County Court Claim received not sure on defence strategy - I beat the system!

alldoors

KeithP said:

alldoors said:

Will I be allowed to go to the Court to support my daughter?

Yes.

Read  The Lay Representatives (Rights of Audience) Order 1999

Thanks so much. I was starting to panic at throwing my daughter into a lions den!

alldoors

Hi all. Just an update on this one. We have had correspondence from our local Court (which is over 100 miles away from the claimant's offices). It is notification of a 30 minute dispute resolution meeting. There is an interesting phrase "the person attending the hearing must have full authority to settle the case".  Can I attend as parent of the Defendant and leave her out of it? I will be settling the judgement if it all goes in their favour as it's all my fault. I told her to ignore the PCN and the threatening letters! For me it's about making them earn every penny of this extorted money and not just letting them have easy pickings. 

Looking at other posts that have had these DRH's, there a few that have not gone as expected.

I've just amended this post as I didn't notice the paperwork was two sided! So from reading page 2 it says "preparation for the hearing" and it reads as I would expect for a final hearing in that we must provide witness statements and all evidence to include photos. I will get that finished off. 

Do I waste time finessing the witness statement? Can they just decide in the hearing that the matter is over and the PCN has to be paid? I was expecting the next stage to be sending the witness statement to the court and claimant, two weeks before a hearing date so have not done much research on it being a DRH. Do I take along photos to prove the point as these were going to be presented with the witness statement bundle. Will feel cheated if we don't get to go through it properly and why we do not agree that there was a "contract".

KeithP

Did you bother to read that document I pointed you towards in early December?

It really is only a few lines long.

It is really simple to read.

But to answer your question -- A Lay Representative cannot represent the Defendant without the Defendant being there.

Or to put it another way -- The named Defendant must attend any hearing.

Coupon-mad

 "Can I attend as parent of the Defendant and leave her out of it? "

Nope.

alldoors

KeithP said:

Did you bother to read that document I pointed you towards in early December?

It really is only a few lines long.

It is really simple to read.

But to answer your question -- A Lay Representative cannot represent the Defendant without the Defendant being there.

Or to put it another way -- The named Defendant must attend any hearing.

I did at the time, but what threw me was "The person attending the hearing must have full authority to settle the case". This must be the claimant then and not the defendant. 

alldoors

Todays update is that we have received an email entitled "without prejudice save as to costs". They have inflated the £241.39 to £264.05 which I am presuming is interest and they are happy to accept £150.00 in full and final settlement if paid within 7 days. I have prepared the first draft of the witness statement (redacted personal bits, need to tweak the formatting and will add dates to the photos etc)  and the links to these files are now on Dropbox. Please feel free to point out where I have gone wrong (which I no doubt will have). It's been a steep learning curve and all this legal stuff is way over my head. Oh well, here goes......

DE_612183

Don't forget as it's DCBL.....DCB LEGAL RECORD OF PRIVATE PARKING COURT CLAIM DISCONTINUATIONS - Page 20 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

alldoors

DE_612183 said:

Don't forget as it's DCBL.....DCB LEGAL RECORD OF PRIVATE PARKING COURT CLAIM DISCONTINUATIONS - Page 20 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Hopefully. Have seen that thread. Very interesting. I'm redrafting the witness statement again as not happy with it.

KeithP

alldoors said:

KeithP said:

Did you bother to read that document I pointed you towards in early December?

It really is only a few lines long.

It is really simple to read.

But to answer your question -- A Lay Representative cannot represent the Defendant without the Defendant being there.

Or to put it another way -- The named Defendant must attend any hearing.

I did at the time, but what threw me was "The person attending the hearing must have full authority to settle the case". This must be the claimant then and not the defendant. 

Where did the line -
"The person attending the hearing must have full authority to settle the case"
- come from?
It's not part of The Lay Representatives (Rights of Audience) Order 1999.

Even so, why do you think the Defendant's Lay Rep doesn't have that authority?

alldoors

KeithP said:

alldoors said:

KeithP said:

Did you bother to read that document I pointed you towards in early December?

It really is only a few lines long.

It is really simple to read.

But to answer your question -- A Lay Representative cannot represent the Defendant without the Defendant being there.

Or to put it another way -- The named Defendant must attend any hearing.

I did at the time, but what threw me was "The person attending the hearing must have full authority to settle the case". This must be the claimant then and not the defendant. 

Where did the line -
"The person attending the hearing must have full authority to settle the case"
- come from?
It's not part of The Lay Representatives (Rights of Audience) Order 1999.

Even so, why do you think the Defendant's Lay Rep doesn't have that authority?

This phrase is on the first page of the letter and underlined. It's on the the notice of allocation to the small Claims Track hearing. I'm presuming the Claimant's letter is identical. It also states the hard copies of documents must be delivered by post, in person or by DX only. It also says if any party cannot attend then they must tell the Court within 7 days of the hearing and the case will be heard in their absence. Be interesting to see if they go down that route.