and coupon mad said it's the wrong one?
Please can someone guide me to the correct one.







Ok I was told previously to only add in paragraph 2 and 3 and leave the rest.

I am struggling can someone please send me the link to the one I should use. 
I have had a bereavement to deal with hence why I missed the deadline last month to ask for additional information.
My husband the defendant is unwell also so I am trying to get this done ASAP and am really struggling. I have had a fall and hurt my wrist so cannot type.

I genuinely do not know how to set this defence out and am worried sick about everything. 

@KeithP you said: OK, we don't need to see all that template, but your Statement of Truth is not good enough.  - please can you guide me further on what to add to my statement of truth or

can someone please copy and paste and private message me what the defence should look like as I'm getting more and more confused and with time running out I am panicking due to the bereavement and other external issues which the claimant will obviously not care about. 

Please help me